Denver and my Birthday Weekend

Sam & Tawny, taking a power rest

Thurs morning (Nov 6th) we left Seibert, Co. and drove to Castlewood Canyon State Park to walk the cats before driving into Denver.  It was a beautiful park and the cats had a lovely hour or so wandering the rocks and looking for mice.  What a gorgeous, sunny, warm day!!

We got to Centennial, Co. and took up all of Cousin Kim and Eric's driveway!  Sammy walked right into their house and wandered around, looking to meet Sophia and Francesca, the shih tzus, and Mia the siamese kitty who all live in the house!  Luckily, none knew he was in there and I was able to get him back outside without incident.  I think he likes it here! (we all do!!)

Kim grilled a wonderful dinner Thursday night - steak for she and John, and Mahi Mahi for me.  We had a lovely visit with her, then Eric got home from the hockey game and we visited with him until 1:30 in the morning!

Friday (Nov 7th) Kim made us a beautiful breakfast then John & I took the cats over to Arapahoe Park for a walk.  Denver is very dry (and warm!) and cactus and sharp succulents abound!  We took them down into a creek gully and Sam moused in the bushes while Tawny tried to get under any rock with a hole under it... and into the culverts, and into whatever animal holes she came across.... She was a busy girl!  Sam moused under a juniper bush near the parking lot for over 1/2 an hour (AFTER our walk) and we had a hard time getting him into the truck, but once we did, he immediately fell asleep in Tawny's kennel (which he really doesn't fit) in the truck and we couldn't wake him up when we got back to the trailer, so Tawny went in and Sam went with John & I to run errands.  He had a great nap in the truck, half in and half out of Tawny's small kennel.

 Friday afternoon, Kim drove us to Boulder, Co. and up a large mountain to Cousin Julie and Todd's new place which is about 7500 ft.  The views are spectacular (!!) and we got there just before sundown and got amazing shots of the sun setting over the mountains.  

Cousin Kim, John, Cousin Julie & Todd

Julie & Todd's house

John, Dawn, Julie, Kim (and Tavin!)

Julie made shrimp scampi for dinner and we had a lovely time with her and Todd, and their boys, Caleb and Ryan. We had cupcakes and non-dairy crumble for my birthday dessert!!

Julie & Todd

Kim and her cupcake!

 It started to snow about 10 pm, and Julie exclaimed "oh my God, look at the snow; it's so beautiful!!" (she moved here a month ago from Pennsylvania...), and I said "oh my God, look at the snow - we have to leave!!" :)  But it was only snowing at the top of the mountain, and Kim's drive home was wet but not the snowy mess I was worried she would have.  Julie and Todd are loving their new home on the mountain. It is a beautiful spot and I'm so happy for them and their new life in Colorado.

















Saturday (Nov 8th) Kim showed up at our trailer door with a tray full of BREAKFAST!!  Kim & Eric, John & I and the cats all had a wonderful meal in the trailer, then John & I took the cats to a different park to run around in.  Unfortunately that day, it was more of a sit than a walk: Sam and Tawny were both mousing under the razor-sharp succulent bushes, but Sam was walking right though the paddle cactus to get to them.  Notwithstanding that his feet were bleeding, they both a delightful time and we had a lot of trouble getting them back into the truck to come home!  They both crashed as soon as we got back to the trailer, which is always a good thing.

Saturday afternoon we all met Julie & Todd near Morrison, CO for an awesome hike on one of the many hiking and biking trails that are in this area.  It's truly amazing how developed the trail system is, and how many people take advantage of it.  This is truly a great area to live in and be able to lead a healthy and active lifestyle.  I love it here.

Red Rocks - there is an ampitheatre behind the largest
of the rocks; they do concerts there in the summer!

Denver skyline in distance

Looking down at the hiking trail

Julie & Kim.  They look related, all righty!! :)

Eric, Julie, Kim, Dawn & John

The Girls - Julie, Dawn and Kim

Kim & Eric

Julie & Todd

Dawn & John

The Boys - "GQ'ing"... Eric, John & Todd

We stopped for cocktails at the Morrison Inn before heading back to Kim & Eric's place for dinner.  We called it our "progressive" dinner... cocktails in Morrison, then appetizers in our trailer and finally, another sumptuous meal at Kim & Eric's place.  Kim made one of her (Italian Rossi) family's recipes for baked chicken and sausage with potatoes, and salad and green beans.  What an awesome meal.  We had another  delightful visit with Julie & Todd, and Kim & Eric, and we are so thankful to have this much time with our cousins.

Chef Kimmie

Sunday (Nov 9th) was my pretend birthday as we have to travel today (the 10th).  I started the day with a sparkling Prosecco tasting... I liked them BOTH (duh). then Kim made brunch and not surprisingly, it was amazing...  We took the cats to an empty field not far from Kim & Eric's for their daily walk and it was the best spot yet.  They walked for over an hour and didn't get into any cactus or sharp succulents.  No new injuries for either of them, which makes it a good day!  The views of the mountains were spectacular.

Eric drove us all over to Thornton, CO in the afternoon, to tour the neighbourhoods we lived in when I was little little (I was born here).  Then we hit a liqour superstore called "Tipsy's" on the way home.  It is a massive Costco-style wine and liquor warehouse - so fun to browse around.


Kim & Eric are both from Chicago - and the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Blackhawks were both playing that night, so we dial-diddled between the football and hockey games (the hockey game was definitely the better game!) and had another lovely dinner by the fireplace.  We watched Chevy Chase's "Christmas Vacation" movie after the games were over - neither John nor I had ever seen it, so the "holiday" season is officially kicked off.

We're packing up and heading out today, avoiding a Canadian cold front that is coming thru this afternoon.  It will be minus 10 deg C tonight here, and worse the further north we go on this side of the mountains, so we are heading west towards Salt Lake City and then we will go north thru Idaho to go home.  The lows are not nearly as low on that side of the mountain and we will be able to go another couple of days in the trailer before winterizing it and doing hotels the rest of the way home...  We almost made it the whole trip without having to winterize and "camp" in La Quinta's with the cats, but alas... we are out of lovely autumn weather.  Most of the campgrounds on our route are now closed so we are lucky to have found a couple to hit in the next 2 days before we end our "trailer living".  It's been so great to have our home away from home...

Kansas to Colorado

Tuesday morning (Nov 4^th) after the long walk around the lake and beach, the kitties craaaaashed.....

We had to wake them up to put them in the truck and leave Assaria.  

We don't know what this crop is...
but there was a lot of it!

Kinda looks like Alberta!

We headed out and took the “Prairie Trail” which is Kansas Hwy 4.  Not surprisingly, there were a lot of prairie vistas.

We had to stop at La Crosse for a very quick kitty pee stop as Tawny was howling, which is unusual.  We were stopped for less than 15 minutes – the time it took her to find the perfect grassy spot to pee, and chase and eat 2 moths... unfortunately, she also ate grass and we had to see those moths come back up later in the back seat. New Rule: no grass-eating at rest stops!

We got to Scott Lake State Park a little after 4:00 pm and got set up and took the kitties out to explore.  What a beautiful setting!!  It feels like we’re in New Mexico (not that I’ve been there, but it looks like I would “expect” New Mexico to look). 

Gorgeous reflections in the still lake water

The moon rising above the hills, also reflected in the water

There are even Pueblo ruins from the 17^th century!  The hills and the landscape are absolutely beautiful, and we were out at sunset which was a bonus.  The moon was bright, the air was still (and warm) and we ended up being outside for almost 2 hours with the cats.

Sammy had his most energetic mousing yet in a bushy field where he leapt 3 feet in the air many times in a row (no mouse though).  Tawny was stalking birds in the greenery near the shoreline.  She was very patient, but alas, no birds either (thank goodness).  What a glorious evening we had.

These were the coolest bushes - they look like carrot tops

Wednesday (Nov 5^th) we remarked how nice it was to wake up to bird song versus traffic noise!  We slept great at Scott Lake – we were the only ones out there!  The cats had another 90 minute walk around the park – this time they did a long “road” walk around some of the loop trails.  It was very “scrub-brushy” and we even saw some paddle cactus growing along the road. 

After the cat walk, we put the cats in the truck and hiked out to the pueblo ruins – El Cuartelejo – which are the most northerly pueblo ruins in North America.

We headed north to the I-70 and crossed into Colorado at Burlington, stopping at the Visitor Centre to get some maps and camping information.  Tawny (and I) got into the nastiest burrs of the entire trip.  Thankfully, John & Sam somehow avoided the bushes – we never did figure out what they looked like, but the burrs are about as big as my baby fingernail and look like spike balls.  The spikes are razor sharp and imbed in skin and hang on for dear life.  John and I managed to pull out all Tawny’s burrs as she would have ripped her tongue trying to deal with them herself.  I certainly hope we don’t encounter those again!

We pulled into Seibert, CO just before dark, and we’re finding now that we’re past the end of October, it’s getting harder and harder to find campgrounds that are open still.  The one we found in Seibert was still open, but no water (not a big deal) and no Wifi (which means no blog update).  We’re hoping we don’t have a lot of trouble finding open campgrounds on our journey home.

Kansas City and points west

John, in 3 layers of clothing (and gloves)!!

Sunday (Nov 2nd) was the time change back to Standard time, so it's getting darker earlier now (not playing in our favour as we head west and change time zones to earlier... hard to get in the 2nd kitty walk of the day before dark!).  We have developed a system for stressless kitty walks... we head to schools on weekends, and to churches during the week - both of which usually have large grassy spaces (for Tawny) and bushes and trees on the perimeter (for Sammy).  In Kansas City, we needed those spaces as the RV park was very busy and there was no place for the kitties to walk (that wasn't under someone's trailer or truck).  The school next door was awesome, but Saturday it was non-stop cars coming and going due to back-to-back basketball games going on in the gym.  We kept the kitties at the far end of the field that day.  Sunday, on the other hand, there wasn't a car to be found in the parking lot and the kitties explored for over 90 minutes.  It was very chilly! (though no frost that day, thankfully).

We went back to the trailer and made hot tea to warm up, had showers and a hot lunch then headed back to the school with the cats for another hour of walks.  They really explored that place from one end to the other, and enjoyed the squirrels and birds in the bushes.  We never did see that little fox again after the very first day, but we were careful to not let Tawny go into hollow logs and tree holes, etc. She likes to explore those kinds of things... but not where we've seen a fox...

Double-decker sleeping arrangements

By the time we got the cats back to the trailer after the 2nd walk, they were tuckered right out, which was the plan.  They both crashed immediately and we were free to spend the afternoon with Kathy and Darrin.  They picked us up about 2 in the afternoon and we headed into Kansas City to go to 2 museums - the American Jazz Museum, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  The former was very hands on and interactive - I mixed my own jazz song, balancing all the instruments in the orchestra... cool.  There were youths practicing in the "Blue Room" which is a famous jazz bar dating back to the 1920's, which is now part of the Jazz Museum.  Many greats including Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington played the Blue Room.   The latter museum was absolutely amazing and, unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to get through it all before it closed.  There is a lot of history there - and interesting photos and articles on the success of the black baseball league from the 1920's to the late 1940's when the (slow!) integration of blacks began into the all-white major leagues, starting with Jackie Robinson, then Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson.  We could have spent the whole day in that museum...

Darrin, Kathy, Dawn (L-R)

We got back to the trailer and realized we hadn't taken any pictures of Kathy and Darrin and their family on Saturday night, so we attempted some pictures in the trailer, but unfortunately, they didn't turn out very well... I'm so bummed.  But we did have a nice visit with Kathy & Darrin, and loved seeing their new home in Kansas, and getting to know them better.  We hope to see them again soon - in Kansas, Denver, Chicago or Calgary!!

Darrin, Kathy, John (L-R)

A fuzzy shot of  Kathy and I... the best we got.

Sam trying to climb the fence to get away from the wind,
and Tawny with her fur blowing every which direction.

Monday morning (Nov 3rd), the school next door was of course a zoo with buses everywhere, so we put the cats in the truck and tried to find a church. Unfortunately, the ones we found did not have a lot of grounds - mostly large parking lots - so we headed to Shawnee Historical Village and found a large playground and green space near the Visitor Centre.  It was so WINDY that the cats stuck pretty close to the fences, though we did have fun in the playground... even John got in on the action...

John, trying to figure out the musical keyboard under the slide

We drove straight through from Kansas City to Assaria, KS (near Salina) in the middle of the state, and it was blustery and cold, with intermittent rain the whole drive.  We got set up at Lakeside Resort in Assaria and took the cats out, but it was still drizzling and Sam immediately sat under a picnic bench to survey the scene.  We did get them out and walking down the road where Tawny caught a grasshopper (I'm thinking that's going to be her last one of the season... he was barely moving anyway from being near frozen).


Tuesday morning (Nov 4th) we were out bright and early and there was no rain, no frost, no wind... it was heavenly.  The cats opted to go the other direction from yesterday and they explored the large water slide that goes from the top of the hill down towards the lake.  They pretty well walked it from one end to the other, so you could say they "did" the water slide...





This is a really pretty lake, with sandy beaches and boat docks, volleyball nets and of course the incredible water slide.  I imagine this place is packed out in the summer, but we are the only ones here this week...

Today we head out west again - and we will pass (south of) the "geographic centre" of the lower 48 states.  We are still in the "east" and "south" but by tonight we will be back in the "west" and tomorrow we will have crossed back into the "north".  We're on our way home...

Lewis & Clark Trail, Missouri to Kansas

Fall colours along the Lewis & Clark Trail

Thursday (Oct 30^th) we awoke to a dark day; rainy and cold.  John opted to do a couple of loads of laundry as he thought I might find another cat (!) and I made grits for breakfast.  We’re enjoying our grits!  We pulled out of the St. Louis area about 1:00 pm and drove the Lewis & Clark Trail along the Missouri River.  We paralleled, for a while, the Katy Trail System, which is a 240 mile bike and foot trail built in the right-of-way of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad (MKT for short).  “Katey” comes from the pronunciation of the abbreviated “KT” in “MKT”.  It’s really something to see: a very well-maintained pathway system.

The scenery is more rural and agricultural in Missouri

Crossing the Missouri River; LOVED the clouds!!

Hermann, MO

We stopped for a kitty walk at Hermann, MO and we saw a couple of gorgeous trees in full autumn colours near the fire station.  We continued on and got to Jefferson City, MO about 5 pm.  It’s roughly halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City.  It was very wet from all the rain and we had to take a pull-through spot as the ground was very soft and John was afraid we’d get stuck if we were off the pads.  The cats were happy to run around on the wet ground, however.  The pond was of particular interest to both of them.

Osage campground near Jefferson City

The kitties checking out the pond... Tawny in foreground

Heavy winds make for gorgeous flag pictures!

Friday (Oct 31^st) it was very windy!  About as bad as the “Blustery Day” we had in Quebec.  The cats were pumped by the wind, though, and they tore around the campground and chased each other and ran up trees with their fur blowing every which direction.  It was a wild sight!  We drove into town and got some groceries, then pulled out about noon.  We stopped for a cat walk at Lone Jack and saw a very cool water tower painted to look like an 8-ball at Tipton, MO.

The largest 8-ball in the world!!  (Tipton, MO)

Sam, making sure there's no guns inside (or people).

We got into the Kansas City area about 5, hitting an early rush hour due to Halloween.  We got the 2^nd last spot in the campground at Merriam (a suburb) and took the cats to a nearby school for their evening walk-about.  They were very interested in looking into all the windows, and we got a charge out of the “no guns” stickers on all the doors.  We don’t see that in Calgary! We spotted a red fox in the woods beside the school yard.  

We made ourselves a nice pork and roast veggies dinner and settled in to watch some Halloween specials.  We get a couple of channels here because we’re right in the city, and it was fun to see episodes of Alfred Hitchcock, Gilligan’s Island, Hogan’s Heroes (hilarious!) and the Odd Couple.  Very enjoyable evening, even if we didn’t have any kids trick-or-treating.  But we did have our "Bottle of Boos"...

Saturday (November 1^st) we got the cats over to the school before 9.  There was a hard frost the night before so the grass was pretty frosty!  We took the cats into the woods as the tree canopy kept the ground from frosting and both cats loved it.  No sign of the fox today.

Both John & I had gloves on and heavy jackets.  It’s feeling a bit like home around here... We even had to pull out our 2^nd heater in the trailer!!  AND we couldn’t hook up the water line as the temps were too low... this is really roughing it!  Hard to believe we had the air conditioner on less than a week ago.  

We headed over to Cousin Kathy & Darrin’s house in Overland Park for a visit in the afternoon, and we enjoyed our time there.  We came back to Merriam to get the cats out before dark, then met Kathy & Darrin and their family in Olathe, KS for dinner at their favorite BBQ place – Oklahoma Joe’s (we all agreed it should be called “Kansas Joe’s”...) The food was great – particularly the pork ribs.