Monday, August 30, 2014

    

The Original London Bridge

After being so impressed with Bill and his team we decided that we did not have to make daily assessments. We took a road trip to Lake Havasu, AZ. We met up with Jim and Jackie. It was our 10^th Anniversary. Jim and Jackie shared the same date as us.

Tommy, Gloria, Jim, Jackie, Ivan

On our 5^th Anniversary we convened in Hawaii for 10 glorious days of paradise. It was only appropriate to share the 10^th along with them. We settled in Jackie’s ‘other’ house, just off the lake and rented a pontoon. The weather was tremendously hot. Somewhere around 120 degrees. For all the people who are reading this and are saying – oh yeah, but it’s a dry heat – stick your head in an oven and tell me it’s not hot. It’s hot! The lake was filed to capacity with boats and the police were everywhere.

While on the lake we ran into Gloria and Ivan, the couple we hike with in Moab every year. They were RV’ving in Havasu for the summer. We took them for a short boat ride and dropped them back off at their RV. We had a great visit with them. We spent the entire day on the water.

Oatman

The next day the 4 of us drove up to Oatman. It is on the boundary of AZ and NV. This town is celebrated for the burros that roam freely, without restriction. Burros are a grander sized Donkey and are great work animals. In Oatman,  no one owns them. They saunter the streets and go anywhere they desire. It is quite an experience.

From there we went to Laughlin NV, for the casino and dinner. Of course after losing $20 I gave up. I am such a chicken. Of course Jackie won, she constantly wins. It was a long day and a lot of driving but it was fun.

Once back at the house we cleaned up, walked the dogs, and headed into town for drinks at a local bar. It was a country western bar with a live band and we had a blast. The next day we traveled back to CO. As always, we love hanging out with Jim and Jackie and will undoubtedly visit with them in Palm Springs, where they live, soon.

When we arrived back in Montrose we were surprised that the house was moving along so rapidly. The frame work and trusses were put in place and it began to resemble a real house. We were excited.

A couple of weeks went by and we were busy making choices everyday regarding the house. It was overwhelming at times. Our friends Roy and Kim, from Steamboat Springs, CO, stopped in town for a couple of days. We took them to the Black Canyon National Park. We, actually Kim, cooked and extraordinary meal one night with truffle oil rubbed roasted potatoes, green beans with almonds, and the best burgers we have ever consumed.

Black Canyon

Subsequent to our visit from Roy and Kim we decided to take an additional break from the house and drive up to Steamboat Springs. We visited with Mark and Susie. They live in the same neighborhood as Roy and Kim so it was a twofold escape.

Kimmay and Roy

There has never been an occasion with Mark and Susie that we did not laugh our butts off. Their home is a log cabin and belongs in a Home and Gardens Showcase. It is magnificent. Susie always prepares an impressive meal, and Tommy and Mark always banter, which makes for a lot of laughs.Once more back in Montrose we were tied down for a while. It was time for windows, and roofing, and stucco and a million selections. We ultimately

transferred the RV up the hill onto our property.

We were advised numerous times by neighbors to be cognizant of the Eagles and Coyotes. Our animals are diminutive and could be easily carted away in a blink of an eye. It distressed us a significant amount that we do not let them meander far from our sides. They, along with us, have adjusted well. Even the cats go outside during the day. We all walk every night together in the neighborhood, cats included. 
We joined a JEEP club and once a month we go on jeep outings up the San Juan Mountains. We have made some friends and really are pleased we came here.

The 4^th of July came rapidly. We awakened early and headed downtown to the parade. It was small, but charming. Tommy and I also signed up for a bicycle poker run for later on that day. It was so much fun. Just as in any poker run, you pay an entry fee which customarily is given to indigenous charities. You make periodic stops to pick up a card. We rode our bicycles from place to place around the town to the destinations indicated on our map. When the last card is picked up you put together your best hand and with a bit of luck, you win.

The view from our back patio

  Most of the stop-offs to collect your cards were saloons. Of course they had drink specials for those who have partaken. By the time we reached our last destination, a beautiful B & B, I was ‘tipsy’. We were supposed to meet up with some people for fireworks later on the evening, but never made it. Oh, and yes, we cheated with the cards. We combined together mine, along with Tommy's to create an impressive hand of 3 Aces and 2 Jacks. We came in 3^rd witch just goes to show you we were not the only ones who cheated. LOL.

That's all for now....to be continued..

August 13, 2014

Its been well over a year since I have blogged. Alot has happened and alot of places were visited. Please bear with me as I am going to put the last 15 months together. (I'm sure there will be alot of pictures, and they will be out of order).

As of the end of May, 2013 and my trip to Mackinaw Island with Vicky, we have been very busy.

We discovered Sire, our Rottweiler, had bone cancer. We took him to the very best of veterinarians available to allow him to have the best quality of life that was left for him to revel in.

leaving FL

Just after we received the terrible news we hit the Road for where else? Moab, UT. Sire’s favorite place to hike, and explore. 
We met the local vet in town once we arrived and clued him in with our findings and test results. He advised us to give Sire anything he wanted because it was customary for this disease not to last more than 120 days from diagnosis to the culmination. And so we did!

Every day he was able, we would hike.  We would not go more than a mile or two, just enough until we saw he was getting weary. On the way home from the trails we would stop at the local grocery store and buy the ‘managers special’ for him. This was the meat that ‘had’ to be sold and cooked by a certain date. Sire ate steak, chicken, pork, and anything else he wanted, every night.

Sometime around late August, he became tired more and more often. The pain meds were almost around the clock. We decided to take him back home to be comfortable in his own familiar surroundings. 
We did everything and anything we could for him, and he knew it. Mid-September was the end of the time we were blessed to have him in our lives. We still cry when reminiscing. He was the best companion and friend. He is with Copper now and I am convinced he will return to me again - as in the book - A Dogs Journey.

frozen hot chocolate

Early fall we made a decision to sell the house and move to Colorado. For 2 months we cleaned, painted and staged the house. The holidays came and went. We listed the house just after the New Year. Within 6 days of being on the market we had 2 showings and received 2 offers. It flabbergasted us.
Before the sale of the house we traveled to NY to watch my sister Cheryl run the NYC Marathon. It was alot of fun. Kait and I spent a second day in the city and explored the Freedom Tower, Broadway, Serendipity for frozen hot chocolates, amongst a million other places. Since being in Montrose, Kyle left for overseas which was extremely hard for me to absorb, but my pride in him and the man that he has become overpowers my fears.

Kaitlyn surprised me and flew out here for Mother's Day, and my birthday. It was a great visit. I am so glad she came. I cannot wait to have both children here at one time.
The closing on the Florida house was to be February 1^st, just as tax season started to kick in. Somehow, we managed to pack, get relocated into a townhouse, and fly out to Montrose, CO to house hunt. It was chaotic, and exhausting, and exciting, and something I will never do again without a better plan.

Before we left Florida to relocate,we also went to Santos State Park in Tampa, with a bunch of good friends for a mountain biking weekend. That was great fun and Sire's last trip in the RV with us. Kaitlyn was in an Interdisciplinary Research Conference in School and received 2nd place for her research. Very, very proud of her!

Mid February is when we flew into Denver. We  spent a night with my nephew Sean, who at the time lived in Denver. It snowed like crazy. It was beautiful. We rented a car, and the next morning drove over the pass through the Rocky Mountains to Montrose.

When we arrived in Montrose the next day we had plans to meet up with our Realtor. The prior year we had met the same couple and looked at several houses with them, but weren't ready for procurement. Nick and Joan, had 34 houses for us to see – all within 7 days. Again, I would have planned this better also, because after 9-10 houses you fail to recall which houses you liked and which ones you didn't.

After several days of being in Montrose our friend, Mark, from Steamboat Springs drove down to visit with us. We applauded the interruption from house hunting. We played for a day and then we dragged him along to house hunt with us. It was good to have an external opinion since he would point out things we did not see or contemplate. Especially since we were from the East Coast with no elevation or snow.

On the very last day during our visit, the day we were to drive back over the pass to Denver, to fly back home the next morning, we decided to forgo the existing houses and look at land.

Our Realtors, took us to a development called Spring Creek. It is elevated on a mesa and the view of the San Juan Mountains is astounding. We wanted to build a home here. The challenging part was the lot we wanted to purchase was due to have a speck house built on it, starting the very next week. We scrambled like crazy and within 3 hours we were introduced to a builder, Bill Boggan. We closed the deal through Fed Ex in the following days.

I am telling you about Bill Boggan because he, along with his wife Tami, allowed us to meet in his living room at 8:30 in the morning, without much notice. We then schlepped him to the land we wanted to purchase. We walked him to the approximate location on the 2 acre lot where we wanted the house to be placed. We explained to him that we wanted the house set at a slight angle in order to capture the all-inclusive mountain range from our back patio.He listened to us and we all shook hands. Back to Florida we went.

Meanwhile, we had relocated to the townhouse, I continued to work tax season, and we had one last party at the Warmack Manor.

April 15^th came and went. April 16^th we packed up the townhouse.  April 17th we kidnapped Vicky and drove across country to our new town. It was a grueling 5.5 days of driving. We broke down in Georgia on day 2. It was Good Friday. There was not one single person available, anywhere, to help us. We were in the middle of the Bible belt on one of the holiest of holiday weekends. We were stuck on the side of the road on I-70.

Black Canyon

We were 110’ long and 3 feet from the white line on the highway. It rained most of the time we were stuck and we started to sink into the already soft shoulder.  We struggled to make the best of it. Tommy, I, Vicky, 2 dogs, and 2 cats, stuck in a 43’ RV on the side of the road. We drank a lot. We played every card game known to man, including spit! It actually wasn't that bad except for the continuous rocking every time a big truck would pass by us. We had a lot of laughs.

 Saturday finally came and by now this situation was getting old, quick! Tommy finally contacted a towing company, but when they arrived to tow us, they could not elevate the motor home. It weighed over 40k pounds and we had a 24’ fully loaded trailer tethered to it. (Vicky and I drove the van which pulled the Jeep).

surprise visit

We were disappointed but held out hope. Somewhere around 2 pm the same day another tow truck showed up. YAY!!! We were elated. This time, unfortunately, we were sunken too far down for him to get the forks (or whatever they are called), underneath the coach. He could not to lift it and therefore we could not be towed.

stuck on I70

Now this was not funny. It was still raining. Several hours passed and finally, and I still don’t know how, Tommy found a guy to ‘look’ at what was wrong with the coach. It turns out it was a small, small, small, teeny tiny hole in the break line that lost pressure so the coach stopped moving. We were told we were lucky that Tommy could control it enough to pull over and stop.

This man, this Godsend, who helped us find the problem, went back out and bought a new line to replace the broken one for us. He did it  right there on the side of I-70! We paid him cash and thanked him profusely. He was our hero!

It was getting to be late in the day,  but we decided to start driving again. We didn't care that it was late and dark we just wanted off the highway. We drove hard, almost 5 hours and finally stopped for the night. We drove until we hit Nashville, TN.

When we stopped, my poor friend Vicky, experienced me having a total breakdown that night. I was mentally and physically exhausted. With the sale of the house, the moving to the townhouse, the packing up again and moving to a new state, I guess it was all too much. All during the chaos  I worked. I was not sitting at a desk just getting through the day, but dealing with the end of tax season where almost everyone you help owes the government money at that time. They are sometimes not very nice to you. (Like it’s your fault).

 Vicky was a trooper, and thank God she was there with me because it was a rough couple of hours by the time it all ended. Words cannot express how much she means to me!!

at Toby Keith's

The next day we hit the road and we were all in better spirits. It took a couple of more days but we finally arrived in Montrose. We wanted to show Vicky our new home town.  The plan was to place the RV on our land and watch the house being built. That did not happen for almost 6 weeks. We stayed at an RV park. We needed to get permission from the HOA to live on the lot. Eventually, we were able to move on our land and we are still here as I am typing this.

hidden in the walls

Because of the adjournment in Georgia, we barely had 2 days to show Vicky our new town. We took her to the Black Canyon National Park and to Ouray. (Pronounced U-RAY). Two of our favorite places.

The day before Vicky was to  fly back home from Denver, I rented a car and drove her over the pass. Tommy stayed behind with the animals. What a complete difference from February, where there were so many feet of snow, to now having wild flowers everywhere. 

We booked a hotel and ventured out into Denver for the night. We ended up at Toby Keith’s – I Love This Place- bar and restaurant. It was a lot of fun. We drank Irish Car Bombs and laughed a lot.

The next morning Vicky flew home and I drove back to Montrose. The drive across the Rockies is 5 hours, there is no cutting it short. It is so beautiful and majestic the time flies by.

Now back to the house, for the first time, and Bill, our builder. We drove up the mesa to see the progress he had made while we were back in Florida. They broke ground in mid-April. We were bowled over when we arrived on our land. The house was placed precisely where we wanted it.  It was angled spot on. We, on no occasion, signed a contract, we had not a drawing, and never wrote anything down.  It was all on word of mouth, and a shake of the hand -  and it was exact!

 to be continued.........

Mackinac Island 2013

Wednesday, May 7, 2013

Bright and early, well no so bright – it was 4:30AM. Vicky and I headed to the airport. We were on our way to Mackinac Island. Just us girls and we were excited. Tired, but excited.

our luggage leaving the dock 

Mackinac; pronounced Mack in naw. Latitude and Longitude; 45N84W. Elevation 110’. It is located in Lake Huron just above Michigan.

Fort Mackinac was built in 1780.  It was built to protect the US from the British. It was not built with the smartest of people engineering it. It faces south and has no protection to the North. The British simply attacked from the North and there was not a chance of defense whatsoever.

Our expedition took us to Atlanta for a plane change, then to Detroit for another plane change and then to Pellston, which is on the very top part of MI. From the Pellston airport we grabbed a shuttle to the port. This was a 45-minute ride. Once at the port, we embarked on a ferry for yet another 30-minute ride across the Great Lake. AT LONG LAST, somewhere around 12.5 hours later we stepped onto Mackinac Island.

Taxi

We were exhausted but eager to explore. The island wasn’t ‘opening’ for another 5 days so we knew we would be able to go to places without crowds.

Hotel not yet opened

The island allows no vehicles. (There is only one Police car, one Ambulance and one Fire truck.) Everyone there either rides a bicycle or takes a horse and buggy. It puts you back in the early 1900’s without uncertainty. Everything that is desired on the island is taken over by ferries and then placed on horse drawn wagons for delivery.

Without delay we rented bicycles. We got on our bicycles and headed to our hotel. It was 1 1/2 miles down the road. We checked in and decided to ride the island a while. The whole island is merely 8 miles in circumference.

Ft Macinac

Our hotel was set on the Eastern side of the island and considered out of town. After checking in, we rode our bikes back towards town and took it all in. We then headed around the perimeter. Once back around to our hotel we decided to see if our luggage had been transferred from the ferry to our rooms. They weren’t. Remember, horse and buggy take them. We made a drink and headed back into town.

Even after a full day of traveling, we rode the island’s entirety. It is spectacular! Some of the stops along the way on our bikes were; Sunset Rock, British Landing, and Arch Rock.

Arch Rock 

For dinner we landed at the Sea Biscuit Bar and Grill. This soon became our very favorite place on the island. We sat at the bar and made friends immediately. Our bartenders name was Wayne and before we knew it we were calling him ‘the serial killer’. I explained to him that 69% of serial killers have the middle name of Wayne. He laughed because Wayne WAS his middle name. His first was Michael but everyone called him Wayne. It was a lot of fun to have our very own serial killer. The second bartender was Courtney. She was a doll.

Tom, Kelvin & Mike

Beautiful Church

We had dinner at the bar that evening and a couple of locals bought it for us. We made friends with some workers that were wallpapering the hotels for their grand openings and since only locals and the help were on the island, Vicky and I did a great job of livening things up a bit.

Kelvin, Tom, Mike, and Terry were our homies for the next 4 days. Kelvin, Tom and Mike did painting and wallpaper while Terry was one of the only 2 nurses on the island. She gave us a tour of her clinic and explained how so many people who haven’t ridden a bicycle in 25 yrs. decide to come over and get on one and just go for it. The injuries are endless.

view from our room 

Terry, our Nurse friend

The next day we elected to take a buggy ride throughout the island and get the scoop on all the places we stopped at the evening before.  Again, since everyone was in practice mode, we got the full gamut of information and personality.

moving day

When we got off our hour and a half tour we proceeded over to the Grand Hotel. This hotel is what truly made Mackinac Island infamous. There was a film made here in 1979 starring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour. It is called ‘Somewhere in Time’. They do a very very good job of keeping you in the time period of the film. (Early 1900’s). It is amazingly beautiful!

The Grand Hotel from the ferry

The room rates start out at $650 a night so we did not stay there, but we did pay the $10 to enter and look around.

Up Close

Magnificent is how describe it. It houses the longest covered veranda in the world. After 5pm ladies and gentlemen (even if you are a guest) must wear evening attire. Ladies in pants suits or dresses and men in a jacket and tie. In addition all non-guests are asked to leave the premises not later than 6pm.

On the top floor of the hotel is a bar called Cupola. It offers a picturesque view of the lake and the bridge to the UP. (Upper Michigan). I started out drinking coffee at the bar, but my partner in crime had a mojito and before you knew it – we both had 5 each! We were the only patrons in the bar along with just the bartender for practically 2 hours.  There were a lot of laughs. We made friends everywhere we went. Once more, there were scarcely any visitors on the island excluding for us.

view from the Cupola Bar

That night we ended back at the Sea Biscuit. There were several other restaurants and bars to explore, but we had so much fun the night before we simply reasoned that we would stop in for a quick drink and then discover another establishment.

That didn’t happen. All our cronies from the previous night were there and once again we were there until after 2am. This visit we made friends with the manager, Jim. He had a good time with all of us.

diningroom in the Grand Hotel

Friday morning started out hopeful. We were told the temperatures were going to drop from high 60’s into the 40’s and it was going to rain. The morning was clear, sunny and not too cold so we ventured out.

We shopped most of the day with every intension of hitting this one particular restaurant called…The Family Restaurant. It is notorious for it’s fish dinner served on a platter, big enough for two. Well, that didn’t happen either! What a surprise! Something about the Sea Biscuit kept drawing us in.

One of the lobbies

Cupola Bar

However, we did not have dinner at the Sea Biscuit that night. We went to a BBQ rib place. I only have a few recollections about dinner that night but Vicky said the ribs fell off the bone and we had to eat them with a fork. Obviously dinner was late in the evening.

Tea Room

After dinner and re energized, we headed over to the Pink Pony. It is a bar with live music. It was half full and we chose to dance even though no one else was. We thought we’d get the crowd going. Well, that also didn’t happen. We looked like a bunch of old ladies making fools of ourselves. We had one drink and left. We laughed a lot, at ourselves.

The subsequent place we headed to was The Horn. Terry, the nurse, was meeting us there with her girlfriends. Low and behold, our wallpaper guys were there too. What a fun, fun time. The Horn also had a live band. We danced and drank, and laughed and danced, and danced until we couldn’t dance anymore. It was a Blast!!!!

One of 17 fudge shops

Keep in mind this ‘town’ is all within less than a mile on Main Street so bar hopping is simply going from one establishment next door to another. Kind of like New Orleans. Bar, after Bar, after restaurant, after shop, after hotel, after bar.

Once out of the Horn the Sea Biscuit was staring us in the face. The Horn was directly across the street. We HAD to go say goodnight to our two favorite bartenders. HIC!

Courtney made me a Mackinac Ice Tea. Comparable to the LI Iced Tea with vodka, tequila, rum and everything else, - it did me in…

Courtney & a Mackinaw Iced Tea 

Vicky, Kelvin & Wayne (our serial killer)

Earlier that afternoon walking through our hotel lobby I found a $20 bill and was telling Courtney about it while she was preparing my nightcap. Above and beyond a normal tip, I gave her the bill to split with Wayne for being so good to us and because I was drunk and we really liked these guys. They worked extremely hard and were so much fun.

this was our vision for 4 days!

We had to walk home that night because they give DWI’s on bicycles. HA! Can you visualize? How much trouble can you get in - on a bike  - on a tiny island - being drunk - except falling over and laughing your ass off! But – Terry notified us of some cops just waiting down the street for some drunks to come by. Of course we would not have even noticed a pink Rhinoceros in the middle of the street at that point. So we took her advice and walk we did. Just over a mile to our beds. The streets were empty and quiet except for me and Vicky laughing our butts off recalling the evening! It was a great time.

Saturday rolled around and now it’s raining and certainly cold. It was in the low 40’s and miserable. We intended on going back to Mackinac City early in the evening (taking the ferry back to the main land), because we had a 4:30 am shuttle to the airport on Sunday. We had breakfast in a little place called  The Chuck Wagon  We knew that our new found friends frequented this place so we purchased gift certificates for their breakfasts for the next time they came in. We didn't tell them!

Downtown

We were spent and ready to go home. Neither one of us could eat or drink or walk any longer. We stopped in the Murray Hotel to check out their world famous gourmet fudge factory. It is amazing what kinds of fudge you can have. They have Creamsicle fudge! Yum!!!

It rained the entire day so we plummeted down on a couch in the lobby and both put our feet up on the coffee table. We were just simply DONE!

We promised our newfound friends we would meet them for one more drink at 5 at the Sea Biscuit before we caught our ferry at 7. We were half asleep on the couch when this sweet, crickedy, wobbly old lady with a cane came over to us and sat in the chair besides us. Vicky and I looked at each other like – please lady, don’t talk to us, were too tired. Well, guess what? She started talking and talking and talking. It turned out that the Murray Hotel was her home. She OWNED the hotel and the coffee table that our feet were on…..oops!

deep-fried Mac and Cheese

We both, very gingerly, pulled our feet back down to the floor and sat up to have a conversation with her until her husband came to get her for dinner. She was very sweet and was very proud of her hotel. It was beautiful and the halls were lined with artwork painted by her husband.

 

We had yet one more drink consumed at the Sea Biscuit and said our goodbyes. We then headed to the ferry. Once over on the mainland we went to Dixie’s for dinner and hit the sack. Vicky had booked us a hotel prior and thank GOD she did.

4:30 came early. We packed up and walked extremely rapidly to the main office across the parking lot for our shuttle to pick us up. It was dark, raining, cold and windy. The lobby was closed. We had to trek back to our room in the cold, dark rainy and windy weather, back across the parking lot, with our luggage, freezing our Asses off. Once again, what we thought would happen, didn’t!

Eventually the shuttle showed up and took us to the airport.

We arrived back home just after noon Sunday and both went to bed early that night. It was a great trip. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Next up – RV’ing! Thanks for reading! Follow me and you will get all the blogs as we go!