Settled in

We've been home almost a week now and things have settled down.   The cottage is all opened up, laundry done, Beluga has had a good bath, the Jeep inspected and a new windshield installed, a few pots planted with flowers, the dock is in and annual Dr.'s appointments started.   Now we have time to spend with friends and family.     

are you guys coming out?

Dave assembles the little Zodiac that we've carried in Beluga

Lew watches the dock guys do their thing

fishing from the breakwall

success!

Since we've been home we've only had a couple sunny, warm days.    One afternoon, as we sat outside on the deck with our Happy Hour gins, clouds began to build in the east.    The type of clouds that usually mean trouble.

happy hour view across the lake

view #2

The wind came up, the sky darkened and we were chased inside by torrential rain.     Ever since then it's been grey and cloudy with intermittent showers....sigh

view #3

Ah well, the Mergansers like it, the poodle doesn't care if it's raining or sunny.   The lake is the lake to him.

fun in the lake equals wet, sandy curls

Thursday - home

We left Danville, MO (just north of Jefferson City) on Monday morning and with overnight stops in Casey, Il, Delaware, Ohio and McKean, Pennsylvania we arrived home today around noon.     It was an uneventful but somewhat stressful journey.

  We crossed the flooded Missouri and Mississipi Rivers and dealt with the busy traffic of the east.

we all enjoyed a long walk around the campground last night

threatening sky in Pennsylvania

We kept a close eye on the weather radio, turned on emergency notifications on our phones, checked out each campground's tornado shelters and tried to move along just in front of the terrible weather that was devastating the midwest.

We arrived home in the rain, settled Beluga into her summer spot and enjoyed lunch before the rain stopped.    Lewis immediately recognized where he was an began screaming to get out.    He was overjoyed to find that some of his favorite things were waiting for him. 

Lew doesn't like sticks in the water, they must be on the grass.....

the wind brings wonderful smells at the lake

sticks, sticks, sticks

He's in he bedroom, sacked out in sheer, joyful exhaustion.

  Dave was also very excited to see that some of his favorite things were waiting for him.....

He was afraid that his beloved lilacs would be all finished blooming by the time we got home, but the cold winter and spring must have retarded spring's arrival because we still have lots of fragrant lilacs!   For his 60th birthday....a few years ago.....Jesse gave him three bushes and they are full of beautiful blooms.

It will be nice to go to bed tonight and not fall asleep with visions of weather radar dancing in my head.......













 

 

Safe

  Traveling across the mid-west in the spring time is an iffy prospect at best.   We were lucky this time as our last minute schedule change allowed us to get out of Kansas in time to avoid the nasty weather and tornadoes that stalled there late last week.   

We stayed high and dry in our nice site at Lazyday Campground.    We used yesterday to take care of a few domestic chores and stayed close by in case the predicted weather arrived in force.    A short burst of heavy rain and strong wind brushed us late in the day but, fortunately for Lewis, no thunder and lightning.

Today dawned sunny and nice so we headed out to find a grocery store and see what was around us.

it's green, very green here

We had a little "miscommunication" and were off down a dirt road and through thick woods.   Dave thinks I did it on purpose, I always send us down unpaved roads in search of something.     I suppose he's not far off the truth. 

At any rate, the winding, rural road eventually took us to my planned destination and we purchased the lunch meat, etc., that we were after.    We found ourselves at the Missouri River on the outskirts of the small town of Hermann.

school bus shelter perhaps?

What a sweet little town it is!   They were just taking down the trappings of their annual "Mai Fest" and some of the streets were still blocked off so we got to walk around practically by ourselves.    Hermann is a German settlement filled with beautifully kept brick buildings, colorful flowers and bushes and a number of wineries.     We walked along it's river front area and noticed how high the water is. 

flowers everywhere

next time we'll stop for a nice glass of wein

Our campground is one that we have stayed at before, on our way east and west.  It has always been a one night stopover but I think, next time, we'll plan a few days here so we can revisit Hermann and it's wineries and German restaurants.

oh Dave.....

And.....yes, some of those fragrant Peonies made it home in the Peony Pincher's Pocket.....

We leave in the morning.   Three more sleeps til we're home at the lake.

Our last week in Denver

Our last week in Denver practically flew by.     We're already through Kansas and into Missouri, about to cross the Mississippi River on our trek back east.

It was wonderful spending time with Jesse and Erin, enjoying their busy lives and our pleasant, private site at Chatfield State Park.

We drove up to Boulder and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Brasserie Ten Ten, then picked up a million half-baked Empanadas from Rincon Argentino to be divided among Jesse and Erin's house and our freezer for the trip to the lake (oh, and some for Judi also..)

Bouillabaisse and crepes at Ten Ten

We spent most dinners with Jess and Erin, either at their house (empanadas, Mother's Day BBQ) or at restaurants (Friday night tradition at Mamma Sannino's, Saturday brunch at The Bindery, Saturday dinner at Duo, or our last night's meal at Cafe Terracotta).    These meals were all gifts from them to celebrate Dave's upcoming "big" birthday.   The carefully procured Lilacs were also for Dave..... So nice to have adult children!

halibut and shrimp with horseradish creme

Tanner keeps an eye on dinner......

tag teaming dinner!

Even their sweet old Lab., Tanner, enjoyed the dinner time rituals.

he jumps for joy in anticipation of his dinner!

We didn't just eat together, although it certainly sounds like that's all we did.  We went to the Clyfford Still Museum, took walks through their neighborhood, and enjoyed a very personal walking tour of downtown Denver's historic district.

the boys

oh Dave.....

old and new

In between visits we were entertained by the many and varied birds that lived at our site.    It's springtime (although you couldn't actually tell from the weather) and all our feathered friends were busy showing off or building nests.

Our special friend, a little guy we nicknamed George Jetson, was particularly taken with our sugar water offering and all but took our heads off to get to it.   One time Dave was in the process of moving the feeder after refilling it and little George landed and commenced drinking.   We called him Mr. Jetson because the loud buzzing noise his wings made as he zoomed around us made us feel the Jetson's flying car was approaching.   We could hear him from inside Beluga!

George

Lewis enjoyed his time at Chatfield State Park also.   Lots of bunnies and Magpies to keep an eye on.

he found that if he sat on Dave's lap he could watch them out the window.....

On our last day, a work day for Jesse and Erin, Dave and I packed a lunch went to the South Platte River for a leisurely drive.

We picked a lovely spot for lunch....one with a view of the river and Scraggy Peak (I don't know if it was Little Scraggy or Long Scraggy Peak, don't ask me).

We followed the river for quite awhile before turning away from it at the little settlement of Deckers.    We saw a body of water on the map, Cheesman Reservoir, and decided to see if we could get to it.       The Wigwam Creek Rd. (FR211) was narrow and winding and  took us up and up into the fire scarred mountains. 

I wasn't sure we were going in the right direction, the landscape certainly didn't suggest a lake!

But, at the top of the last hill, there it was! 

We weren't able to get to the dam because it was fenced off, but we did have a good time walking around and exploring the shoreline.   There was no one else there.

On our way back down the mountains I was a bit more relaxed (we were on the inside of the shelf road) and I could finally notice the little things.   Life persists even after a terrible fire.

We always love our time in Denver, exploring it's mountains and rivers, and most of all our precious time with Jesse and Erin.

Tonight we're in Danville, Missouri (just west of St. Louis) trying to safely wait out the line of nasty storms sweeping across the mid-west.   We've managed to stay ahead of it, but I think Danville is where it catches us!