Monday July 1, we woke up to cool weather.  After our Texas heat, it was really refreshing.  We puttered around the 5er for awhile, running the vacuum cleaner, etc and then headed into town to look around.  We went grocery shopping at the only market in town and then back to the campground.  Mountain Views is a big resort and nearly all sites were full. The air was somewhat hazy from the forest fires, but not too bad.  In the afternoon, Millie developed a severe headache and nausea, ended up having to drive to Del Norte to the emergency room.  She had come down with a bad cold on Friday after we left home and was really stuffed up.  That, coupled with a faster that normal trip up had apparently contributed to altitude sickness.  The doctor didn’t want her going back up to Creede that night so she spent the night in the hospital.  Dick came back on Tuesday and picked her up and we went back to Creede.

  Tuesday and Wednesday we just relaxed and took it easy.  Drove in town and looked around some.  Thursday was the 4^th of July and we went into town for the big parade.  It was a lot of fun.  Some much needed rain decided to fall just as the parade started, so we got our umbrellas and stayed dry.  It wasn’t a hard rain and didn’t seem to scare anyone off.  The parade was really great for such a small town and we enjoyed it all.  Went back to the campground and later in the day fixed steaks and baked potatoes for dinner.  As there was a fire ban, we couldn’t use our grill, so we cooked inside. A pick-up camper was next to us and he was talking to Dick and asked Dick if we were from anywhere around New Braunfels, TX.  He told Dick about the flooding there.  Well, Debbie and her family and Robert were there for a few days.  We reached Debbie on her cell phone, they were evacuated that morning, so they had gone to Austin to a Freedom Festival there and all was well.  We were relieved. 

   Friday we drove up to Lake City and Gunnison.  It was a pretty drive through the mountains.  We stopped in Lake City on the way back to walk around and eat.  Had a great lunch and enjoyed browsing the shops.  We had been in Lake City once before, having driven over Engineer Pass in a jeep, but we didn’t spend any time there.

   On Saturday we visited the town museum in Creede and the Underground Mining Museum and drove up to North Creede, the original site of Creede before it flooded and folks decided to move further down the canyon.  The Underground Mining Museum was interesting.  They have blasted a large area out of the mountain and put in a museum that gives the history of mining from the old days until modern times.  Very educational.  Also, the Community Center is in the mountain! They have a large room that can seat up to 200 for a meal, a full kitchen and gift shop all inside the mountain.  The fire dept also has an underground fire station there.

   Saturday night we attended a performance of “Rumors” by Neil Simon.  There is a great repertory theater in Creede and they put on a number of productions every summer.  If you are there, don’t miss one.  They are great.  It rained during the evening, but still not enough to help the drought situation out. 

   Sunday was a quiet day, just loafed around the campsite.  In the late afternoon a storm came in and we had marble size hail for about 10 minutes.  We were afraid of damage to our truck and 5er, but no problems.

   Monday we hitched up and headed to Canon City.  It was a nice drive and we arrived at Royal View campground in early afternoon.  We were surprised to see how low the Arkansas River was.  We have rafted that river twice and it was so low in some spots now that it would be hard to get a raft through.  Dick and Phyllis Davis (living-our-dream.com) came looking for us about 4:00.  Millie had tried reaching Phyllis on the phone but our cell phone didn’t work at the campground.  We visited for a while and then the Davis’s left and we took showers and changed and headed into town to where the Davis’s were staying to have dinner with them.  They were parked in the driveway of Jack and Loraine Shugart, Phyllis’s Aunt.  We spent the evening sitting in the yard visiting and had a great dinner, with Dick Davis grilling chicken.

   Tuesday morning the Shugarts, Davis’s and Paxtons all took a trip on the Royal Gorge railroad.  Dick and I have now seen the Royal Gorge from nearly every angle!  It is a great ride, lasting 2 hours. We highly recommend it.  After the train trip, Dick and Phyllis and the two of us went out to the Royal Gorge Park and spent the afternoon.  Phyllis and Millie even walked across the bridge (pretty good for 2 gals who are both afraid of heights!). Check out the Davis’s website for more photos.

   On Wednesday we went to the Dinosaur Depot and saw the Dinosaur bones and watched them working in the lab on some artifacts. We then drove out to Red Canyon Park and saw the beautiful rock formations there.  A lady at the information center in town told Millie about a carving that was located on the way out to the park and suggested we stop and take a look.  It is beautiful, all carved from one cottonwood tree trunk.  We don’t know who did it, but we were glad we were able to see it.

   On the way back from the drive, we stopped for gas and were able to use the cell phone.  Millie called Joann to see how the house sale was going and we found out it had fallen through.  So – Back to square one!  We told Joann to go ahead and get it listed and we would do the paperwork when we got back.

   Thursday afternoon we picked up the Davis’s and drove to Colorado Springs where we visited the Flying W Ranch and enjoyed the Chuckwagon Dinner and Show.  It was a fun evening. 

   Friday found us hitching up and heading back to Texas.  Friday night we stayed in Amarillo again, Saturday night in Burleson and Sunday afternoon we arrived home.  There is a For Sale sign in our front yard.  The phone was ringing when we got in, it was Joann, another realtor wanted to show the house later in the evening.  We gathered the cats back up and went out to the 5er, had dinner and took showers while the house was being shown.

   Spent the rest of the week catching up on laundry, etc.  We are looking forward to the day when we don’t have to come home and to go to work, etc.

    The week of the 21^st was fairly uneventful.  Went grocery shopping on Monday evening.  On Thursday Dick started working on a shelf to hold the satellite receiver in the living room area of the 5er.  It is about 1” too wide to fit in the entertainment center, so we needed a place to put it.  We had a shelf we had taken out of the cabinet in the bottom of the entertainment center that Dick is cutting down and mounting to hold the receiver. We got wooden brackets and Millie stained them to match the shelf. 

   On Friday night we went out to eat and stopped at Lowes on the way home.  Dick got a Weber gas grill that was on sale for 20% off.  It is a nice size and will be easy to store in the 5er.

     Saturday morning we got out to the garage early and began cleaning and straightening up.  Got a lot of things tossed and swept the floor.  Then we put the new grill together.  After assembling the grill, we rearranged the “basement” storage area of the 5er and got some things out that we probably will not use and just taking up space.  We then moved inside the 5er and rearranged some cabinets and closets, making more room there.  By then it was early afternoon and we were getting hungry so we took showers and headed for Fuddruckers for some good food.  A trip to Lowes and Home Depot on the way home and then spent the evening watching TV.

   Sunday we went to church, which lasted a little longer than usual, due to 2 Infant Baptisms and our Mid-Year Congregational Meeting.  We got home, changed and went out to work on the Pet Patio for Missy and Ming.  We purchased the unit some time ago but had not installed it yet.  We first made a Plexiglas insert to go in the window behind the sofa.  This took awhile as we had trouble getting it to fit, but finally got the fit fine-tuned.  We then installed a cat door in the Plexiglas window insert.  As the doorframe was thicker than the Plexiglas, we used some packing Styrofoam cut to fit between the frame and the insert to hold it all in place. 

   We then began measuring and marking for the installation of the brackets for the unit.  It came with pop rivets.  Guess what?  No pop rivet gun, so Dick headed to Home Depot, getting a gun and also some PVC pipe to make extensions for the legs of the unit, as we knew the legs that came with it were not going to be long enough.  We installed the brackets and it began to rain.  As we had decided to install some screening on the patio to help keep the bugs out of the 5er and protect the girls from mosquitoes, etc., we took the patio inside the 5er to do that part of the project.  We first attached heavy duty Velcro to the top and bottom frames of the patio.  Then we unrolled the screening to measure it and attach the other side of the Velcro strips.  You guessed it, there was not enough screen to go around!   Decided we had put enough time into the project for one day we headed for the pool to relax for a while. 

    Monday after dinner we headed to Home Depot to get more screening, then Wal-Mart to pick up some other items.  Spent some time in the pool after we got home.  We will get back to our projects later in the week. 

     Wednesday we did grocery shopping again.