Travel update June 25, 2007
We got up at 8 a.m. this morning to a crystal morning, with a pine forest outside our coach, cool temperatures, and not a whisper of a breeze. The wildflowers are pink, yellow, white and two shades of purple. After weeks of trailer parks and taking care of parents and grandchildren (both of which we feel privileged to have done), we are remembering why we started this life in the first place.ÂÂ
We are camped on Swan Mountain in a national forest, high above Lake Dillon, only a few miles from Breckenridge, where we spent the winter. On Saturday, I rode my bicycle down the mountain (whee!!) and around the lake, and Roy picked me up in Frisco, so I didn’t have to struggle back up maybe a 1,000 foot grade. My rationalization – if it’s okay to use ski lifts for downhill skiing . . . speaking of which, we took the lift up Keystone Ski Resort yesterday. There are only a few mounds of snow remaining, and the ski slopes have been criss-crossed with mountain bike trails. Like ski runs, these are graded – green, blue, black, and double-black — and have lots of jumps on the more advanced trails. Looks entirely too bone-jarring for me — I can barely negotiate a pot-hole on pavement — but lots of people look like they are having lots of fun. Our annual ski passes work in the summer, but they charge extra for bikes, which they hang on hooks they mount onto one side of each chair. Roy and I walked down the mountain, which was a surprisingly strenuous and exhausting undertaking.  It was not difficult aerobically, but by the time we finally got down (about two hours), my knees were wobbly. I stumbled at least ten times and fell three. (Of course, I AM a clutz.) The meadow grasses and rocks! are not as forgiving as snow, not to mention the fact that I have NEVER fallen three times on a ski run. Today my thighs feel as sore as after the first day of skiing in a season. Of course, this conditioning, whatever it is, will not hold until the snow begins to fly.  But the mountain vistas were beautiful and the breezes were warm. Next time we will take the road, even if it IS three times as long. If there is a next time.
Fabulous news for Roy. His shoulder (which, if you will remember, he dislocated on a ski slope Feb. 11) and elbow have healed to the point where he will not require surgery. The doctor was just incredulous that he has shown so much recovery in the 2-1/2 months since he last saw him. He said he would have been happy with the condition of his elbow had he had surgery in March and wants to know what Roy has done to bring it about. Truthful as he is, Roy said, “Not much”. Roy chalks it up to his amazing body, which he’s been telling me about for years. Who’s to argue? We now have our summer free, as opposed to tethered to Colorado for physical therapy. (Not that this is such a bad place . . . but hiking and biking and rafting are more fun than curls in the gym.)
We spent 8 days in the beginning of June babysitting for Ally (2) and Jake (4 months) while their parents (my daughter Erin and husband Ben) went off to Maui on vacation. Ben is a police officer who works 5 days on / 4 days off, and Erin works normal Monday - Friday, so they have an irregular daycare schedule, which they were kind enough to leave in place while we were there. So we had babysitting for three of the eight days. Nevertheless, we had five days in a row on our own, and after two days, we were not certain we were going to make it. (I was sick, too, which didn’t help.) But now that it’s over, we would not have missed it for the world, and still miss the two little squirts. Jake is an angel, and Ally is a fun-loving little dare-devil. Ben and Erin came back tanned, relaxed, and smiling, but they really missed their little ones after so many days away. And Ally kept saying Mamamamamama and bouncing from Mom’s lap to Dad’s and back again all evening.
The other two fun things we did on our trip from Atlanta back to Colorado were to visit the Jack Daniels’ Distillery in Lynchberg, TN, and the capital of country music in Nashville. We learned the entire process of brewing, charcoal filtering and aging, how the whiskey gets its flavor and color, the history of the place, prohibition and the the 75!! warehouses in the area. Also that Lynchberg is in a dry county!! Defintely worth the side trip. (We also toured the Coors plant in Golden, CO the day we flew out to Spokane, another excellent tour and interesting process. Plus they are VERY generous with their samples.  (Coors makes Killians, Molson and Blue Moon, too, in case you didn’t know.)  Don’t forget the ABC’s of beer (Always Buy Coors).
Nashville was a neat town. Not only music, music, everywhere, but good old fashioned country catfish, which we ALWAYS enjoy. We went to the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday night and saw some old legends of country music (little Jimmy Dickens (who stands about 5 feet tall and sings AND tells jokes) and Porter Wagoner (who was Dolly Parton’s partner when she was just getting going and was about to celebrate 50 years in the Country Music Hall of Fame)). I had never heard of these guys, but you may have. The show paused for a commercial every fifteen minutes, with a new sponsor every half hour. It was clear that this was as much radio program as stage production. We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame the next day, which was interesting and worthwhile also.
It was great to refresh friendships while we were in Atlanta. I thought about not going by the old workplace but am definitely glad I did. It was like a warm burst of sunshine (friends!) with just enough reality check (work! and politics!) to give me not the slightest inclination to want to go back.  It was certainly good to see things (finally!) moving in the right direction again. Also, it was good to run into many friends that I had missed on my day-long visit in 2006., though sadly I missed others this go-round. That’s how it goes. Though we were unable to attend a tennis match, due to the regular ALTA season being over and our old teams not making the playoffs, we did spend several nice evenings with tennis and neighborhood friends. I even drafted one of my favorite tennis partners (I have several!!) for an inflatable kayak trip down the very low-water Chattahoochee. We arrived at the final take-out the same instant as Roy, my loyal tech support and equipment management guy. We have thought about digging our boat back out for a paddle around Lake Dillon, but that water has had a recent previous life as snowflakes, so we’re not quite sure we feel like immersing our tushes in it. We are still running a little bit of heat in the mornings here!
The plan from this point is to explore some other parts of this beautiful state and then return to the area in late July for a “Boomerang”. The “Boomers” subgroup of the Escapees RV Club that we belong to gets together periodically just for fun, and they call these gatherings boomerangs. Many (200+) like-minded and active friends with time to play. So that’s what we’re up to!ÂÂ
