Denver, Wyoming and Rapid City, S.D.

We took a side trip through Denver on the way to SD with some friends who live near there. They drove us pass the Bronco's Invesco Field... Guess son Mark had already been there for a game a few years back.. This is the new football stadium which replaced The Mile High... newer but FEWER seats.. go figure !!!

This is the capital building in Denver...

We also drove by the baseball stadium called Coors field...

Our friends live a few miles from Castle Rock ( we also have Castle Rock in Michigan ... much smaller and a tourist trap ) Guess this is suppose to look like a castle.. oh well !!

We finally arrived at the Cedar Canyon Wesleyan Camp in Rapid City, SD.... The first thing to greet us were 5 wild turkeys outside our m.h. They are BIG!!!! It seems to be a good camp.. hope there is not a lot of work for us to do... only 2 other couples so that should be easier as we are the leaders AGAIN !!! After we went to the Wal Mart and filled up on groceries... they informed us that they feed us lunch and supper.... It was a long way cross Wyoming on Wednesday.... We have been in this area vacationing before so do not plan to do a lot of 'sightseeing' as we usually do... maybe Mt Rushmore again and a few' chuck wagon ' dinners...

Now that the project is over we have lots of free time... The Garage Saleing was fun on Friday and we ate at a 50's diner... On Saturday, after we had washed 2 weeks of laundry.. we drove up beyond Woodland Park " The city in the clouds " to visit with friends we have not seen in 40 years... nice dinner in their LOVELY MT. TOP home and enjoyable visit...Then we had to drive down from the mt. in the dark and rain !!! After church on Sunday, we took the Carol and Timm from Kenya out to lunch.. It was easy to pick a place as they have never been to so many places.... Chi Chi, Wendy's, Captain D's... so we chose Captain D's.... They really enjoyed it !!! Then we took then to Wal Mart and bought them micro wave pop corn ( Tim gave them instructions on how to make it ) and a bag of sweet cherries... never tasted them or blueberries... LOVED them.... After, we brought them to our motor home ( they were fascinated ) and gave them a picture of us 4 and drove them home in a down pour... as they had a meeting.... They left their 10 year old son with staff as they just wanted alone time with us.... They gave us each a keychain from Kenya... It was a fun afternoon...

Projects over !!!!!

This has been our home for the past 3 plus weeks !!! We are finished with the project but are allowed to stay here for another week before the next project begins.... Plan to rest and relax, more sightseeing, see old friends and new ones...and do our laundry !! Garage saleing tomorrow with Steve and Suzy... wonder what we will buy... If it is a real deal.. I'll blog it... Carole

Flying W Ranch and Rocky mt. long horn sheep !!!

Last night we attended a chuck wagon meal and singing cowboys at the Flying W Ranch.. As you can see.... we are wanted

Here I am waiting to eat supper at the chuck wagon...

The Flying W Wranglers were real good and was a very clean Christian show..

This afternoon when we came home for lunch, there were 7 long horn sheep right outside out our window.. They stayed and entertained us all through our lunch time... these were taken out the window... did not want to get too close..

They are wild but not too afraid of people. It is very unusual that they are down in the glen this late in the year... they usually head for the mts before now...

The Olympic Training Center

Today we toured the National Olympic Training Center in Colorado... It was very interesting...

They had a lot of pretty daisies in the yard...

more of the tour

There were alot of statues around the ground...These represent the Olympic spirit...

This was a beautiful statue of the world..

Our grand daughters LOVE the Olympic ice skaters so this one is for Emily and Sarah !!!

This is the new sweatshirt for the winter Olympics to be held at Vancouver in 2010...

They had the original torches for the different years.. This is the one from Atlanta 1996..

more of the tour

On the walk way at the Olympics training center... A lot of the people live here where they train about 6-10 hours/ day 6 days/ week...

SOME OF THE INTERESTING SIGNS ..

This sign is over the door of the gym for gymnastics..

Some of the original medals won by USA

The Olympic size pool where they practice ... polo, synchronized swimming, races...

Cotopaxi, Colorado on Friday

ON Friday, we went with some friends to their house in a small town, Cotopaxi, about 30 miles through the canyon from Canon City... The winding road thought the mts. followed the Arkansas River and was beautiful....

It was about 90 miles from here and quite a trip.. They met us here and I rode with her.. They actually own a house in Denver too but are going to retire in the canyon in a few years...

Here we are sitting on the deck of their house... Rina and Craig Reed... We seem to get along great considering they are about 10 years our junior... The town they live in has no telephone reception, tv... one small church, bar and grocery store... post office... there are 18 houses in the entire town and 100 people including the surrounding areas...

On the way we stopped at The Royal Gorge Bridge.. We did not pay or take alot of time to go see the Bridge except from a distance.. This is looking down into the Arkansas River. They were alot of white river rafters going by..

The is the longest suspension bridge in the Nation.. Some people were bungee jumping off, you could walk, ride or drive across... for a fee...!!!

Sowers and Pike's Peak

This is the group of Sowers that we are the leaders of this month. They all seem to be very good workers and we get along... It was hard to find a good photo shot and get 22 smiles all at once...

Today we took a friend from Michigan ,Ruth. with us to the summit of Pike's Peak... after we had a very good meal at LongHorn Steak House and good conversation...

The oxygen is only 50% at the summit and after taking some pictures and sharing coffee and their famous donuts... we were all getting light headed... some scary hairpin curves... I was yelling but Ruth was laughing all the way down... 19 miles...

The Rose Garden

This is the Rose Garden on the grounds where some of the Sowers have been working this project... The roses are beautiful....

There is a seating area where you can sit to just meditate and read or talk...

English Creme Tea in the Castle

Today 9 of the Sowers went to High Tea... I am the one in the pink !!!

This was the 2nd. course... along with 2 types of Tea.. a special blend they call Castle... made especially for them from England and a Hawaiian tasting tea from Africa.. this was dried tomato and 3 cheese quince and cheese ( yellow wax ) and herb bread..

After they served scones with special cream... that was actually the best thing on the menu..

Our server poured us tea from a ceramic pot...

Here are the 9 Sowers ( 2 did not attend ) in the library... 3 of us are pastor's wives... can you guess??? The 2 in front row on right and me ... Fun... but once is enough !!!

Our week end...

ALL OF THESE PICTURES ARE IN BACKWARDS... I WILL HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT IN THE FUTURE .. We still see a lot of Rocky Mt. long horn sheep. They are wild but come down quite close..

They love to eat the green grass in the valley.. The Scottish call it the GLEN.
Me with the loot we bought at Focus on the Family Yard Sale..

This is just some of the hundreds of people that were at the Sale on Saturday... The snow covered mt. you see in the background is Pike's Peak..

More of Garden of the gods...

Know why it is called ' balancing rock'?

It sure made you think of GOD and all HE has made..

We watched a guy climb clear to the top and down... made my knees weak !!

some of the paths we walked on around the Garden... It was really HOT that day !! 90*

There is a lot of red rocks in the area...