Denver visiting Sue and Bill

At Red Rock Amphitheatre

A view from the top down to the stage - note athletes training

At the base of Buffalo Bill's statue in Golden

Karyn, Ben, Ryan and Meghan 

Adele hankering after a much taller man!

One of the many beautiful hotels in Vail

Believe it or not, this car is made from Lego!

Rocky Mountain National Park & Benson Sculpture Gardens

Tom in the Rocky Mountains

Washingtons face in the rocks?

A view of the high peaks

Hiking on Deer Mountain

OK Ladies!

The garden the Bunko Babes adopted

Tom wishing for?

Ring-a-ring-a-rosy!   

Denver, Colorado

Easy sailing in our “land yacht” down the 70 miles on I-25 to an RV Park south of Denver; we took the car off the dolly, plugged in to the electricity and headed further south to Sue and Bill Piche's new home in Castle Pines just outside Denver - the mile high city at an elevation of 5250ft above sea level.

Sue and Bill had moved from Saratoga just two weeks earlier; their home was fully functional, even the pictures had been hung and not a box insight!  We were astonished at such efficiency - but then again this is Sue. Their house overlooks the 8^th Tee box of a golf course, not on a fairway or behind a green so their windows are safe. Once again, their house is large with a fully finished and furnished basement. We stayed in one of their guest rooms in the basement with full windows so we could see the weather in the mornings.  On our first afternoon we relaxed and caught up on respective news, then after a yummy home cooked meal of BBQ meat we watched the Olympics.

Sunday, we went to church with Sue and Bill - it was very enjoyable; there was a youth choir from Los Altos, CA. The summer school children acted out the story of Jonah and the Whale, it was very entertaining, we all learned how to pronounce some difficult place names in the Bible. At the coffee and doughnuts afterwards we met a couple who will be vacationing in Ireland in September which led to great conversation. We then travelled on to Red Rock Amphitheater which is a copy of an amphitheater in Greece. What a stunning venue for outdoors concerts – U2 played there once in a deluge – it is also a favorite place for athletes who run up and down the tiers of seats. We enjoyed the story of the construction of the amphitheater; the chief engineer arranged all the dynamite to blast the rock, ordered the time of the detonation and left his office for the rest of the day - he did not want to deal with the environmental groups of the day.

From Red Rock we drove on to the small town of Golden which is the home of Coor's Beer. Originally a gold rush town it is still very busy with tourists and locals alike - Golden has lots of weekend festivities. We caught the tail end of the Buffalo Bill week; Buffalo Bill is buried nearby. The streets were closed to traffic and lined with vintage cars. Sue checked out the restaurants then we had a lovely lunch during which Sue was voted as the person to select all our eating establishments. Karyn (Sue and Bill's daughter) invited us to dinner at her home to reconnect with her and Matt and meet their family. Both of us were very touched when we arrived to see a poster on the door saying "Welcome Granny, Grandpa and their friends", then Ryan a five year old bursting with personality grabbed Tom to show him the playroom and office. Next he had Adele help him make paper airplanes (a throwback to having three brothers), allowing his brother Ben access to both of us now and then. Abby, the oldest showed Adele her newly decorated bedroom, familiar pre-teen colors! The baby Meghan is almost walking and wanted constant attention from her Mom as she prepared dinner for ten. Four delightful, welcoming children who made our day complete as we have not had the company of children since Easter when our Barrow grandchildren came over to Orlando.

Monday we were whisked up the mountains to Vail a Ski town that has been brought up to date without losing any of its charm. We had lunch in Gasthof Gramshammer an Austrian restaurant then just as we were paying the bill rain started to fall in a torrent; so…we ordered coffee and sipped very slowly. As Sue and Bill had been in Vail many years ago and challenged themselves to find the hotel resort they had stayed at, after an interesting walk they found it – a beautiful historic resort with roots in Bavaria. From there we drove to Frisco and walked around the town during which Adele got one of her many (she hopes) birthday presents – several weeks early! On to Breckenridge for a quick tour as it was getting late by now and Sue had made reservation at The Fort restaurant back at Red Rock which was a real treat. The Fort is a replica of the historic Bent's Fort and overlooks Denver. The food is western with a twist; we had buffalo, wild boar, quail and elk - a culinary adventure for both of us.

Tuesday we headed for Boulder with a slight detour to a small charming little town called Louisville. We had lunch at the Old Louisville Inn, in a pub owned by Garrett McCarthy, the son of the late Brian a friend of Tom's. Garrett a triathlete was born in Ireland but has lived most of his life in the US represented Ireland with great success on many occasions and is a former world champion. The Old Louisville Inn, one of the oldest Inn’s in Colorado has an interesting history; we had Tapas Tom said the best he’s had since San Sebastian, Spain. Bill warned us that Boulder was like Berkley - it was much more respectable. Pearl Street is pedestrianized, beautifully decorated and has great shops while Berkley and Telegraph Hill are full of people who are time-warped back in the 50’s bald heads and ponytails included. The weather in Castle Pines was very nice after the hot weather we had on the plains, in Castle Pines it rains around 4pm each day cooling everything down for the evening; we loved this! Sue was hoping we could have had more BBQ’s but the rain ruined those plans except for our first evening.

Each evening we watched the Olympics mostly gymnastics and swimming featuring Michael Phelps and Gabby "the Flying Squirrel". So, as you can imagine our nights were late and our mornings early; and, yes…we did get to walk around a few of the holes on the golf course which is very nicely laid out, with a lovely club house - a good walk away. We never did get to visit downtown Denver but we did drive past the city center so many times it became a joke that Adele could recognize all the various spires on sight.  The Capitol Building is a copy of the Capitol in Washington. The Jesuit University has a beautiful golden spire and there are some interesting buildings and sports arenas.

We were delighted with our break from RV living, sleeping in real bed in a house. Sue and Bill are wonderful hosts; we enjoyed visiting with them in their beautiful new home. Needless to say we were their first visitors, who will be next?

Fort Collins, Colorado

To those of you who are not familiar with Spanish this state is named for the color red. Starting at Red Rock Park a little north Denver there’s a line of enormous red rock right down the foothills on the eastern edge of the Rockies ending at the Garden of the Gods outside Colorado Springs. Like Utah and Arizona the earth is very red and with lots red rocks.

The more we travel the more we love it. There are so many reasons to follow our dreams, most pertinently while we both enjoy good health – a great blessing! Our continuing wonder as we travel is this earth we inhabit; especially now that we are back at the edge of the Rockies - so old, spectacular and majestic. We appreciate and understand the American Indian philosophy that you cannot own the land, the air, the skies or the water – they are gifted for our enjoyment and use by the Great Spirit (God) - there were so many buffalo, deer, bear and goats to hunt while the soil is good for growing crops.

As we travel along we have a better understanding of the fact that the US was not always comprised of geographically divided states; rather it was a number of different territories owned and controlled by English, French, Spanish and yes, the Native American peoples. All spoke different languages and had different traditions - more like Europe – where if you travel a hundred miles you encounter national and language differences. We also have a better appreciation of the American Indian, we used to think they all lived in Tipi’s and ran around in animal skins, now we know that they had a highly developed society, were skilled builders (especially here in Colorado, in New Mexico and Arizona an advanced system of government with far seeing laws; for example woman was equal in all respects with man.

Every evening we look forward to a call, text or photo from Cearull giving us the news on little Sairsha and Leslie. TG for technology, it is so hard to be far away especially on Adele who is learning humility and patience. Really!

Traveling through Colorado seeing mountains and feeling rain was a real luxury after the heat; the weather is cooler here at a mile and more above sea level. Colorado is a beautiful part of the US. We drove down the I-25 corridor with the Rockies to our right and plains to our left. Our first stop was in Loveland near Fort Collins where Jeanette and Dan Hoffman now live and like all of the other Newcomers we’ve visited have moved into an even bigger house which is situated in a gorgeous area outside Fort Collins. The basements are fully finished with guest bedrooms, a craft room and a big living area. We meet Jeanette and Dan for dinner the night we arrived in Henry's in the center of Loveland and had a great meal as we caught up on each other’s news. They did offer their driveway to us to park the RV but, while appreciating the offer, we thought that their neighbors might not have been too happy.  Jeanette advised that we should drive to the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park. We drove through three ecosystems to get to the National Park high up in the mountains. Adele felt the effects of the altitude so we took a slow 90 minute hike, then drove along the Trail Ridge Road which was an ancient Indian Pass. The highest mountain Long's Peak stands at 14,259 feet and still has visible glaciers on the higher points. We then drove back to Estes Park a cute ski village 3 miles from the eastern gate, had a coffee and did a little shopping for our little Sairsha Alice who as we write is two weeks old, doing well putting on weight (3lbs today) and looking healthy for such a tiny baby. We can now relax a little! We had a lovely day in the high Rockies with spectacular views at every turn.

Next day we strolled around Benson Sculpture Gardens in Loveland - another recommendation by Jeanette and a great one. This is a local park whose land was donated to the city by a farmer. The city encouraged the local sculpture association to hold annual competitions and display the statues in the park. On our stroll we went from one sculpture to another admiring every one, they were mostly cast in bronze; the subjects were both modern and traditional. All were beautifully made, clever, inspirational, and displayed in a lovely setting. It started to rain as we walked around but we just put up our umbrella and strolled on. Well worth a visit but surprisingly not on the tourist list of things to do. We went back to the RV had afternoon tea after which Adele said she was going for a walk and snuck off to the big Shopping Center next to the RV Park and returned much later with the telltale store bags. That evening we went to dinner in Jeanette and Dan's, had a lovely home cooked meal (a treat for us) all four of us tried not to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony, eventually we heeded Oscar Wilde’s advice “the best way to overcome temptation is to give in to it” and watched a most entertaining spectacular. We did not get to visit Fort Collins, sorry Jeanette. We cannot see everything on the trip - perhaps next time around!

It was great to see Jeanette and Dan but we were sorry to miss Kim by a few days. She is now finished college and it would have been nice to see her as she looks forward to the rest of her life. Many of you will remember Kim who contributed significantly to everyone’s enjoyment by playing the Irish harp at our St Patrick’s Day parties.

Nebraska photos

The Capitol Building , Lincoln, Nebraska

At the Kingsley Dam, one of 2 earthen dams in the US 

Kathy's Kafe at the Cattle Mart, Ogalalla

Identical twins aged 84 

Tom and his Woman in Ogalalla 

Her friend's don't like her choice; so Tom is to be hanged

Nebraska

If we accept that Baseball has a World Series then we been to the center of that world - Lincoln, Nebraska the center of the US. When the original government surveyors came to Nebraska they counted a total of 12 trees in the entire state; so new residents were asked to plant trees and the state's motto was The Tree Planter State - now it is the Cornhusker State so much corn is grown there now. To the Oto Indians the territory name was Nebrathka meaning flat water; the French called it Platte. The name Platte lives on in the river which is a mile wide and an inch deep.

On our first afternoon we went to a shopping center found a Trader Joe's did grocery shopping, went to the movie “Brave” a Celtic story which was very good about the relationship between mothers and daughters. We have not dined in the RV for over a month - it is just too hot; we are out most days so we eat dinner wherever - soon Adele may well forget how to serve up a meal.

The following day we headed east to the Omaha Zoo as we had heard it was one of the best zoos in the country; we were not disappointed! Among is exhibits are: a great collection of bats in a dark man made cave, an indoor jungle where one could walk around on a canopy complete with a platform and rope bridge; watch the monkeys on the tree tops and look down on the pools and rivers below; one could then go down and look up from the floor of the jungle. There are several bears - one we had never seen or known of before the - Sun Bear. They have a great aquarium where one can walk through a tunnel with the fish swimming above. Because of the heat even the Giraffes including an adorable baby born 16th April were indoors. We saw snakes and crocodiles, even an albino crocodile like the one in San Francisco. We took the train around the African Veldt as once again it was over 100F (38C) - we do try to stay out of the noonday sun.

We spent the next afternoon in Lincoln where we walked around the Historic Haymarket District the old part of town, bought a box of English liquorice in a store devoted exclusively to liquorice with over 100 varieties form all over the world - Lincoln is renowned for its liquorice.  We visited the State Capitol in Lincoln which has a tower rather than a dome; we took the tour and ascended to the top of the tower from where the terrain is flat as far as eye can see. The structure of the legislator is also different - one house, the legislators are part time, are paid $12,000 a year and have no health care or other benefits. On the tour we met some interesting people; the first a man from Minnesota via Taiwan who followed us around talking nonstop; then we meet two college students and had a political discussion - they want the President of the US to be a Saint we suggested perhaps the Pope - by the way they go to a Catholic College. That night we had a buffalo burger with trimmings courtesy of the RV Park and met a man from Texas, a staunch Democrat and had another political discussion; he invited for wine but we opted to go for a swim instead - we can only take so much politics in one day.

From Lincoln we headed west across Nebraska through Kearney (a one-nighter) and on to Ogallala. Ogallala was the end of the trail for the Texan cowboys; thousands of steers were sold here to ranchers to be fattened before shipping them to the east coast. The afternoon we arrived we drove out to McConaughy Lake – the big attraction in the area to see the Kingsley Dam one of only 2 earthen dams in the US; at the visitors center we watched a video of its construction; what was fascinating is that it has as much rebar in it as a concrete dam.

Next day was a momentous day for us, starting with breakfast at "Kathy's Kafe" at the Livestock Mart whose big days are Wednesday. We made reservations for dinner and a Western Show that night then as we were on our way we heard from our son Cearull that Sairsha Alice Horgan was about to join the family 10 weeks early via an emergency caesarian; Mom Leslie and Sairsha are both well and strong, for us it was very difficult to be so far away at a time like this. The Western Show was a fun two hours during which Tom ended up on the stage with a noose around his neck; it is put on by high school and college kids. Also in Ogallala there’s a wonderful collection of art made from petrified wood by identical twins aged 84 who still dress and look alike, their 90 year old sister came into the museum as we were leaving - it must be the clean water, good air and wide open spaces that has them all in such good health.

We started planning our onwards journey to September 3^rd starting with friends in Colorado.

Abilene, Kansas

The childhood home of Dwight Eisenhower 

John Adams - a warning  

Eisenhower Museum 

Kirby Mansion where we had our dinner - just as nice inside  

Brick Church  built over the shell of an older wooden church 

Adele heading to the pool to cool off