Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Wild…Wild Ride…Wild Flowers…Not in Our Wildest Dreams!

Wild…that I am actually putting together a blog post!  It has been a long, long time!  But here I go!

Wild Ride…July 14 Wally and I took off after work to ride to Chama, NM.  One of our residents who had been quite special  to us had passed away earlier in the spring.  Her family was having a memorial service for her and then spreading her ashes over the family ranch in Chama.  We decided to combine attending her service with a few days of vacation.  Of course we planned to get out of town earlier than we did, so we did have some traffic.  Just south of Denver we ran into the rain…lots of it.  That slowed us even more and by the time we rode over  the Cumbres pass, it was dark.  Wally told me to keep my eyes open for deer and elk.  We spotted many deer on the side or having just cleared the road as we passed by.  Then we rounded one bend and there on the road was an entire herd of elk!!  We (Wally) veered quite wide and long to avoid a collision and I breathed out many “Thank you Lord” prayers!   We wish  we could have enjoyed the scenery by daylight!  On my list of places to revisit is Chama and to ride the narrow gauge train on the Cumbres-Toltec scenic railway!  We stayed at a sweet B&B, the Gandy Dancer.  It was within walking distance of the little church where Mrs. Binkley’s service was held. 

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The little garden at Gandy Dancer had the tallest Columbines!

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Wildflowers…After the service we headed on our way to Gunnison, CO.  We had another rainy day to ride in.  Our destination was the Wildflower Festival in Crested Butte, the Wildflower Capital of Colorado!  What a year for the wildflowers, it was amazing!  Since we were on the bike we splurged and rented a jeep  for a day to drive the dirt roads.  We picked up a little book of wildflowers and I think we saw every variety in the book!  I know there are a lot of photos following but I had a hard trying to choose which to use!  And who doesn’t like to look at Colorado?

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People aren’t the only ones who enjoy a field of wildflowers!

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These were all white Columbines.  I have never seen that before.  I wondered if the blue columbines had faded,  but I have not heard of that either!  Still, there they were!

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We packed a little picnic and took a short hike to Judd Falls.  It was very lovely and we had quite a group of chipmunks who came out to keep us company!

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That’s me…another “dear,” out in a field of wildflowers!!

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Not in Our wildest Dreams…Friday morning we slept late and walked uptown Gunnison for breakfast.  We then wandered the town doing a little window shopping in some of the shops.  We saw a cute little fountain of two crows dipping and squirting.  The shop was actually backordered on the fountain…and it was kind of pricey!  So when we went back to the hotel room we looked for one on line…and found it…and it was quite a bit cheaper!!  I had just completed the order and we started to get ready for a ride around the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  Wally’s phone rang and while I was getting changed I could tell the conversation was sounding serious.  Wally let me know he was talking to the owner of our company.  After a few more minutes of conversation I  mouthed the words to him…”Are we getting fired?”  I don’t know what made me ask that, but he nodded yes!  

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In our wildest dreams we were not expecting that!  This was Friday and we were told not to return to work on Monday.  When your housing is attached to your job,we had a double whammie!  That phone call kind of ended our vacation and killed any desire to go for our ride.  We spent the next several hours in our hotel, on line, looking at places to rent…we had a quick move ahead of us!  (To be continued!)

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