It seems I have forgotten what it was like to hold down a full time job and have a life. It's been real busy here.
With my new job, I have managed to surprise myself and finish the summer semester with all A's...AND...enjoy a couple long weekends, not to mention a week vacation and have some fun in between.
In June:
- We rode to Galena with friends and went to a pretty cool Italian restaurant. We were seated in the wine cellar room...as always...away from the rest of the patrons.
- We went to a wedding and my granddaughter’s 5Th B-day party.
- Rode to Snug Harbor in Marseilles
Then over the fourth of July weekend:
- We went to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Rib Fest in
Naperville, then spent the night with the friends we went with. - The next morning we took a ride to Savanna, IL where I
started hearing clattering noises coming from my bike...a set of cam
shoes, cam, cam bearings, oil pump, and adjustable push rods later it's
back on the road and sounding good again. Taking two paychecks to pay for
it, and that was with an employee discount on parts and thankfully, Rich
had the cam, bearings and shoes in a drawer from his bike when he upgraded
to boost his power a second time. The parts he gave me were only in his
bike for 3,000 miles before he decided to make it faster. So I have a cam
that gives me just a wee bit more pep in my giddy up.
- We did a quick weekend trip to PA for Rich's family
reunion. - The next weekend headed to Cripple Creek, CO for a week
with his Aunt and Uncle. We spent as much time with them as
possible...they had more trouble getting around than we imagined they
would and was only able to spend a couple hours in the early afternoon and
a couple hours in the evening with us each day. He's 91 and she's 86. We
did allot of sight-seeing while they were resting.
If you don't know the area, Cripple Creek is not a very exciting town...if you know locals you can find things to do to keep pretty busy other than gamble at the casinos and watching the donkeys roam the neighborhoods freely.
We went to the American Eagle Overlook in Victor which overlooks one of the country’s largest operating gold mines. It is at just over 10,000 feet and by the time you are done hiking the trails, you are ready for a nap. The next day we went back to do a tour of the mine. Notice the tire is twice Rich's height.
We drove to The Royal Gorge and took a ride down to the bottom of the gorge on a trolley.
The weather was perfect in Cripple Creek and at the Mine but when we got to a lower elevation it was really hot. The temps in Cripple Creek were about 70's during the day and sweater weather at night. It was a welcome break from the heat and humidity we had in IL.
One day we took a drive to the little town of Guffy just to have a look see, we found it to be a very small town scattered with small log cabins, old cars, and some rather strange displays.
We stopped for a beer and talked to the bar keep for a while and she had some pretty interesting stories about bears in the area and showed us pictures of them on the back porches of the bar and her apartment. She said they would come into town usually during the night and occasionally in the day time. The pix she showed us where in the afternoon hours and a little too close for me.
We took a ride along the Phantom Canyon Road between Victor and Cripple Creek. In some spots it was only one lane and you sometimes had to share the lane with cattle.
We went to a restaurant called Crawdaddies...not the chain.
It was bad. My order didn't come till everyone else was done eating. I ended up
taking it to go so that we wouldn't be late for the theater.
We went to see Calamity Jane at the Butt Theater and it was
a real good play...very well worth seeing!
When we got back from CO, we found that our garage freezer
had gone out and that the 23lb ham I had in it was 1/2 thawed. We put the Ham
in the kitchen fridge and the next morning I came down to go to work and there
was a puddle in the kitchen. The
evaporator for the self-defroster quit working. We got a new fridge from Sears’s
scratch-n-dent store the next day.
My niece from Evansville IN came for the weekend after that
so we had a big cookout with the ham. I really enjoyed seeing her again...as
always! The Thursday before was her 1st grandson's 1st birthday and he was with
us for the weekend too. I have to admit that I wasn't sure about having a newly
walking one year old in the house but to my delight he was a joy to have
around. He cried one time all weekend and it lasted less than a minute. He was
so much fun...always laughing and pretty smart at that.
Next blog…I am again...an unemployed deadbeat!
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