Chrisco visit

Jane Chrisco and her 3 boys were in town and came over for the evening. These are the funniest boys I have ever met especially the youngest Sutton. What a character!!! Jane's got her oldest Brian (junior in h.s.) and Sydney practically married off and we are working on them going to Brian's school homecoming dance. Ha! Ha! Was a very funny night!!

We're home now, but here are a couple more photos. The top one is an attraction called Wind Walker Challenge. There were 3 different levels, with the top one hanging out over a 600 foot canyon. Obviously you're in a safety harness. That's Kate up there, she did great! I was tempted to join her, but I didn't see any other overweight, middle-aged women climbing around.

We visited The Royal Gorge, and it was okay. Pretty expensive I thought, but we walked over the bridge, saw rafters down below on the river, rode the tram, ate ice cream, listened to an Irish band and then a thunderstorm came in. We didn't get to the Air Force Academy or the Olympic Training Center. Maybe next time, and I would go back, Manitou Springs is lovely.

Gene continues to improve and is getting anxious to become more active. Fortunately for me, the excessive heat has helped keep him indoors. My band played a church picnic on Wednesday evening and it was 109 degrees on my car's thermometer. We were in the shade, but it was HOT! Last night a cool front came through and brought us 3/4" of rain and temps in the 70's. Wonderful! Today isn't too bad, but the heat is forecast to come back this weekend, into next week. I'm looking forward to fall.

More road trip

Yesterday we rode the cog railway to Pike's Peak. Fabulous! Besides the cool factor of the cog rail, I was so happy being back in an alpine environment, seeing wild flowers that I recognized and the smell was wonderful! I even enjoyed the thin air!

It was a perfect morning for our adventure, as we've had afternoon thunderstorms every day. After Pike's Peak, we visited Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, located above The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. Great zoo! We drove around the hotel, but didn't go in, Gene was afraid I'd try to check in...

Road Trip, continued

Friday evening we went to the Flying W Ranch for a chuckwagon supper and western music show. They had a western village and this is Grandpa Gene trying to teach Kate how to rope. Not very successful...dang, I wish I knew how to control the positioning of these photos! Anyway, the music was very good, one of the guitar players was a flat-picking champion and the fiddle player was also a champion.

Earlier in the day we went to Cave of the Winds. Not my favorite activity, small space, only one way out, funky smelling air...but I managed a 45 minute tour underground. I hope Gene and Kate enjoyed it. We also visited some cliff dwellings of the Anasazis.

Manitou Springs certainly has a lot to recomend itself (I don't see spell check here, so you'll have to forgive me). I would enjoy coming back here again. But right now, I'm going to find some breakfast. More later.

Joan

Garden of the Gods

I tired to download this photo last night...this was yesterday afternoon. What a spectacular place! We even drove through it again last night, after supper just to see it with different natural lighting. Just getting everyone moving this morning, still not sure what our itinerary is for today,lots to choose from!

Joan

Road Trip

We are on our road trip with Kate, 10 year old daughter of Carole. First stop after leaving Manhattan on Wednesday morning, was Dodge City, KS. Pretty disappointing. So we headed on to our first overnight stay, La Junta, CO. This morning we visited Bent's Fort which was the first stopping place for traders on the Sante Fe Trail after leaving Independence,MO. In this photo, Kate and Gene are in the carpenter's shop at the fort. Kate was thrilled that she found 2 peacock feathers (peacocks and chickens roaming free in the fort). Then we visited a Kashare Indian Museum and onto Pueblo,CO for lunch. Arrived in Manitou Springs (up the mountain from Colorado Springs) at the Silver Saddle Motel! The Gardens of the Gods were fabulous! Ive tried twice to download some more photos, but keep losing the connection (I'm using an old, used laptop with wi-fi at the motel), not too reliable,so I'll post more photos when we get home. Anyway, we got rained on and are delighted to have temps in the 80's instead of the 100's! Reservations for Pike's Peak Cog Railway on Saturday morning and a horse ride into Garden of the God's on Sunday morning. Tomorrow is up for grabs. Kate is such a smart little thing and so inquisitive. I really get a kick out of her. She's certainly inherited her grandpa's love of ice cream!

I keep getting weird little red notifications on the screen about my connection, so I'll quit for now. Try again tomorrow.

Love to all!

Nelson Family Weekend

The kids thought the jacuzzi was their personal swimming pool. That's Brody (4) and Sofe(8).

Maddy, age 12 a bathing beauty

The entire crew!

Kristin (Andy's wife) and Jenna (Gene's daughter)

We celebrated Sofe's 8th birthday, and her dad gave her an electric guitar! Sofe badgered me all weekend for guitar lessons, and I did the best I could. She didn't understand that she wasn't going to be Eric Clapton in 24 hours, most likely because she doesn't know who Eric Clapton is! (by the way, he's a guitar-god, in my book)

Everyone had a fun weekend, lots of swimming, boating, kyaking and water fights. Kyaking doesn't look right...oh well. Andy and Kristin liked the B & B so much, they've booked it for later in the summer and are inviting a bunch of their neighbors. I think we may do this again next summer.

Regarding Gene, he's still fighting to get better. Good days, not so good days. We just keep plugging along.