Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 This past weekend we took another little jaunt with Sunny the RV.  This time we stayed two nights down at Roaring River State Park.  We went down on Fri and came home Sunday.  It was nice to get away again for a bit before Ellen started school on Tues. We used the dolly and brought the car, Ed, along.  But Ed isn't in the picture because Gary and Gail went to a bluegrass music show there at the park.  Ellen and I decided to chill with Sunny. Yes, we do name some of our vehicles.  We are eccentric that way.  I will add a disclaimer that Sunny came to us already named, so there is that.  But I distinctly recall that my brother and sister-in-law had random names for their furniture.  I am not sure if it was Dan's doing, or Deb's, but I do remember they had a chest of drawers they called "Chester."  So maybe we aren't as odd as I'd thought.  I wonder, does anyone else name inanimate objects around their place?   Anyway. On Saturday we went to Eureka Springs,

 On our way back home from our Colorado vacation, we drove west across to the Black Canyon of Gunnison.  It was rather stunning because you are driving across what appears to be fairly flat and uninteresting landscape and then suddenly you go driving up and then there is this massive gash.       Of course actually getting there isn't as easy as all that, but you know what I mean.  I am by no means a photographer, so if you want to see stunning photos of this, or any of the other places I mention, you can find them on line.  At this point in our vacation I was still feeling the effects of altitude sickness, and as you can imagine, peering down into this chasm didn't exactly help any, so I didn't concentrate on getting the best pics.  But it was worth the trip to see it.   There are hiking trails there and if you are in to hiking I think it would be a great place to do so. On the way home we headed down the Million Dollar Highway, which is literally a cliff hanger of a road t

 Continuing on with my vacation narrative.  After we had our day in Rocky Mountain National Park we went back to the cabin, rested a bit and then headed out for an evening about town.   I didn't get the name of the streets or the town square area, but in a tourist town like Estes Park you can be sure that there's an area with tons of tourist shops. Ellen was in her element there. There were all sorts of boutiques and snacks and souvenir shops up and down the streets.  The above picture was taken back behind the main drag.  I loved just sitting by the rushing water, but Ellen was all about shopping.  This is Ellen in the Funky Moose gift shop.  This was a fun display.  Here is the funky metal moose that was outside the Funky Moose gift shop.  This moose was for sale.  Gary liked him.   Here is just a random photo of the main street corner we hung out at; I believe it's right on the square. Every Sun, Mon and Tuesday evenings on the square during the summer they have this guy

 At this point in my extended narrative (I am sure milking this vacation for as many blog posts as I can, aren't I?) I will take a moment to let you in on a home truth that you probably are already aware of; rarely is there a vacation without some sort of incident or aggravation.  You know; a couple people butt heads over something, an essential item is forgotten, a flat tire, cancelled reservation, lost glasses, someone gets sick....there are any number of things that can go awry.   Life happens even on vacation, and life isn't always convenient.  At the beginning of this vacation one of the things I was looking forward to was sleeping in 'til 6 AM maybe, having a peaceful early-morning cup of coffee and then going for a walk around the campgrounds.  This worked out fine the first two or three mornings. And I enjoyed my walks, and the sense of humor of the Estes Park KOA owners.  Like this:   Or this:  But then after about 2 days we began to realize something.   We are all