Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 Really, the rest of our mini vacation was fairly uneventful as far as unusual or unwanted occurrences.  We weren't at the cabin long enough to get that laid back vacation feeling, we kept on the move.  We went to 5 different shows there in Branson; one of which I enjoyed very much.  The rest of them appealed mostly to the others.  Ellen liked Reza the Illusionist, Gail liked the John Denver tribute guy, and Gary and I preferred the Clay Cooper show; he focused mostly on older country music.   The only other notable thing that really happened was there at the KOA.  I don't normally take just random photos of the KOA campgrounds simply for the fact that rows of cabins, RVs and/or tents aren't exactly exciting.  I didn't take photos of the campground this time, but I will set it up for you to tell this story.  We were about 2/3 of the way toward the back of the campground in a small row of cabins along the edge.  Across the road from ...

 This past summer was full of adventures.  It seemed like a whirlwind.  Ellen went to FBLA nationals in Atlanta.  That was exciting for her, and for Gary and I in a different way.  Worrying about your child is always exciting...not always the excitement that you want. In late June Ellen and I packed up and headed for California to visit family.  It's too long of a story for a quick blog post, but here's the gist.  We flew to Portland where Dan, my brother, picked us up and we drove down to Redwood Valley in California and camped for the weekend with the family down there. That was fun.  From there, Dan drove back up home and Ellen and I stayed a week with Leslie.  While we were there we filled every day with some sort of adventure.  Here is Ellen standing in front of a redwood tree and its burl on the skywalk at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Eureka, CA.  We went with a friend, Doris Foss, who was (still is) the on site manager of the se...

 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, whi...

 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 ...

 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...

 After we visited Bear Lake, we drove the Trail Ridge Road, which leads up out of the tree line into the tundra.  The visitor center up there is at 11,796 ft.  I didn't get a picture of the actual visitor center; if you want you can Google it and see.  It was jam-packed with tourists; we had to drive around the parking lot a couple of times to get a place to park.   But the views of the alpine tundra were spectacular:   The vegetation up on the tundra is all quite stunted; any grass, shrubs or flowers are quite short due to the winds up there.   In the distance in the above photo you might be able to discern dark little dots.  Those are members of the elk herd.  Apparently they are able to get enough nourishment up on the tundra and they appear to enjoy hanging out there; even though the lines of tourists gawking at them from cars must be annoying. We did our own gawking and then moved on.   After we came down from the tun...

 If you have ever gone on vacation to a National Park you know what I mean when I say it can be overwhelming.  You want to take pictures of everything, but then when you go back and look at your pictures you realize that there is no way to actually capture the magnitude of the grandeur of what you saw.   But I attempted to do so, simply to capture proof positive that we were there.  Mostly I got pictures of Ellen at these places, for a record of her travels as much as anything else.   Here is a picture looking across the valley toward the mountains; taken from our KOA cabin there at the edge of Estes Park.  The body of water there, which you can only see a sliver of, is actually Estes Lake, across the road from us.  We never did manage to get over to see it; but it is fairly extensive.  Maybe next time we will make time to see it.     When we finally got into the park there were so many lovely views it was difficult to cho...

 Here in the middle of my vacation posts I am going to insert this random piece of advice.  This actually comes from Gary.  I think he did this off and on back in the day when he was driving the school bus on field trips for the kids. When you need to use a restroom while traveling, try to schedule your breaks in towns where there is a court house.  These are public buildings, with public access and public restrooms.   Here is the Huerfano County Courthouse in Walsenburg, CO.   Walsenburg was the first stop of the last leg of our Colorado trip before we headed through Kansas.  At the edge of town we gassed up, but the lines in the restrooms were super long.  We all figured the bathrooms there would be fairly gross, plus COVID infections are on the rise.  So we piled back in the car and Gary went looking to see if there was a courthouse in town. Bingo. The officer manning the metal detector was away, but the sign said to come on in; ...

 Our second day found us at our main destination; Estes Park, Colorado.  It pretty much serves as the base camp for the Rocky Mountain National Park, so many of you have probably been there. Since it is hugely a tourist town it was right up Ellen's alley, with streets of shops and restaurants and all sorts of activities going on.    We stayed at the KOA there, which is located, I believe, at the south end of Estes Park.  Our Kabin was quite close to the main entrance and to the main KOA lodge, or store, or whatever they call it.     It was handy to the showers as well, which was really nice since we stayed at this location for 2 nights.  As I stated before, it was here that I realized that the memory foam mattresses and I do NOT get along.  For some reason it puts me at an awkward angle and makes my back hurt like crazy.  I'd take forever to get in a halfway decent position to sleep and then wake up with my back aching.    So I...

Any vacation starts with travel and lodging necessities, of course.  We chose  to use the car for traveling, and that involved finding somewhere to sleep at night.  Gail, Gary's sister, and their mother Elna, had done considerable traveling by car for years, and had always used KOA Kabins.  We elected to do the same; and since we split the costs for the whole vacation two ways, it was more affordable, and much more enjoyable than either tent camping or just using a motel. But this, of course, necessitated packing sheets and pillows for 4.  Along with our food cooler and other storage box of kitchen items, this pretty much filled the trunk. Since we planned and booked this vacation almost last minute we ended up with the very last basic kabin at each campsite. Which was fine; it was what we would have chosen anyway.  This is what the basic model looks like inside;   There is a bunk bed set, a double bed, usually some sort of table and chair, a porch swi...

 For this particular vacation we traveled across a couple of states.  We did not, however, take Sunny the RV.  Due to our unfamiliarity with his inner workings, we were a bit leery of taking Sunny on such a long trip, so we took the Impala and camped at various KOA Kabins along the route. On our last night away from home we stayed in a motel in Pratt KS.  It was nice, though not as fun as a KOA. But more on that later. This mode of travel involved packing for four; all of our own bedding; pillows, sheets and blankets, into the trunk of the car, along with all the luggage, picnic supplies and other varied camping items.  Setting up and breaking down camp was a bit involved since we only stayed at one KOA for 2 days, but we got into a routine and made it work. We brought the biggest part of our food prepared beforehand; hamburgers, pulled barbecue chicken, lunch meat, condiments...and the like, so that we wouldn't have to do much food prep on the go, or spend muc...

 Yes. You read that correctly. The entire Howard family picked up their lives and fled the Midwest drought for a well-deserved vacation in slightly cooler climes. We had a wonderful time and many laughs and adventures.   As I organize pictures and thoughts I am going to make various blog posts about it here for your entertainment.   Stay tuned...

This is the husband's favorite photo of Ellen from our trip. We are out on Clam Beach. Ellen was rabid to go buy a shovel and pail and play in the sand on the beach. So the 3rd or 4th day there, off we went to the store and got those required items. Then we headed to the beach. Clam Beach is the closest beach to where we were staying so that is where we went. It is a nice beach, but it is quite a hike to get down to the wet sand and the waves. Ellen was a bit leery this time of getting too close to the waves, so we stayed well away. We filled the bucket once, made the pictured "sand castle" and she dug in the sand with her shovel once or twice. I took 2 pictures. Then she turned around and announced; "I have to go potty." The restrooms were, of course, a 50 mile hike back to the parking lot. (OK maybe I exaggerate the distance, but when you are walking through sand it seems like it.) When we got back she announced, "I don't have to go."...

Here is one picture that I was astounded to be able to take. There at the zoo in Eureka they have a petting area...I think they actually call it "The Barnyard." Mostly all they have are goats and sheep. You walk in there and they have brushes to groom the animals. Ellen walked in there like she owned the place, took a brush that another kid handed her, and went to brushing the goats. The shot I got of her brushing them doesn't show her face, but she was happy to pose for this one. (Oh, they do have alpaca and a llama, but they were penned up. My nephew said he the alpaca spit on him once...I avoided them. haha) What is a trip to the coast if you don't go to the beach; even if it is cool, windy and cloudy? We went to the little town of Trinidad, where the beach is much more accessible. Clam Beach near McK, requires quite a hike to get down the water. Ellen was a bit intimidated by the waves and surf, but she got her feet wet a couple of times and watched me b...

Ellen and I got back from our 2 week trip to California on Tuesday. We had a great time visiting family and friends and seeing some sights. You can't go to N. California and not get a picture of some redwoods. So one day we visited Sequoia Park Zoo. I will post some of the zoo pics in a different entry, but for now here is a couple of impressive shots. There at the park, in a cluster of redwoods, they have a platform and two slides set up. Here is a shot of Ellen on the bottom of one of the slides: And here she is standing at the top of the stairs that you go up to get to the slides. This is on the opposite side from the slides, of course. Believe it or not, I actually convinced her to sit on my lap and go down one of these slides. She was not at all in to doing so alone. She isn't really adventurous and won't go on the swings at all.

Yes, that's right; 14,600+ consecutive times my husband has milked his herd. That's over 20 years of non-stop dairy-ing. Twice a day every day. No vacations. No overnighters to the big city. No breakfast in bed. No sleeping in past 4 AM. No evening at the movies. No getting further from home than you can drive back between milkings. FOR OVER 20 YEARS!!! Tomorrow it all ends. Well, for a couple of days anyway. Ha. For the next couple of days he is going to go out of town. He will leave really early and be back really late each evening, so we are having our saint of a neighbor come over and do the milking. I will still do my calf feeding and graining up the road and do the washup as well, but the neighbor will do the milking. This should be interesting.