Smoky Mountains

First off, I will apologize for not adding anything to the blog since the end of July. I have had several people jump my case and want to know why no new pictures and nothing to read. I guess I just thought people were getting tired of it but I guess I was wrong. Cindy and I have since left Colorado and have returned to the flatland's of Indiana ( or at least for a month we were there). We had a great time visiting family and friends and eating some of our favorite foods (not found west of the Mississippi).

Currently we are in Sevierville, Tennessee. We are staying at the Two Rivers RV Park, located at the north-end of town and right on the Broad French River. I'm getting the fever to get my license and see if I can catch anything in the river, so in the next few days I bring out the rods and reels.





We arrived here on Wednesday, the 17th of November and have been enjoying some very nice weather. The park has 55 sites, 25 on the river and 30 just behind them. It's a unique park in that it is in town but not really, you come down a side street to get here and you do not hear the sound of the traffic a few blocks away.

This past week we have pretty much just been trying to learn our way around here, when to go and when not to go ( due to traffic), shortcuts, grocery stores, the important things. We are planning on going into the Smokey Nat. Park sometime this weekend.

July

The month of July is almost over and we have been taking in some spectacular sights in the area. We took the drive up to the top at 12,000 ft. via the old Fall River Road. This road does not open until after Memorial Day and closes sometime after Labor Day weather permitting. It is an 11 mile one-way dirt road that goes to the Alpine Summit Visitor Center and also one which makes Cindy a little nervous ( yea, me too at times). If you have ever driven Pikes Peak Road it is like that only one lane and one-way.



Today we took a hike up to the top of Deer Mountain, elevation 10,050 ft. and the views were outstanding. It is a 3 mile hike (one way) and you start at around 9500 ft. From the top we could see the surrounding area where we are at. We saw Estes Lake, Marys Lake, the town of Estes Park, the YMCA Complex, and last but not least our RV parked at Rockmount Cottages. The views were breath taking and no photo that we take can even compare to the actual beauty that we saw.






We are eagerly awaiting the return of the Elk. Due to the temperatures they have all headed into the high country, with just a few remaining around. We've been told sometime next month the bull elk will return and start their "bugling" so we are excited for this event to take place ( unless they keep us awake all night) then it might not be so great.

Life is what you make of it. Always has been, always will be.

July 4th weekend

Randy and family came up and spent a couple of days with us and as usual we had a great time. It's nice to have family close by to spend some time with and we appreciated the effort they made in coming here. They took a pretty good hike on the way here and I think they were as tired as we were from working so we just decided to sit around and take it easy Saturday evening.

Sunday morning Cindy and I had several cabins to clean so they decided to take a hike just in back of the property here. Now we have been here for over 10 weeks and have yet to see a bear, oh there have been people in the park that saw them but not us. So guess what they saw on the way down from their hike? Yep you guessed it, a cinnamon colored bear, probably 1 yr old by the size of it, but regardless a bear. They have some wonderful pictures they took of it and were gracious to let me post them on the blog. So I hope everyone enjoys viewing them. As for Cindy and I, we will keep looking and maybe someday see one.

Monday afternoon while everyone was sitting around outside, I opened the door to go out and saw some elk in the park. I went out and told everyone to be real still and maybe they would come by the camper. Well they kept still and the elk did come by, in fact there several and around 6-10 newborns. As you can tell by the pictures they came pretty close to the camper, close enough to eat on Cindy's flowers hanging out behind here. There were many great shots taken by everyone and if you would like to see more, April has them posted on her facebook.

Summer finally has arrived here is Estes Park. We've been having temps in the high 70's and the mid 80's a couple of times. We made a trip into the park the other day and took one of hikes at the high elevation. We were not able to do this trail awhile back due to the snow that was still covering the trail. The trail started at 9200+ feet and ended up just a little over 10,000 feet. The views that we saw was just unbelievable and I'm sorry to say the pictures do not even begin to show the true beauty one sees while hiking here. The hike took us about 2 hours to reach the end of the trail but as we told our boss here,some people hike just to get to the end and miss out on the things around them, we like to take our time, see the views, take pictures and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us. With that said here's a little quote for the day "The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely".





Randy and family came up and visited us for fathers day and we enjoyed spending the day with them. We went into town and ate then walked around town and looked for and found some more geo caches. We had a great time and I told them it was nice to have family close by to celebrate the holidays with. Look forward to their return this next weekend for the 4th of July.




We had our first opportunity to see some new born elk the other day. We were out cleaning some cabins when about 15-20 cows and 7 or 8 new calves came strolling through the park. This is first group we have been able to watch since they started birthing. They ended up settling down on an area of "new grass" that we planted several weeks ago. They actually stayed here for about 20 minutes until several cars started pulling into the park to take pictures and I guess they had enough of people and headed up the side of the mountain.

Aaron & Laura's Wedding Reception

We made our trip to Aaron and Laura’s house on the 4th of June for their wedding reception. We were very excited about seeing them as well as our families from Indiana and Kentucky. Pat & Mark, Randy & Carolyn and Debbie made the trip as well as Cindy’s family; her dad, Chuck, Chris & Roberta and our youngest son David. We had not seen any of our families since last September so we really cherished the chance to see everyone again. I think I can speak for everyone and say the weekend went well.

Aaron and Laura worked their rear ends off planning for this and I will say they done a fine job putting it together. The only set back we had was it decided to rain the afternoon of the reception but we did not let a little rain dampen our spirits. We truly had a wonderful time seeing everyone there and I would just like to thank all of you again for making the trip up there. It sure was nice to be able to visit with our families and friends once again.

For those viewing the pictures of those dancing, yes we could hold the camera still, we just had the wrong setting while taking action shots. The pictures of the river is the river that flows through the park where we are at. This is what we came home to! Till next time remember; " And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years"

Memorial Day Weekend

All is well here in Estes Park as we have somewhat adjusted to a high altitude,busy schedule, and humidity. Randy and family came to visit us on Memorial Day weekend and we had a great time with them. We had the opportunity to fly back to Wisconsin for Aaron and Laura's wedding reception and had a wonder time visiting our families from Indiana and Kentucky. As with most vacations the time was short but we enjoyed the time spent with our families. I'll post pictures of the weekend there later on this week.



For all of those who read this blog remember: “It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, but what is the most painful is to love someone and never find the courage to let the person know how you feel.”

May the 21st and the busy season is creeping upon us like a thief in the night. We are finally adjusted to the 7500 ft. altitude and busy as a bee. We have 20 cabins here and most of them we had to start getting ready for the summer season. We have found that we have muscles that have not been used for quite some time. But as I’ve mentioned before life is all about giving and getting and we are being rewarded with the beautiful views that we wake up to in the morning (even the 12 inches of snow on May 12th). It’s quite a thrill to be sitting at the table and eating breakfast and look out the window, only to see several elk grazing grass around the camper. The birthing season is coming up within the next few weeks so we are excited and hoping to see some new born elk.

Randy and family came up last weekend on our 28th anniversary (although they were not aware of it) and we enjoyed the day with them. We went fishing then out to eat and we had a real nice visit. We’re looking forward to their return on Memorial Day weekend.



Cindy and I went into the park and thought we would hike a trail or two. I guess we did not give any thought about choosing a trial located towards the top of the park because boy were we surprised to find a ton of snow up there. We are at 7500ft and the end of the road we took is about 9500ft. We were a little shocked to find the trails up there had about 2 ½ feet of snow still on them. We decided that maybe we should wait another month until the trail was opened for us beginners that do not own snowshoes or shoe cleats. We did find a real nice trial around a lake that we took and enjoyed the day taking in some sights.

We’re getting excited about going to Aaron and Laura’s the first of June for their reception and getting the chance to visit with our families from Indiana and Kentucky. Hope everyone can make the trip and enjoy the time together. Remember this; “Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once”.