FAMILY VISITS...ONWARD TO TEXAS

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Sunday morning we packed up and headed South on I-25 thru Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Trinidad, CO and then on to Raton, NEW MEXICO where we picked up Rt. 87 that took us across the corner of NE New Mexico toward the panhandle of TEXAS. We stayed Sunday night at CAPULIN, NM, near the CAPULIN VOLCANO at a small family operated RV park. Monday morning we were off for TEXAS and drove about 300 miles that day to CHILDRESS, TX where we found an RV spot at the Best Western…that stop included a complimentary breakfast the next morning just as if we had been staying at the motel. It had been fun and very interesting traveling through the different states watching the terrain change. I believe in Loveland I heard them refer to their area as the “Front Range” and as we drove thru NM and the TX panhandle, they referred to the area as the “High Plains”! New Mexico seemed to be mostly huge beef cattle ranches, but as we got into the panhandle of Texas we began seeing more crops…huge fields of corn and what we believed to be peanuts and/or cotton. There were hundreds of grain storage facilities dotted everywhere along the way…smaller ones at each ranch and then huge ones near towns and railroads. In the panhandle near Childress we saw Texas peaches, apples and pecans advertised and began seeing fruit and vegetable stands along the highway. This part of our return trip was dedicated to visiting family…if we missed you, I am very sorry…we just could not fit everyone in this time! We were also getting anxious to get home after being away nearly five months.

TUESDAY, we were off from Childress about 8 AM as we had a lunch date with Dennis’ cousins Peg & Jim in Chico, TX (about 180 miles to our south). We arrived in Chico and found Peg & Jim and had a wonderful visit and lunch. We had never met Jim and had not seen Peg since the 1960’s. What a wonderful visit we had…just like we had all seen each other just a few days ago and were catching up on the latest news! From Peg’s we headed to Mount Vernon to see Peg’s Mom…Aunt Florence and sisters Rose & Kathy. Aunt Florence is Dennis’ Mother’s only remaining sister and she is in her early 90’s! Aunt Florence was amazing…she does not get around well, but her mind and spirit were active! She shared her collection of paintings that she had done and we had a great time sharing memories of when we had all been together in New York State as well as when her and Uncle Jim had visited us in their motor home in Zephyrhills, Florida. Aunt Florence had wonderful memories of picking fresh grapefruit and oranges from our trees and of how delicious they had been! We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the RV park we had found and stayed at the night before bordered the cemetery where Uncle Jim and Rosie’s husband Earl were buried. We found their stones right over the fence. After a wonderful visit we were…

”On the Road Again” heading toward Tyler where we visited Stan & Dotty…other cousins that we had not seen in a couple years. We arrived mid afternoon and were greeted with a big TEXAS WELCOME. We had dinner together and we shared some of our photos from the summer and our travels with them and gabbed until nearly 10 PM!!! They insisted on cooking breakfast for us the next morning and then we were on our way to visit my brother, Sonny and his family at Iola, TX…about 150 miles to the southwest of Tyler.

Arrived at Iola, TX mid afternoon and enjoyed visiting with Sonny & Willie Faye. Our family calls him "SONNY" but in Texas, where he has lived since the 1950's he is known by his given name: Ira. He married Willie Faye, a native Iola, TX girl in the 1960's and they raised their family right there in Iola...he is a TEXAN now!

Kyleigh (Sonny’s Granddaughter & Great-grandson) and Ethan stopped by for a few minutes. It was decided to go to Bryan for a Mexican dinner at Papa Perez's. Sonny & Willie Faye knew the owner…he brought out a complimentary condiment of cheese dip in addition to the usual tortilla chips & salsa…YUM! We stopped on the way home for a quick visit with Sonny’s daughter and family, Mary and Dave and children Trey and McKenzie. Next day we had lunch at the Iola Café…it was catfish day! Sonny & Willie Faye had owned and operated the café up until about two years ago! Lunch was good and Sonny’s daughters Deanna and Mary & husband Dave joined us. After lunch we were watching the Weather Channel and could see that the rain was going to continue and possibly intensify…so we decided to head on east to try and stay ahead of it! There was terrible flooding to the north of I-10, but we only had a few sprinkles here and there. After spending three nights on the road we arrived home safe and sound on Monday, September 21, 2009…being away from home nearly 5 months…another great memory!!!! It was great to hug and see our families again! We do not know at this time what our next adventure will be, BUT CHECK BACK OFTEN as I am sure we will come up with something!

COLORADO'S ELK AT ROCKY MTN NAT'L PARK

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OFF TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK: We drove about 50 miles south out of South Dakota and into Nebraska and saw miles and miles of “wide open spaces”!!! There were beautiful fields of SUNFLOWERS for as far as you could see in WYOMING.

Before driving to Estes Park, CO we stopped at the Colorado Welcome Center and were told that there was a Scottish Highlands Festival at Estes Park and that literally everything would be booked full! We opted to stay 3 nights at Boyd Lake State Park at Loveland, CO…about 30 miles east of Estes Park. We drove the 30 miles each day up through a deep narrow canyon, ...it was a beautiful drive and we saw BIG HORN SHEEP grazing on someones lawn (of course we would have rather seen them up on one of the mountain sides looking down at us!)

We avoided as much of Estes Park as possible, going directly to Rocky Mountain National Park. The Elk were not hanging out in town or at the Visitor Center where we had seen them previous years. The photo below shows TWO BULL ELK...they seemed to be kind of "testing" each other and we did not get to see any head butting...but we were told as the season goes on things usually get more serious!
They were just beginning to return from the higher summer terrain but we got to see MANY BULL ELK and got to hear them bugle…it was awesome! One Bull Elk and his Harem of cows were just feet from us! The second day we were there we had wanted to drive over the TRAIL RIDGE ROAD to the western part of the park, where other years we had seen hundreds of elk as well as many MOOSE! This year was our third year in a row to visit the park and had never driven entirely over the TRAIL RIDGE ROAD because of closure due to SNOW! This year the road was open and we decided to go…but stopped by the Visitor Center first as it was rainy that day! As I inquired about the conditions, the Ranger looked at me and said “I would not recommend it today…we just had a call from the top (12,000+ feet high) and they have reported very wet roads with SNOW and they may have to close off the road within the next couple of hours! Needless to say, we did NOT make it over the top again and decided not to drive the 100+ miles around to Grand Lake…so NO MOOSE this time!!! We just hung out driving from one Elk viewing area to another within the eastern part of the park.
On the way back to our camper at Loveland we stopped at the CHERRY HOUSE and bought some Cherry Cider, Horseradish Mustard and canned Cherry Pie filling (all made in CO)…we had already stopped on the way out and purchased fresh COLORADO PEACHES…they were delicious!!! What a wonderful visit to ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK...can't wait to return again soon!!! As I write this it is one month from the date we were there and they have lots of SNOW and we are HOT in FLORIDA!

DAY TWO AT WILD HORSE SANCTUARY

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The next morning we were up early…I opened the shade to find dozens of wild turkey playing on big round bales of hay and dancing along a nearby wooden fence! They were chasing each other and jumping around playing…quite comical to watch!!!

We were outside early to watch them feeding the horses & cows!
There were only four camp sites at the Sanctuary and only one other occupied other than us. There was a lady next to us in a small motor home…she was volunteering at the Sanctuary for the months of September and October. She was driving the truck that was dispensing feed for the livestock. After the mares had finished eating, they came to the fence still looking for their foals and we petted them and took pictures. Our tour was to start at 10 AM. Bill was our guide and he herded us up and got us all loaded onto a small school bus for the tour. Bill was great and had many stories and interesting points to add to the tour. The bus traveled back into the hills a few miles and Bill was talking to us all along the way pointing out places of interest like the ancient Petroglyphs that had been verified by National Geographic: Bill also shared many interesting facts about the local Sioux Indians and how they are allowed to come to the lands of the Sanctuary to hold their sacred ceremonies each year.

Our first stop was high on a butte that looked out over the Sanctuary and the Cheyenne River below. Then there was a stop further along on the same high butte where it looked down at the abandoned site where the refilming of Crazy Horse had been filmed several years ago. The movie company had left all the buildings but Bill said that the Sanctuary had not been able to afford to do anything with them or even keep them up and the buildings are now infested with Rattlesnakes! If you look close at the next photo you can see buildings in the big open field.
Then we were off to find herds of horses. These horses are not wild in the sense that we think of wild horses from days of the early west. They are used to humans and in many cases have been abandoned or sent to the Sanctuary to live out their remaining years. Bill pointed out one horse that had been retired from the Marine Corp. – he was a beautiful Palomino gelding in his late 20’s that would spend the rest of his life running free with the herds! Most of the horses came from the Bureau of Land Management and had been relocated from areas in California, Nevada and Arizona where they could no longer live for one reason or another…mostly because of urban growth and expansion. Most of the horses at the Sanctuary had never been broke for halter or riding but had become used to tour groups coming through daily. All of the horses on the ranch side of the Cheyenne River did receive additional grain and nourishment from the folks at the Sanctuary. All of the horses we saw appeared to be in great condition and were beautiful. There were horses of all colors and they were separated into different groups according to which stallion had been with them. There were Playboy’s mares and foals that were in the pasture directly across from where our camper was parked. Out in the hills were the mares and foals of Painted Dessert, Don Juan, Hawk and Frost that we visited. The mares and foals were all colors and sizes! Foals (as well as Registered Santa Gertrudas cattle) are sold year round to help support the Sanctuary.

Then across the Cheyenne River there were 9,000 acres of land where hundreds more horses ran free…some of them occasionally came to the ranch side of the river, but most did not.

Since I have been home I have read Dayton Hyde’s last book…The PASTURES of BEYOND…he is a great storyteller and made me feel like I was right there in the “Old West”…it was based on his own life. "Dayton O. Hyde is a cowboy, rancher, photographer, essayist, and conservationist, and the author of fifteen books for adults and children. He has been the subject of several nationally televised documentaries and was named an Amazing American by People magazine."
Dayton Hyde is now in his 80’s…I wish we could have met him while we were at the Sanctuary! It seems to me that he has done a wonderful thing for all of these beautiful horses…many of which would have been killed if he had not of established this Sanctuary and managed it so lovingly. Check out their site at www.wildmustangs.com ...
and donate if you feel inspired…it is a wonderful cause and all the money clearly goes for the care and comfort of the horses!
Our visit to the BLACK HILLS WILD HORSE SANCTUARY was over all too soon and we headed to Colorado to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park and find the big BULL ELKS...check back soon for our next adventure!

BLACK HILLS WILD HORSE SANCTUARY

BLACK HILLS WILD HORSE SANCTUARY – This is an amazing place. We saw many horses on our way back into the sanctuary…the sanctuary is back off the paved road about 3 miles on a gravel road and it consists of over 11,000 acres!
The terrain is like you would see in western movies…deep canyons, high buttes and miles and miles of land! There were several movies filmed at the sanctuary or nearby…Hidalgo and the “remake” of Crazy Horse are a couple that come to mind! Look at this beauty...some folks think he is the horse used in Hidalgo...but that is not true and his name is PAINTED DESERT...his foals often have the much sought after "medicine hat" (color around the ears about the size of a hat)...it was told on our tour that the Indians always looked for markings such as Medicine Hat and Shield of color on the horses chest.

They had all of the stallions separated from the mares and they had just separated some of the mares from their foals…so there was quite a bit of anxiety in the air! The mares would keep coming back to the fence calling for their foals and in the distance you could hear the foals calling back. Then there were the stallions whirling around their pens and calling out to the mares! The closest stallion to us was Playboy, who was a beautiful Black & White Paint. He allowed us to pet his nose but he was not really interested in us! We enjoyed him anyway as he ran and pranced around his corral!

The mares also would allow us to pet their noses, but were clearly looking way beyond us to try and find their foals in a distant corral.
We sat out and enjoyed a beautiful evening. On a high butte across the Cheyenne River we spotted a small herd of horses along the very top ride of a butte…a few we could distinguish as paints but they appeared mostly as silhouettes.

The setting sun shining on buttes brought out many shades of pink and it was very peaceful with only occasional horse whinny!