We are in no hurry to get back to Minnesota! For the third day this year school has
been closed state-wide due to cold temperatures (like -50 factoring the wind
chill!). They even cancelled
classes at the University of Minnesota.
The last time schools closed statewide, including the U of M, was in
1996 when I was in college and the temps were -75°F. (I started college at age 9 ;-)) We really love our Minnesota friends
and family. We really love our
routine and life there. But we
really dislike arctic tundra weather!!!
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| Nielsen's Frozen Custard |
With that in mind, we are looking for the longest way home
possible.
My MonaVie event kept us
west until last Sunday (the 19
th).
We stayed for the morning church service MonaVie hosted.
While there, our kids got to meet some
of our MonaVie friends.
One
friend, Uncle Bob, loves kids and decided to buy ice cream for our
children.
After church we stopped
at an ice cream place – Nielsen’s Custard Shop, did a few more errands, and
made the decision not to go straight to Colorado like originally planned.
Why? Jim and
Linda, Travis’ parents, texted us a few days prior to tell us they were on
their way to Arizona. They were
visiting their long-time, dear friends, Ginny and Perry Baker. Ginny and Perry, originally from Des
Moines, Iowa, were spending a month in Mesa, Arizona. Apparently Jim was fed up with Oklahoma’s cold weather and
decided to take break from winter.
Now they were next door!
Only five hours! We hopped
on the interstate toward Phoenix.
Travis asked, “Can you look up some RV parks in Mesa?” The Good Sam’s website listed one RV
Park that received a 10-star rating.
It looked fabulous! Valle
de Oro was the name. Valley of
Gold! Of course! Unfortunately, once again we had to be
55 years of age or older to stay. We
decided we’d just boondock (or dry camp, as the Californian’s called it). We told Jim our plan. Within minutes Ginny and Perry had
pulled some strings and suddenly we were 55 with a place to stay in their RV
park…Valle de Oro!!! We had no idea. How fun!
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| Gotta love heated pools |
Ginny and Perry are
stupendous hosts– even for a bunch of party
crashers.
Our stop was less than
24 hours.
In that time we did lots
of chatting, some swimming (between 10am and noon since that’s one of two time
frames kids can swim), played games, walked the grounds, and ate some delicious
meals.
In this resort there are
1800 sites for both RV’s and permanent cottages.
There were only 10 open spaces and we totally understood
why. Everyone was extremely
friendly (about 75% of the people were from Canada, Minnesota, and Iowa so that
should explain why ;-)). The
resort had 6 horseshoe pits, 10 shuffle board courts, 10 bocce ball courts, 1
pool, 2 jacuzzi’s, a softball field, fitness center, woodworking building, a
sewing room, a giant train track, and so much more. The church service, held in the ballroom was led by any one
of three retired pastors wintering in the park, and about 400 people in
attendance on any given Sabbath.
Everything is run by park volunteers (winter visitors).
It’s truly a community. It
will likely be our home when we turn 55.
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| Taite and Perry play cribbage |
“Taite, you better get a game of cribbage going with Perry
before you leave,” suggested Jim.
Perry is a seasoned cribbage player.
Taite learned how to play on this trip and is always looking
for an opponent.
He ran to the RV
for a deck of cards to take on the challenge.
While Taite schooled Perry, the rest of us played
Sequence.
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| The rest played Sequence |
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| We love Nana, Papa, and the Baker's! |
It was a special treat to spend time with the Baker’s and
Trav’s parents. Big hugs all around.
Check out time was 1:00. We had an
11-hour drive to Grand Junction, Colorado, so we got on the road.
There were a couple different routes we could take. One of them would take us through Four
Corners. On that route we would
see a desolate Navajo and Hopi territory.
That made Travis very nervous.
But we did it anyway. Taite
and I were really excited to check out this four corners tourist attraction.
We got to Tuba City, Arizona, (the Navajo nation’s largest
city) within the Painted Desert just in time for dinner. We had a choice of fried food, fried
food, fast food, fried food, and Denny’s.
“I want to eat at Old McDonalds!” voted Lincoln. We went to Denny’s. We were the only Caucasian people in
the building. It’s always a unique
experience to be in the minority (that doesn’t happen very often in
Minnesota).
The Denny’s kids’ menu had a fun game on it. It was called Would You Rather. “Would
you rather learn a figure skating routine or learn a ski jump?” the game suggested. Everyone voted for the ski jump. “Would you rather live in a world where
it snowed cheese puffs or live in a world where it snowed dollar bills?” Everyone chose the obvious. While we waited for our food we made up
more Would You Rather questions.
Me: Would you rather have a pet goat or pet wolf?
Calla:
Wolf. I don’t like
goats. They eat everything. Even your clothes.
Taite: Goat
Dad: I’d rather
have a goat
Mom: I’d rather
have a wolf as long as you get it when it’s a baby
Parker: Wolf
(she always picks whatever I pick)
Lincoln: I would
rather be a goat. (of course)
We couldn’t wait to get out of Tuba City. It was stinky!!! We haven’t figured out what produced
such a powerful smell, but we could see a haze in the air. We had just over two hours of driving
left after dinner. We made our way
to Four Corners in hopes of taking our touristy picture and continue toward
Grand Junction. Unfortunately when we arrived at the Four Corners monument, the
gates were shut and locked. The
monument’s hours clearly stated on the sign were 8am to 5pm.
Somewhere between Tuba City and the Four Corners Travis
decided it wasn’t a problem to stay in Navajo Territory for the night. We turned the RV around, backed ourselves
into an appropriate roadside spot, and got ready for bed. Travis stepped outside. “Kate! You have to
see this!”
I stepped outside and saw absolutely nothing.
I couldn’t tell where Travis was – I
was completely turned around.
He
had to speak again so I could walk in his direction.
This was the darkest outdoor place I’d ever been.
No street lights.
No city lights.
No homes or farms.
It was just dark.
Finally my pupils dilated.
Oh my goodness!!!!!
I have never seen so many stars!!!!!!!!
I can’t put enough exclamation points
there!
It was amazing!!!
Of course it brought the Bible story of
God telling Abraham his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.
I asked if anyone could count them.
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| I hesitate to insert a picture here because this doesn't come close to giving justice to what we saw |
“It’s like a zillion million billion jillion stars!”
exclaimed Lincoln.
“It’s like someone threw star dust into the air!” inferred
Taite.
“Mom! Our
science book said the twinkling ones are stars and the ones that are just balls
and don’t twinkle are planets,” remembered Calla.
“That’s cool!” was Parker’s reaction.
“I’ve never seen that many stars, either,” said Travis
following my similar comment.
A cloudy pattern streaked the center of the sky. “What in the world is that? It looks like something is orbiting the Earth,” I observed. It was the
Milky Way. Wow! So cool! I see why they call it ‘The Milky Way.’
The cool night air got to us and we went inside. I couldn’t get over the stars,
though. I opened the front shades
and continued to observe the night sky.
Taite and Lincoln joined me.
We saw a ‘shooting star,’ where Taite reminded me that it’s just a
meteorite burning out as it enters the atmosphere. (Steel trap, I tell you!)
“What are you guys doing up there?” wondered Travis.
“Looking at the stars,” I answered.
“What?! You
have the front shades open?!” It
was that dark…he couldn’t even tell we had opened the shades – and he was only
25 feet from us.
Unforgettable.
Eventually we pulled ourselves away from the window for some
sleep. Morning came and by 8:30 we
were following cars into the monument.
A park ranger, two Native American vendors, and one family from New
Jersey preceded us. The New Jersey
family took their pictures, then it was our turn.
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| Taite does a push-up |
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| Calla does a push up, too |
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| Lincoln chooses to plank |
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| Travis balances |
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| I do my yoga pose |
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| All the kids stand in the appropriate state. |
“(Sigh.)
I’m
ready to leave Arizona.
I think
I’ll go to Colorado,” joked Travis and he took a giant step over to Colorado.
We ran around taking lots of fun, goofy
pictures.
Travis had the kids stand in the states according to age...age of the kid and age of the state to the union. He had Taite to his research in advance to determine which state is oldest, etc. We had a book with us that gave us that information.
Then we walked up to
talked to the vendors.
“Hey! Where are
you from?” asked one Native American vendor.
“Minnesota.”
“Minnesota?! Do
you know Pipestone?” he asked. We
affirmed, shared where we live in proximity to Pipestone, and asked how he knew
the small town. “Oh, that’s where
all the Native Americans go to get stones for pipes. You know…to smoke traditional herbs.” I had never known the origin of the name
Pipestone until now. Neat. (?)
The best part about being there was being the only people
there. We were told that during
the summer the line to stand on the intersection and take a picture usually
goes back about a ¼ mile. We were
glad to not be there in the summer.
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| Hot Tomato Cafe - a mountain biker favorite |
It was just a few more hours to Grand Junction.
We were visiting a friend and co-worker
of Travis’, BJ Baker – no relation to Ginny and Perry Baker.
Tuesday afternoon BJ met us in Fruita,
Colorado, just west of Junction.
This town, originally founded on fruit farming, is now a mountain biking
mecca.
That and other outdoor
sports are its main economy.
BJ
took us to the area’s most popular restaurant, Hot Tomato Café.
The pizzas were a hit – even the gluten
free pizzas! Although difficult, we tried not to over-eat since we were
planning to cook steaks for BJ in just a few hours.
(Thankfully his mom came over to join us for dinner and share
the food with us.
It was a delight
to spend time with her.)
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| Calla searches for fossils |
BJ knew of a cool dinosaur museum in Fruita, so before we left town we stopped to learn more about dinosaurs. We first watched a video telling us all about the cataclysmic events that took place over billions of years to get our world to what it is today. "Paleantology is, of course, a newer science, and we are still learning," the movie's hostess reminded us. Exactly. We enjoyed simulating an earthquake, digging for bones, building a dam, and getting spit on by a dinosaur (well, Lincoln enjoyed that one.) Good stop.
Rock climbing/hiking took up most of our day Wednesday.
We overlooked the Grand Mesa – the
largest flat-topped mountain in the world.
We climbed next to the Colorado National Monument.
I still haven’t figured out how they
decided where the Colorado National Monument would begin and end – it all
seemed to run together for me.
This was a very different experience from our Red Rock Canyon
climb.
This area had snow
(therefore mud), more trails, and less rocks to climb.
We were hiking along mountain biking
paths.
One of them was called Free
Lunch. Free Lunch is a downhill only, expert bike trail where one is required
to ride their bike off a diving board slab!
Like…fly through the air on their bike.
No, gracias.
BJ’s requested we eat at Fly’n Roosters for lunch after our
hike. He said Roosters definitely
has the best wings in all of Grand Junction, probably all of Colorado, maybe
even the country. We’d probably
agree.
We joined BJ and his fabulous girlfriend, Sarah, at their
church for a mid-week service Wednesday evening.
(Which was super fun!)
Then we all went back to BJ’s to play some games – Apples to Apples and
Crazy 8’s.
It was a fun
night.
Our kids adore Sarah and BJ
now.
Sarah looks a lot like our
sister-in-law, Michelle, and acts a lot like her too.
She’s smart, kind, friendly, smiley, beautiful, patient, and
goes with the flow.
In fact, last
time I was with her I even called her Michelle.
Every time we did something the kids would ask if Sarah
would be there.
BJ was just as
popular.
Anytime we drove
somewhere, Taite, Calla, and Lincoln would all call out, “I wanna ride with
BJ!”
(He just happened to have two
vehicles.
Handy.)
By Thursday the boys were wrestling
him, the girls were singing songs with him, and they all wanted to sit on his
lap or be on his team.
Thursday was a day for some school.
Trip Advisor listed the Math &
Science Center as one of Grand Junction’s top attractions.
Sounds like school to me!
Every last thing was a hands-on
scientific adventure.
Since it was
mid-day Thursday, we had the place to ourselves.
We also had the attention of all three people working.
Two of them were former teachers.
One sat down to involve the kids in three
experiments about air.
We played
with sound and sound waves.
Taite
designed a city’s energy sources and learned how expensive and environmentally
friendly they are.
Lincoln made a
PVC pipe track for some golf balls.
Calla used a straw to change the shape of bubbles.
Parker used a book of mirrors to learn
about angles.
There was SO much
more to do.
At 1:00 the building
(which happens to be attached to an elementary school) had a fire drill.
Perfect time for an exit, or we might
never leave.
All of the kids asked
if they could return to the Math & Science Center.
It was a pretty cool place.
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| Learning about sounds waves |
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| Learning about air pressure |
Instead of leaving Grand Junction Thursday afternoon, we
chose to stay and watch BJ and Sarah play in the championship volleyball game
for their city league…and win! Thank
you to BJ for the incredible hospitality!
We all had a fabulous time!
Now on to Denver…
