Peppers in the plaza

June 13,

After much debate-the rain just wouldn't stop-we set out for Cheyenne Depot and the Peppers in the Plaza Chili Cookoff (we have the apron to prove it). As you can see from the first picture, the day was very damp. Our new friends set up their canopy-all cooking must be done under cover, added another layer of socks-cold AND rainy, and set up their kitchen in the rain. Natalie was entering her first junior cookoff, Alexis and Matt are veterans and Alexis's father, Big John has already secured a spot in the World Cookoffs to be held in Manchester, NH in October.
I tried Alexis and Matt's chili verde(not on Joe's diet), thought it was very good------but it didn't win. Another entrant brought us tortilla wrapped, deep fried hotdogs which were also (unfortunately) good.
When the winners were announced, Natalie placed second and won an engraved chili pot. Not a bad start!!

All around the plaza were painted, oversized cowboy boots. We've seen horses, pigs, pelicans and turtles------first time for boots. We are in cowboy country!!!!!

Cheyenne, Wy.

June 12,
We made it to Cheyenne early last night, driving through some rain but apparently ahead of some wild weather. The storms caused the temperatures to go from record highs to 42 and rain this morning. Don't know how much of Cheyenne we'll see because it's just to cold to enjoy. But for a change we have cell phone, wifi and cable. We'll catch up and do some research on Yellowstone if the weather doesn't improve.

Royal Gorge Railroad

June10,
We left Colorado Springs and went to Canyon City to see the Royal Gorge and it's bridge. We decided the way to do this was the Royal Gorge train. We chose the vista car because it was too hot to ride in the open car. We were seated with a couple from the Cripple Creek area. They had friends visiting from Nebraska that are going to take part in a chili cookoff in Cheyenne this weekend, which we hope to get to. They all made the train ride fun and interesting. The train went through some very rough, mountainous areas with the Arkansas River running next to the track. The river was flowing fast from the quick melting of the mountain snow due to the unusually high temperatures for June. We got our view of the Gorge, the bridge and the tram way above us.
We thought the engineer in the old train looked strangely similar to Ted Fabricki. He shows up in the oddest places!

Cripple Creek and Manitou Cliff Dwellings

June 8,
By the time we realized we missed the cliff dwellings, we were headed out Rt. 24 toward Cripple Creek. We went through alot of beautiful country with a very low population per square mile. We arrived at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine--top picture-no desire to go 1000 feet in the ground, so we stopped at the Heritage Center where we could check out history above ground. We continued into Cripple Creek but were a little disappointed to find that Cripple Creek consists of 12 or 13 casinos and not much more. We left on Teller Rd. 1, where we saw the baby llamas and many more llamas.

We did finally find the Manitou Cliff dwellings. They had an interesting museum with woven and clay artifacts. We walked throught the dwellings which were really a series of small apartments. Most of the rooms were less than 6X8.

Garden of the Gods

June 7,
We found another free city park, the Garden of the Gods. It is a area containing many red rock formations. The first picture is balanced rock, near the entrance and along the way there was the Scotsman and the Cathedral Spires. From the visitors center, there was a great view of Pike's peak and some beautiful Indian Paintbrush wild flowers.

The Falls

June 6,
We arrived in Colorado Springs after a beautiful ride through the High Plains of New Mexico and Colorado. We are staying at a campground in the mountains, where there are many hummingbirds and stories of a bear that raids the dumpster at night. We spent the first night ready with lights and camera but he never showed. Actually wildlife has been scarce for most of our trip.

We headed for Seven Falls and on our way found the free city park, Helen Hunt Falls. The ride into Cheyenne Canyon and the Falls were beautiful. Many people were enjoying the picnic areas and hiking trails.

We then headed to the Seven Falls, where they were two, 200 step, staircases. One lead to an observation platform and the other followed the falls up the mountain. We chose the elevator and thoroughly enjoyed our view of the falls.

The critter at the bottom is real. He's a ground squirrel and there were bunches of them around the snackbar!

To Yuma and Back

May 27-June 4
After spending a few more days than we wanted to at Hal Burns Repair Shop in Santa Fe, we left for Yuma, Az. We had been told of a Mexican Doctor doing stem cell treatment for COPD. We had made an appointment for Memorial Day. The coach ran just fine through the mountains to Phoenix and then started to overheat on the last stretch to Yuma.
The campgrounds in Yuma are on their summer schedule and are virtually empty. We finally got one to answer and checked in for 4 days.
On Monday we crossed the border and went to the Purple Pharmacy, where we called Dr. Diaz's office. A car came and took us to his office, where we waited 5 hours. When our turn came, the doctor explained the procedure, gave Joe 7 shots and a list of directions. We were taken back to the Purple Pharmacy, filled the presciptions for vitamins and Joe walked back to the border(about 1/4 mile) without Oxygen.
Our trip back to Santa Fe was a little short of a nightmare, stopping and starting until the thermostat finally opened so we could go.
When we got back to Santa Fe, Joe could walk around without Oxygen....before the treatment he could hardly breath with Oxygen.
Jacob, at Hal Burns replaced the thermostat and we were on our way to Las Vegas, NM by 3:00.