A Meltdown and Dinosaur Ridge

There was a meltdown here yesterday and we are not talking about snow.  It was Mama!   Mama brought the slides in yesterday because it was snowing hard and we didn't want the weight of the snow to hurt our awnings.  We then put on our collars and leashes to go outside.  The door wouldn't open.  Mama worked with the locks and nothing.  She banged and banged on the door and it wouldn't budge.  We called Dad, but he didn't answer.  She texted him, but no response.  This was at 3 p.m. and it was possible that he wouldn't get home until after 7 p.m.  We had business to do outside, so we were crying.  Mama started crying.  She melted down.  She opened the window and yelled for help, but no one heard her.  There is an emergency exit through a window.  We looked at it and decided it wasn't a true emergency.  Mama didn't want to jump from the window.  Dad finally called back and she told him that she thought the door was jammed because the motor home didn't feel level since she brought the slides in.  She couldn't figure out how to level it because the buttons were not working.  He told her to turn the key to the left and the buttons lit up.  He told her what button to push and then the door flew open.  Crisis over!   Dad didn't understand why Mama was so freaked out, but we understood.  It is not fun being locked in a place and not being able to get out.  Mama's arm and leg are bruised from hitting the door.

Saturday the folks visited Dinosaur Ridge.  This is a place where you can see actual dinosaur tracks and bones.  Mama is really not into dinosaurs because it is hard for her to imagine that they once roamed earth.  However, this place makes it easier to imagine.  Guests and either walk the 1.5 mile trail or take a guided tour for $5.  The folks chose to take the guided tour.  Mama said she learned much more by having a tour guide than walking it on her own. The tour guide was very good at involving the children on the tour, but the tour talk was really geared towards adults.  The kids knew a lot more about dinosaur than Mama.

Ripples that show that the area was once underwater.

Pretty view along the tour.

Another nice view.

 

This is wear the dinosaur tracks are.

 This area was once flat, but due to changes in the earth, it is now a hillside.  There are tracks all over this hill.  The hill is falling apart and they are trying to save it.  They want to put a roof over it to preserve it, but the state is unable to agree on a design and they need $3 million to build it.

A little better photo of the tracks.

Kids are allowed to climb on the hill to a certain height.

There is  now a gate that closes the road at night because there was a theft of some of the tracks.  People would come and chisel them out at night.  Very sad that people have to destroy things.

It is really hard to get decent photos of the tracks, but in person, you can really see them.  It is pretty amazing.  Mama didn't take any photos of the bones because even in person she had trouble seeing them.  LOL  

Dinosaur Ridge is a great place to take kids that are interested in dinosaurs.  There is a lot for them to do.  The gift shop had some tennis shoes that the folks thought were really neat.  The soles of the shoes have a big dinosaur footprint on it so when kids walk, they leave a dinosaur footprint.  Cute!

Mama has updated her restaurant blog.  Table Mountain Inn has some interesting photos - fire at the table side.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Glad Dinosaurs Are No Longer Around

Chatfield State Park

We had a very busy weekend.  We had planned on moving on Sunday to our new campground, but we didn't have reservations for Sunday because they couldn't be made online.  Mama thought that was the only way to make them.  She was able to make them after Sunday because winter camping ends on April 15th.  The plan was for us to take our chances on Sunday and hope we could find a spot.  Well, Mama found a number for the campground and called them. They told her they were sold out.  That presented a problem since Dad had to work on Monday.  He said he would come home and move us and then go back.  Mama was able to keep our spot at the current campground for Sunday.  Yesterday, the folks decided to visit the new park so that they knew the best route to take the motor home.  They arrived and found the place almost empty and our spot was empty. (The man Mama had spoken to on the phone was confused with the reservations system and he probably thought they were sold out.)  It was at 3 p.m., but the folks decided to rush home and pack up and move to the new park.   We arrived at our new campground around 5 p.m.  

Can you see the hills in the background?

The campground is very spacious. 

 We do not have neighbors on any side of us.  We are right across from the bath house and laundry.  Mama said that might be good because we are getting more snow and cold temperatures this week.   We will have to pull our slides in tonight. :-(   We had water problems this morning.  Dad took his shower, but there was no water when Mama was ready for her shower.  She went outside to check out the problem.  The hosts were outside and told Mama that the water was on.  They checked our site and found that the water froze in their pipe.  They were able to get it running and Mama filled up our water tank.  Dad figured out a way to get our heated hose to work, but if their pipe freezes, then it probably won't work for us.  Another man came by and said he didn't have water either.  It is supposed to get up to 40 today, but the next two days will not be so nice.   The hosts are very nice and have checked on us a few times this morning.  They told Mama if we need anything to just let them know.

 We took a walk this morning, in the snow.  We discovered a log cabin.  We don't know the history because the information sign was blank.  A wagon is out front.

 I stick my tongue out in the cold.

 Cacti grows on the roof of the cabin.  Very interesting to Mama, not so much to us.

 

While we were walking this morning, we saw some sort of animal legs coming towards us from the woods.  Mama thought it was a wolf or a coyote.  She got scared.  It turned out it was two dogs and they were both on leashes.  Mama is so paranoid.  BOL!  I bet she gets the bear bell out that she bought before we leave this place.  The only wildlife we have seen are bunnies and there are a lot of them.

The folks visited Dinosaur Ridge on Saturday.  We will tell you about that tomorrow since this post is getting long.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Getting Tired Of The Snow And Cold

Kindness Of Neighbors

We took a nice long walk on the beach and we were going to focus our post on that today, but we just had to mention the surprise we received from our neighbors when we returned from our walk.   Our neighbors are leaving today and when we walked past their fifth wheel, the lady asked if we were going to be here for a while. Mama said we are here until Sunday and then we move to another park.  She said that they are putting their fifth wheel in storage and headed to Canada for the next ten months.  She said that she had a lot of food left over and she wondered if we wanted it.  Her mother was supposed to stay in the fifth wheel with the kids this week while she and her husband attended a meeting elsewhere.  Her mother was scared to stay here during the snow, so she and the kids stayed elsewhere and that is why they have so much food left.  Mama kept asking her if she was sure and she said she was going to have to trash it since they are flying today.   Mama told her to bring it over and we were shocked by how much they brought us and the funny thing was that it kept coming after the first batch, so not everything is in the photo.  It was hard to get a decent photo of the food with all our junk on the counter, but here it is.

There is a bag of apples, a bag of potatoes, bread, pizza crusts, a pizza, eggs, turkey bacon, yogurt, bags of frozen peaches, frozen pineapples and frozen raspberries, big bag of cheese, tomatoes, peppers, hummus, avocados and poppy seed grapefruit dressing.  The little girl was very proud to tell us that the dressing came from Maryland.

Wasn't that nice of them?  Mama only talked to them once the other day.  They were having trouble with their water.  She said they have been full-timers for six years.  They have four kids and they home school them.  They spend their winters in Breckenridge, CO with other home schooling families.  Her husband is working in Canada for ten months, so they are putting their RV in storage and living in an apartment there.  Mama is stilling smiling about the kindness of these people and will have to re-adjust her grocery list now that we were given so much food.

Okay, so back to our walk.  It was full of deer, squirrels and sand.

There is a herd of deer that live in the park.  Mama counted 18 one day.

 

Squirrel!

We are on full alert.  See him by the tree?

 

Admiring the scenery.

See, I am always on alert.

Another squirrel

 

Scout needed a power nap.  She fell asleep like this.

I almost feel asleep waiting for Scout.

Another power nap.

We thought we might have to leave her there and bring the wagon back to get her.  BOL!

It has been a great day so far.  We have our water hooked up again.  We had a very long walk and we met some very nice people.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks RVing People Are Great!

Red Rocks Park

Things are improving here.  We have the slides back out and we have so much room. Scout was so excited that she rode the slide.  That's what we call it when we lay on the couch while the slide goes in or out.  Scout used to be scared of riding the slide when we first started camping.

We were so excited when Mama brought our bed in from the Jeep.  We stored the bed in the Jeep because we didn't have room for it in here.  We thought we could put it on our dinette bed, but we didn't have enough room to make the "jump" for it there.

The bed was a hot commodity last night.  We both wanted it.  Mama surprised us this morning by bringing the other bed in from the Jeep.  It has been out there for almost two months.

Oh, boy, two beds!!!  We are going to put one on the dinette bed when Dad gets home.

Oops!  Maybe the beds are not that great now that we each have one.

The snow basically melted yesterday and it was only 25 degrees.  It is all gone now.

We still do not have fresh water coming into the motor home.  The temperatures are still too cold at night for that.  Mama wanted to do laundry today but found out the sewer hose has ice in it.  She went to the laundromat here and did it.  She is now trying to thaw out the line so that she can dump the tanks because they are getting full.  She drained the water hose when she put it away, but didn't think about the sewer line getting ice in it.  Dad said he didn't think about it either.

Saturday afternoon, the folks drove around after leaving Buffalo Bill's Lookout Mountain.  They came across Red Rocks Park. It is a very pretty place where they hold concerts.  A wedding was taking place while they were there so they couldn't tour everything that is inside.

 

 

This is where they hold concerts.  Can you imagine how the sound must be here?

The folks would have liked to have stayed longer, but it was getting late and they needed to get back to us.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Very Happy That His Motor Home Is No Longer A Single Wide