Mary Ann’s Camera

Mary Ann took these pictures on the Needles Highway…Hope you enjoy…Philip

Going through the eye

You then find Sylvan Lake…Talk to you later…Philip

The Eye Of The Needle

Here are the pictures I promised you…These were taken on the Needles Highway…Some from my camera and some from Mary Ann’s…I have been painting this morning on the blue Jay…I should be through in a few days…I will make pictures when it is finished…Well here are the pictures…I hope you enjoy as much as we did experiencing the trip…Talk to You later…Philip

A Favorite Highway

In our travels we have found special places in this great land of ours…One place we really enjoy is traveling the Needles Hwy…Today we plan to go once again and follow the scenic beauty of this Black Hills natural formations…We will wind up in Hill City  at the Alpine Hotel and have one of our favorite meals…There is no menu…You have your choice of a small steak or a large steak…We have eaten here on each visit for the last six years…I will take some pictures of our day trip and hope it will give you a feel of natural beauty of the area…We do not have phone service here at Custer Gulch for our cell phones…AT&T has not seen fit to provide it here…We feel uncomfortable without this service…I hope no one has been trying to reach my phone or Mary Ann’s…I will try to publish the pictures tonight, if we don’t have a bond fire…We do enjoy the bond fires…It really feels like camping when we build one…Talk to you later…Philip

A Hobby I Really Enjoy

I am fortunate to have found something that I look forward to each  day…I love having my computer and the friends that it has made…I read several blogs daily and have e-mail that keeps me in touch with family and friends…Keeping in touch is very important to me…The one thing that I really look forward to is my carving…It opens a world that I can retreat into and let my imagination run wild…There are days that people ask me if I want to sell something and my response is that it is a joy and a hobby…I do not want any pressure that commissions or contracts would bring…I am very fortunate to have a wife that supports my hobby…As life moves forward we learn to live for the day…If problems arise I can retreat to my cave and carve and emerge to live for another day…It seems that I have fewer  problems as life goes on…Today I will carve while Mary Ann shops and gets a permanent…The days are passing so quickly that several days will pass and I have not written in the blog…This I apologize…I will try to do better…Talk to you later…Philip   

Woops…The Awning Pictures

Talk to you later…Philip

What A Week

Well I guess everyone thought I was no longer in existence…I am still kicking and having a ball…First let me tell you about an adventure of buying and putting up a awning for the table…When I carve, Mary Ann will not let me carve in the motor home…So I have to go outside and sit at the picnic table…Rain, sleet, snow, heat, all the same…she will not let me carve inside…Since I am such a wonderful husband she felt sorry for me and decided to buy me a shelter for my carving…I know why she really wanted it was because Labor Day she is having a family get-together and used me as an excuse…Well Monday we had to go to Rapid City for supplied…We cannot go any where without shopping Wall-Mart…You see they had a shelter on sale for twenty-nine dollars…The Scotch Blood that runs in her veins would not let her pass such a bargain up…You have to get this picture…Rapid City is fifty miles from where we are camped…When we go to get supplies we make most of a day out of it…We have lunch…Buy supplies…and head for home…We are pretty well worn out by the time we put the groceries away…I had to put the awning up anyway…With my outstanding knowledge of everything, I didn’t notice that the wind was blowing 20 mph…After I recognized that I wanted Mary Ann to experience putting together the shelter,I called her out to assist me…Can anyone imagine her assisting rather than leading…After a few words between us we decided to wait until the next morning to really put it up and maybe the wind would die down by morning…The Next day we started putting it together with the the help of our neighbor…We got it together and sat under it and enjoyed our accomplishment.  We went in and had lunch, took a nap and woke up to a strong wind…Well with the expense of what we paid for such a well made piece of equipment it ripped apart…Here it was 4pm and we just had to go back to Wall-Mart and return this item…We purchased a more expensive one and came home after dark…With the previous days experience of trying to raise the tent while we were tired we did wait until the next day…It went up beautifully with no hitches…We had problems with our internet Thursday and Friday…Finally got it back last night and so here I am trying to catch up…I took some pictures of Crazy Horse as some of you inquired about the progress…It seems very little progress is being done…Well with the awning story here are some pictures of the completed project…Talk to you later…Philip

Mary Ann’s Pictures

Here are the pictures from Mary Ann’s camera… Guess who? Buffalo grazing Mama and calf No…That is not Mary Ann Prong Horne Tunnel On Iron Mountain Mount Rushmore

I hope you enjoy our sharing our travels…Talk to you later…Philip

Custer State Park Thursday

Thursday was a beautiful, clear day and we couldn’t sit still…We decided to go to Custer State Park, which is less than two miles from Custer Gulch RV…We would make the loop and have a picnic lunch at the far end of the loop…after lunch we would take the Iron Mountain road to Mount Rushmore…We love this route and it only takes about three hours, maybe four it there are a lot of animals on the road…Well here are some pictures of the buffalos…We had to wait for them to clear the road so we could pass…Up close they are really mean looking…There are signs telling people that buffalo’s are dangerous…Still people get out of their cars and try to walk up to them…Here are some pictures that I took with my camera from my side of the car…Since I was driving I couldn’t take as many pictures as Mary  Ann…Most of the large herd were on the right side of the car…I will publish Mary Ann’s pictures as soon as she down loads them so I can transfer them to my computer…Here are my pictures of a few strays on my side of the road away from the main heard…Talk to you later Philip…

I was close to these, but stayed in the car

We Made It To Custer, South Dakota

We left Alliance about nine fifteen this morning and arrived here in Custer about twelve thirty…We saw the clouds gathering in the west and knew we should set up in a short time…We got everything set up and tried to take a nap…Then the rain came along with small hail…Here i sit watching and listening to the rain drops and hail bouncing off the motor home…It is not large enough to do any damage but it still makes us uncomfortable to hear the loud pops on the roof…I am looking out the window and the hail is about the size of a regular marble…I am wondering how long it will last…It has been going on for about ten minutes now and doesn’t seem like it is going to stop…It must be lightening up some because the satellite TV is trying to come back in…Would you believe it, the sun now is coming out and it is still raining…The hail has stopped, the sun is out, and it is raining very hard…We will get out later today and try to take some pictures of the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, and the land of Crazy Horse, Annie Oakley, and Wild Bill Hickok…Still raining and sun shinning…I love the history of this area…Will I guess I was born too late…Come to think of it, If I was born earlier, I probably wouldn’t be alive now…And I am surely enjoying life now…Well it probably took me this long to learn to be happy where ever I am…Talk to you later…Philip

Monday…Day Of Travel

Monday morning, and time for unhooking and hitting the road…We  left St. Vrain about nine am and headed north on I-25 for Cheyenne, Wyoming where we would pick up I-80 and head for Nebraska…Our destination is Alliance, Nebraska so we can visit Mary Ann’s sister…We will be in Alliance until Wednesday morning and then head for Custer, South Dakota…The campground in Alliance is next to a train switching yard and the noise is keeping me awake…I thought since I couldn’t sleep I would just catch up with my blog…The connection to the internet is very slow, so I will not send pictures until we reach Custer…We are doing great and really enjoying the smaller motor home…We wouldn’t dare camp here with the Monaco…We can just whip around and pull into just about any campground and have very few worries…We only have 30 amp electricity and the weather is very warm…Thank goodness for air conditioning…I guess I have bored you enough so I will try  and get some sleep before daylight…Talk to you later…Philip

My Nursing Skills Must Be Great

Mary Ann lived over her bout with food poising…I know it was  because of my magnificent abilities in nursing…We woke up this morning to a wonderful, clear day…Temperature in the 70’s and as pilots love cavu…The geese are everywhere honking and squawking at anything that moves…I took some pictures and they never quite tell the story…Mary Ann is vacuuming and talking to me and I am not paying her any attention…She thinks I am going deft…I believe she realizes that it is selective hearing…We have to get ready to leave for South Dakota tomorrow…We will be up there until we head back  to Chatfield for Labor Day and Mary Ann’s family get to gather…Well here are some pictures that were taken this morning of the geese… 

Talk to you later…Philip….Don’t forget to click on the pictures to enlarge

Not Feeling Good

Well it was Mary Ann’s turn…She went shopping and had a chicken  walnut salad for lunch…Well she felt fine all afternoon, prepared dinner, and enjoyed the evening watching TV…It had to be a pleasant evening, I was there…Well about eleven pm she started trotting…She really had a miserable night…She finally got to sleep about three am and got some rest…She is feeling good now but is very week…I am the one who got it last summer while on Prince Edward Island in Canada…I guess I will play nurse until she feels better…Well you know how clumsy we men are when it comes to nursing the sick…Well I guess I am not twinkle toes at 295 lbs…I will talk to you later after I complete my nursing career….Philip

St. Vrain State Park

We moved Monday Morning from Chatfield State Park to St. Vrain  State Park…It was about a hour and half drive though Denver traffic…This is another Colorado State Park that has full hook ups…This was a pleasant surprise to find this park with ponds and a tranquil atmosphere…I had to get up early for an appoint to have the oil changed in the Saturn this morning…They took me right in and had me out within an hour…When I got back to the motor home it was early enough to do a little touring…Mary Ann had to stop watching The Price Is Right before we could leave…We decided to go up to Cheyenne and check on a RV park for future references…We then went to Poudre Canyon and drove through and returned to the motor home…We got back about three pm, checked our e-mail and decided to go to Pizza Hut for a pizza…We got back and got the lawn chairs out to watched the evening sun set…I took some pictures and here they are…

Mountains in the back ground…Trees reflecting in the lake

Mary Ann making sure that I do it right

The evening sun set

Wish you could experience the moment…Talk to you later…Philip

What A Beautiful Morning!

Well it rained all night and finally the sun is shinning beautifully this morning…Mary Ann just finished bathing the dog and now getting ready to wash the clothes…We went to Joe’s Crab Shack for sea food night before last and was surprised by the extreme in quality…I ordered crawfish and shrimp and Mary Ann got the sea food platter…The platter was excellent,but the crawfish was really bad…It was not the Louisiana style of cooking crawfish…Joe’s is a very good place to eat, but they do not know how to cook Cajun…I carved yesterday on a moon goddess face mask…I will be more specific about the origin after I have done some research…It is such a beautiful day, that I want to sit outside and do some more carving…   Here you have a grizzly looking for food…   

I don’t want to get too close…Well I will talk to you later…Philip