A brief visit to Gothic, Colorado

The town of Gothic from Robyn's cabin















Judd's Falls

















Robyn at the over look at Judd's falls


We got back last night. It was a good, though short
trip. Gothic is an interesting place and Robyn has
her work cut out for her. She is really frustrated
with the band-aid approach to maintenance. It'll be
interesting to see whether she is able to convince
the administration to go her route or continue with
the old ways. The person who had her job last year
got so frustrated that she quit doing anything and
then eventually left. Nothing was put away nor
organized for the winter or this spring. It was
quite a challenge to snow shoe into her job site in
early May. The water system had been wiped out by
an avalanche and the dining building roof had collapsed
among a couple of the problems. The snow was hip deep
and no vehicles were running so all tools had to be
hand carried to various sites. But, the first arrivals
came June 1st on schedule and the place was more or
less ready for them.

She has made friends with some of the researchers
and they all seem to like and respect her.

The Sunday before we got there she had, with two
others, climbed one of the nearby peaks.

We scouted out the campground while we were there.
It is Forest Service, free and no services. We
picked two adjacent sites and if/when we can
pick a time when Carl and family can join us
there, Robyn will park a vehicle at the site to
reserve it. The upper of the two sites we
figured Ariel would love. The road to the
lower is better for the pickup. And the upper
has a great view of a working beaver pond and
beaver house. Ariel will love it. If she
gets up early she'll be able to see beavers for
sure.

The lower doesn't have as good a view of the
beaver pond, but it is very nice.

Our road is going to be torn up July 7-10. The
culvert by Vernon's house is collapsing as is
the road. I hope we'll be able to avoid going
to town those days, but we'll probably park a
car down below just in case so we don't have
to drive to Gold Hill to get to Boulder.

A visit to the Denver Botanical Gardens

Lunch in the gardens
















On Monday, Steve came and washed all the windows,
inside and out. They look wonderful! It is such a pleasure,
each year to have that done. A real luxury that I enjoy
tremendously.

Tuesday I had my annual physical exam. I seem to be doing fine.
I certainly have no complaints and feel very lucky to feel so
well.

Tuesday evening Connie, Meara and Alan showed up. They are
movinganother car to Kansas. They close on the Wichita house
on Thursday, then will move the furniture from Greg's Condo to
the new house and all will stay in the new house.

Wednesday evening we had book club at Heather's house.

Thursday I had a test for bone density and ran errands.

Friday I picked up Ariel and she spent the day with us. We
walked up to the schoolhouse and both swung on the swings for
a while. She made some interesting drawings using chalk on
the back patio. In the afternoon we went to the Erie
Rec center where she went swimming for an hour and a half until
it was time to take her home

Saturday the Salina Ladies' book club took a field trip to the
Denver Botanical Gardens. We all met in our barn yard and I
had a cooler ready for our lunches. Allison drove her mini
van. It was a hot day, but the gardens were in full glory. We
had a lovely time and had our lunch in a shady spot as shown
in the picture.

Today our tenants who live in the Longmont house came for a
picnic lunch. Teri's boy friend helped her buy a van so that
Jesse can get himself in/out of the van in his electric wheel
chair. It is a big help to Teri. The old van had ramps,
each of which weighed about 50 pounds and had to be taken
in and out by hand. Not an easy chore for a small woman.
We had a pleasant lunch with everyone lending a hand which
made things go smoothly. Teri's boy friend is a retired Navy
mechanic and has just taken a voluntary severance package
from Roche Pharmaceuticals and is looking to relocate to
Arizona. He and Teri are engaged. I'm delighted for Teri.
He seems to be a very fine young man and is very good with
her kids and seems very kind. They have been going together
for more than a year so I feel comfortable that it'll be a
good marriage for both. But, of course, I'm sad because we
are going to lose her as a tenant some time in the near future.

On the world front the Saudis have promised to pump more oil
which we hope will bring down the price somewhat. It's
currently almost $140/barrel and is $4.00/gal at the gas pump.
In Zimbabwe the situation looks impossible for a real election.
Mugabe has promised that he'll not leave office. A typhoon in
the Philippines, terrible floods in the mid-west, and more
floods in China. The weather has really been chaotic this
year so far. We feel lucky to have missed anything terrible
here so far.

Tuesday we leave for Crested Butte and to Gothic to visit Robyn.