Visiting Family & Friends On The Way East

On July 9 we departed from Park Sierra, heading to Ron & Carol's place in Sacramento.  The weather had turned very hot at Park Sierra, with temps over 100 degrees everyday.  Sacramento wasn't much cooler, but Ron & Carol have a 30 amp hookup for us, so we were able to use our A/C in the hot afternoons.  It was great to see them, and they are both looking good and doing well.  One of the evenings we were there, we went to Carmichael Park for a music and food event.  There were live performers singing with guitars, and a whole big ring of food trucks selling food.  There were lots of picnic tables and chairs spread around under some very nice shade trees. We brought a few picnic items. Here is a picture of Ron, Carol & Elaine at the park:

     After a few days, we left and drove up to Reno for a visit with my daughter, Laura, and her husband, Dennis.  We haven't seen her for quite a while so I had a happy reunion with her:

One of the first things we did was have a mother-daughter lunch together, so we could talk.  Laura treated me to a great meal at Campo, as an early birthday present.  Then we went to Laura's house for dinner, and Elaine had a good hug and visit with her too:

The next day, Laura's friend, Pam came over for breakfast, so she invited us too.  Laura fixed Eggs Benedict on some of our canned, smoked salmon and it was delicious.  Here are the happy eaters:

Later we drove over to the big old warehouse where Laura and Dennis have their new trailer stored. 

They have used it for some local camping trips and will take a vacation to Wyoming in it in August.  This is a picture of Elaine and Laura inside:

Elaine showed Laura how to make the table and bench seats into a bed, which will help on the Wyoming trip because both of her daughters will be with them.
     Dennis came home from working 12 hours, guarding an inmate at the local hospital, and they fixed dinner.  Here is a picture of them together:

     They are busy getting their home ready to sell, so they have lots to do.  We didn't want to take any more of their time, so we jumped on I-80 and headed for Denver.
     We arrived in Thornton, a suburb of Denver, and parked our RV in a large parking lot near Cabela's.  My twin sister, Marsha lives in Denver, with her partner, Debbie, and their son, Joe. We drove over there and had dinner with all of them the first evening.  Marsha made pad thai and it was delicious.

Marsha and I are fraternal twins, so we don't look a lot alike:

    The next day we went to the community garden where Marsha has a big plot, and she gave us a whole bunch of fresh produce:  beets, basil, rhubarb, Swiss chard, zucchini, onions, garlic, carrots.  Then we drove to Golden, where the Coors brewery is located.  We wanted to take a tour and have a tasting, but by the time we got there, the waiting time was an hour and 45 minutes, so we aborted that plan.  Red Rock Canyon wasn't far away, and we wanted to do a hike, so we drove there next.  It has a big, beautiful amphitheater built into it, but because a big name performer was doing a show there that night, we were not allowed to go in to see it.  We did a loop hike of a couple of miles, and it was fairly hot.  The rocks are huge and really red, many of them are stacked on top of other ones:

Here is a picture of Elaine and me on the hike:

High up on one of the rocks, we saw this local inhabitant, a mule deer:

After the hike, we went back to Marsha's house and Debbie joined us for a walk through the neighborhood to a local pizza restaurant.  We passed 2 of these boxes on the way:

What they are is called a Little Free Library.  You can take a book, or donate one.  This one was full of books and even had a washtub below which was full of books.  Pretty neat.
     We had a very delicious and enjoyable beer and pizza dinner in the outdoor garden of the restaurant.

This was our birthday celebration together, since we will be 70 on August 29, but we won't be together to celebrate then.
     The next day Elaine and I headed north on I-25.  We wanted to go to Rapid City to see our friends Jan & Chuck Moore, and Betty Anderson & Duane Peyton, who all have memberships at Hart Ranch.  We have arrived now, and are staying at Cabela's until tomorrow, when we will move over to the Hart Ranch for 4 days.