Turquoise Lake

One of our favorite places to visit when we come to Colorado is the town of Leadville - a former mining town at 10,000 feet, known as the highest incorporated town in the United States. It's large enough for a City Market, but the only fast food place is a Subway. (No McDonalds!) It has two museums, and numerous historical sites to visit, as well as a small movie theater, an indoor swimming pool, and the best steak restaurant we've ever been to, Quincy's. West of town about 7 miles is Turquoise Lake, which has 6 campgrounds on it. But since all are located in a dense lodgepole forest, you don't feel crowded at all. We stayed at Baby Doe campground, and had a site about 70 yards from the edge of the lake. Don was able to launch his float tube easily. In the picture a top left, the mountain on the left is Mount Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado. The larger mountain on the right, mostly hidden by the closer ridge, is Mount Massive.


We took a trip around the lake and stopped at this viewpoint for a bit. A woman who also stopped there offered to take our picture for us.











This is the view just a few yards from our campsite. I love weather, and enjoyed watching the rainstorms move across Mount Massive.











Also taken from the same place as the previous picture, this shot looks west towards Hagerman Pass and the Frying Pan watershed just behind the closer mountain (and underneath the dark clouds).

If you're into fly fishing, there are so many great places to fish here: Turquoise Lake, the Arkansas River, Emerald Lake, Half Moon Creek, and Crystal Lakes. If you're like me and you like to shop, there are several really nice antique stores, a quilt shop, and some other smaller shops along the main street through town. I picked up several great pieces of antique linen at one store, and then found some newer linen pieces at the quilt shop.

Vega State Park and the Grand Mesa

Our second stop in Colorado was Vega State Park, east of Collbran on the edge of the Grand Mesa. Our only gripe about this place was the fact that in addition to the nightly camping fee, they charged a daily entrance fee for the park - something we hadn't seen before. In California, your campground fee covers the park entrance fee. Oh well. This campground and lake sits at about 9000', and we had a fabulous view from our trailer of the lake and the high plateaus to the south, east, and west. The sites are roomy and well-spaced, with water and electric hookups (there's a dump station nearby). In the picture to the right, Don's in his float tube on the lake.

See how nice the site is? No neighbors close by.

We were fairly close to the high lakes of the Grand Mesa. One trip we took was in search of grayling. The fishing guide we had said that there were grayling in Kitson Reservoir, so that was our first stop. Don gave it a valiant try, but unfortunately, we believe the lake was empty of fish from winter kill. There were plenty of bugs on the surface, and we saw absolutely zero fish coming up to feed.

So, our next stop was Neversweat Reservoir - fancy name, yes? Don had some success at this one. Since we were at 10,000+ feet, I was able to sit out in the sun and stitch while he was on the lake, but stupid me didn't put on sunscreen, and I burned my legs and the V of my neck. Lesson learned. Sunscreen purchased and applied liberally now.

A different day trip we went to Big Creek Reservoir - a nice-looking lake with lots of people and fish. But what drove us from there after only an hour or so were the mosquitos. They were HORRIBLE. You could hear the drone of billions of mosquitos - sounded like a roaring engine. It was a very wet winter, and we got there just as the mosquitos hatched. Ick.

But if you ever want to see hundreds of beautiful lakes at over 10,000 feet, visit the Grand Mesa. The guidebook says there are 300 lakes up there, and at least 100 of them hold fish.

Two Lovely Waterfalls

Hays Creek Waterfall, south of Redstone. This one is reminiscent of waterfalls in Utah, with the water cutting through the red sandstone.

This one flows out of a hanging valley just west of Marble, below the Raggeds Wilderness.

McGee Pond

We drove up to Marble the first evening we were at Redstone, and found this little pond just west of town. There was absolutely no breeze, so the reflection of the mountains was perfect.














Don tried his hand at this pond, but no luck.

This is why the pond has its name; the gravesite is just west of it.

Colorado - Where My Heart is Home

It's almost a physical sense of...what - relief? relaxation? joy? It must be all those - when we crossed the border between Utah and Colorado on the 70. I think it stems from living here as a child, and falling in love with the mountains. But here I am, for about the 15th summer (not consecutive), back in the place I love. After nights in Cedar City, Utah, and then Grand Junction, we set up camp on the Crystal River just north of Redstone - about 13 miles south of Carbondale. The photo to the right is from our front door, looking down-canyon. This is a great little campground - three loops of 8 sites each, with two of the loops offering electricity and water hookups.


This is looking east towards the red cliffs that form the western edge of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. A ranger who came by for a campfire talk told us to watch for bighorn sheep on those cliffs, but I didn't get to see any.

Looking west across the river at the other side of the cliffs - a red sandstone formation that forms a prominent hogback through the area.

Snow, Snow, Snow

We went to Rock Creek, which is northeast of Bishop. Our campground, East Fork, is at 9000 feet, and we set up in the snow Thursday night. It snowed again on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It wasn't until around noon on Monday that we saw the sun for more than 5 minutes. Luckily all this snow kept melting - it just wasn't that cold.







On Saturday, we drove out to the upper Owens River (above Lake Crowley), where Don got some great river fly-fishing in. He caught quite a few rainbows and browns, but didn't keep any.














From where we parked on the Owens, I took this picture of the snow clouds as they moved from west to east (left to right). They didn't come south to where we were, though, so Don was able to stay dry for several hours of fishing.















On Monday, after yet another snowfall, I drove up to Rock Creek Lake since Don had said it looked beautiful with the new snow.


























Monday afternoon it was finally warm enough to sit outside and read while Don cooked hot links on the grill.

Our New Keystone Sprinter

After a year and a half in our Wave, we started to understand what we really wanted in a trailer. At first, we thought we'd want a motor home - and then found out we definitely couldn't afford one. We found this - which is much nicer than our Wave, and has a whole lot more room even though it's a foot shorter. (That's due to the huge double slide that has the dinette and couch in it.) This is a 250 RBS, meaning Rear Bath and Slide. It costs almost twice as much as the Wave did, but it's soooo worth it. I'll try to show as much as I can in the pics below.

This is the full-sized standup shower in the bathroom. It's almost as nice as the shower here at home!

Love those fixtures - this is called brushed oiled copper. This one's in the bathroom.

Nice sink/cabinet set.

Looking into the bathroom from the living room. The bathroom takes up the whole back end of the trailer, so it's twice as large as a normal RV bathroom. The shower is on the left as you go in.

There's a queen-sized bed in the bedroom, and you can actually walk to the "top" of it on either side - no climbing. As short as I am, I can reach those storage cabinets! That means I can actually use them!

I really like this kitchen sink and the tall faucet.

Here's another look at the kitchen sink and the cooking area. I've got lots of counter space with that flip-up extension, and 6 full-sized drawers for all my "stuff."

This is the entertainment center that serves as a dividing wall between the living room and the bedroom. Behind it are some sliding doors, and when you pull out the doors, you can rotate the flat-screen television to watch it from the bed! Below the television is a DVD/CD/radio/MP3 player.

Instead of a scissors sofa, we have a comfortable sofa-sleeper.

Refrigerator, bathroom door, and a full-sized pantry. Now I have room for food for our longer trips.

The dinette is about 5 inches longer than the normal RV dinette, and the table and countertops are a faux granite instead of plain white. There's a real light fixture above the dinette that makes it all look pretty.

More storage above the couch.







So what do you think? Can you tell I'm proud? We'll be taking it to the Sierras for Memorial Day weekend (I took 2 extra days off to make it a 5-night trip) and then to Colorado for the summer.

Getting Away From it All

Originally posted on April 3, 2008 on "Cookin' With Cyndi"

The past two weeks have been spring break in our school district, and Don and I spent the first 11 days of it in the southern Sierras. First, we went to a place new to us - Kaweah Lake. It's between Visalia and the south entrance to Sequoia National Park. We camped at Horse Creek Campground, and for most of our stay had our loop of the campground to ourselves. I called our site "a room with a view." I sat outside nearly every day while Don was fishing, just so I could enjoy that view. To our left was Lake Kaweah, and to the right was a view up the Kaweah River.




We learned that the lake was built for flood control, and it fills up every year. By the end of May or early June each year, the water comes up and covers almost all of the campground. We could see it changing each day we were there - small islands and bushes became covered by the end of our stay. The campground is not open during the summer - it's under water!







After we left Lake Kaweah, we had reservations at a Forest Service campground on Lake Isabella. When we got there, it was a nightmare. First of all, more than half of the campground was closed - and I'm sure that's where the sites were that were large enough for RVs and trailers. We drove through a few loops - getting stuck several times and tearing up the side of our trailer against some trees and rocks. When we could finally make it back to the entrance, we saw that there wasn't even a camp host there to tell us where a decent site could be found. Soooo, we decided to go to Don's favorite campground - Rivernook - a private campground with full hookups and CABLE TV. Yeah, we were really roughing it. But he likes Rivernook, since he can fish in the Kern right from the campground. He also can drive up and down the Kern and fish all he wants. The picture to the left was taken from one of the places we stopped (the day I accompanied him up the river). Six days there was nice -all I did was sit and cross stitch and read and not even think about work.

Sunset on the Beach

Originally posted on January 4, 2008 on "Cookin' with Cyndi"



This was while the sun was still behind the clouds before it set.













About 10 minutes after the sun had set.

Holiday Greetings from San Diego

Originally posted on December 24, 2007 on "Cookin' With Cyndi"

We're spending the holiday vacation in two places - first, we're at Santee Lakes Preserve, camped right on a small lake that's part of a 7-lake system in northeast San Diego. The temps are much warmer here than back home in the mountains - it was shorts weather today while we toured the Midway aircraft carrier. Don's spent lots of hours fishing (not catching - just fishing), and I've been able to relax, stitch, play on the computer, read, and not think about work.





This is the view out my back window. That's one of the things I love about this trailer's floorplan - the rear kitchen and a window to see what's behind us.




Just before we left to come on this trip, I received a statement from STRS (State Teachers' Retirement System), which predicted what I'll be making when I retire. It's considerably less than what I'm making now, and Don and I had a long talk about how we can plan even better than we have. The first thing we're doing is "practicing." I've been looking at websites about cutting grocery bills, and will be trying to implement some of the strategies I've learned about. One strategy is finding the "loss leaders" at the grocery stores. I learned that the front and back pages of the grocery store ads are where the loss leaders are found, and that I shouldn't even look at the inside pages. Another strategy is to locate the "manager's specials," which can range from specials that aren't in the ad to meats just at the edge of their expiration dates. Our local Vons store always has manager's specials on meats, and I make it a point to see what's available. Thursday I found a fabulous bargain on pork. They had a package that had a pork roast, about 8 inches long, then 14 thin boneless pork chops, and 6 1 1/2" thick pork chops. The total value of the package, which was originally a large boneless pork loin, was $35.00. They had marked it down to $11.46. Wow! I'm going to get 9 meals out of it, since the roast will make two different meals. I cooked two of the thicker chops first.

This recipe is an adaptation of one I've tried in the past, and we decided that we like this version the best of all.

Spicy Orange-Glazed Pork Chops


2 boneless pork chops, cut 3/4 to 1" thick
salt and pepper
flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ cup orange juice
2 tablespoon orange marmalade
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
½ cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Sprinkle chops lightly with salt and pepper; dredge in flour. Heat oil in a heavy skillet; brown pork chops on both sides. Combine remaining ingredients, mixing well. Pour over chops. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10-15 minutes. Liquid will form a glaze. Turn chops to coat, and remove them to a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Add 1/2 cup chicken broth to mixture, followed by cornstarch and water mixture. Cook, stirring, until mixture thickens. Serve sauce over pork and cooked rice. Serves 2.

Breakfast this morning was a variation of sausage-egg casserole. I made it in muffin cups using refrigerated flaky biscuits. I think it came out pretty nicely, and they sure did taste good!

Sausage-Egg Breakfast Muffins

1 5-count roll flaky biscuits (they have to be the flaky ones)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
6 oz. (about 1/3 of a 1-pound roll) pork breakfast sausage
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 375˚. Separate layers of flaky biscuits and place them in pairs in 6 muffin tins sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Since there are 5 biscuits and 6 tins, you'll need to "borrow" some layers from the others to make up the 6th one. When you put them in the tins, stand them on end, bottoms touching, and press to form cups. Sprinkle the bottoms of the cups with half of the cheese. In a skillet, saute onion and sausage together, breaking up sausage as it cooks. Stir in mustard. Break eggs into sausage, and continue to cook and mix until eggs are done. Divide mixture into muffin cups and top with the remaining cheese. Bake in preheated oven 17 minutes or until bread is golden and cheese is melted. Makes 6.

Lake Mead, Nevada

Originally posted on November 24, 2007 on "Cookin' With Cyndi"



With a week off for Thanksgiving, we returned to one of our favorite winter camping places, Lake Mead. Gary had moved his motorhome to Echo Bay since Overton Beach had closed, and he invited us there to do some fishing. (Well, he invited Don to do some fishing - I enjoyed hours and hours of uninterrupted stitching time.) The bucket above represents only one afternoon of fishing, and was turned into 4 meals' worth of boneless striper fillets - plus one catfish. We ate fried fish two nights, and brought home 5 meals' worth of fish. So now I need to share with you the best way to make fried fish! This is how Gary makes it.

Fried Fish (Striper or Catfish)

1 cup Stovetop Stuffing mix (any flavor)
1 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash seasoning
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
8-10 boneless striped bass or catfish fillets
vegetable oil (about 1/2" deep in a large skillet)

Put stuffing mix in a plastic or brown paper bag. Use a rolling pin (a can of vegetables will do in a pinch!) to crush the cubes. Combine stuffing mix, cornmeal, and Mrs. Dash in a large bowl. Place flour in a large plastic or brown paper bag. Combine eggs and milk in a shallow bowl. Shake fish fillets in flour until coated, and place in egg-milk bath. Then dredge in cornmeal-stuffing mixture, and add to hot oil. Fry until lightly browned on each side.

Henry's Lake State Park, Idaho

Originally posted on August 2, 2007 on "Cookin' With Cyndi"

Henry's Lake State Park is where we spent the last two weeks of our vacation. We had a site with a great view of the lake, and it was close enough (25 yards) for Don to walk down with his float tube every morning and evening.

This is our view north from our campsite, with the only thing other than the lake being the two rental cabins.












To the east of our campsite lay Howard Creek Slough, home to hundreds (maybe thousands) of birds and two moose. The moose, both bulls, came out to graze every evening, and slowly made their way to the lake and back into the bush over a 2-3 hour period. People came from thousands of miles to Yellowstone and didn't see a moose, and we had our own moose here at Henry's Lake. (It's only 13 miles from Henry's Lake to West Yellowstone.)




The last photo I took on this trip was fittingly a very colorful sunset over Henry's Lake.