Happy Trails

Friday was Larry's retirement day, and he is ecstatic in a bittersweet sort of way. He's happy not to have to head to work every weekday, but he will miss so many of his wonderful customers. He was surprised at how many of them had nothing but praise for him and the exceptional service he has given them over the past nine years. I'm very happy for him!

Saturday morning was cold & snowy, but we headed out to do a bit of shopping and then to meet up with Rachel, Ivan and the girls at Chipotle's for a goodbye lunch...

This is one thing I'm NOT going to miss - at least the horse poop isn't quite so gross when it's frozen!

Duchess waiting patiently to leave...

Heading out the gate...

Everything was quite frosty!

The goodbye lunch was fun but a bit sad. I've had so many wonderful times with these girls over the past nine years that I've lived in Colorado. The time just flew by and I'm having a bit of a difficult time realizing that I won't be able to hop in my car and meet them somewhere for lunch or spend time with them when Rachel and Ivan take off for Vegas - oh, wait, I can still do that.  After all, those cheap airfares do pop up now and then, and I can easily hop on a plane this direction.and a few tears were shed as we parted, but we know it won't be for good.  I told Kamaria that I wouldn't miss her graduation, and, if she gets a job and can afford a ticket, we would  be thrilled to pick her up one day at SeaTac!

We had originally planned on heading for Castle Rock for the night after we got home from lunch, but decided to wait until Sunday. I got everything secured and organized so that we could head out Sunday morning while Larry took my car in to get the oil changed. Soon it was time to change into my comfy clothes, have a glass of wine and relax...

As we were watching TV Saturday night, waiting for the heater to turn off so that we could replace the propane canister for the night and go to bed, we heard a "Hoot, hoot," and I said, "that sounds like an owl." Larry peeked out the window and sure enough, there was a huge horned own sitting on the corral next to Jumbo. He sat there for a minute or two looking at us and then flew off. That probably explains the sound of wings flapping that I had been hearing on the roof a number of times in the middle of the night!

This morning (Sunday) we planned on going to the laundromat in Parker, but they were closed, either because of the weather or maybe they had a pre-super bowl celebration and partied too much! In any case, we headed back to Jumbo, got everything secure, and decided to make our way to Castle Rock, stay in the Wal-Mart there tonight, and head out in the morning after I register my car. 

The driveway out of the horse pasture was pretty snowy and icy, but we had no trouble getting out, for the last time, thank God!

When we got there, we discovered that they no longer allow overnight RV parking. Bummer! We had to get back on the freeway and go to the Wal-Mart near Larry's work.

 I'm sitting at Starbuck's right now, but am ready to head back to Wal-Mart and Jumbo, where we'll settle in for the night, take a peek at the Super Bowl this evening, although we're not big football fans, but how could we pass up the opportunity to see how this one turns out?

So, tomorrow we begin the real journey...down the road to Springer, New Mexico where we'll spend the night at Russell's Truck Stop, which has showers and a laundry!!!