First, I want to finish up our visit with our son Mike, daughter-in-law April and grandsons Colby (5) and Ben (3-1/2), which was the week before Memorial Day. When I last blogged, Mike and the boys were on a fishing trip and here is the evidence of their catch - and you will see that we later eat the catch!
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| Ben's catch - he did not want to touch! |
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| Colby's catch! |
April and I went shopping/browsing in Estes Park while the boys rested with their Dad and enjoyed our time together, which was a treat for me since I rarely get away to do this, either alone or with someone.
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| April on a walk thru Estes Park along the Big Thompson River |
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Judy on a walk thru Estes Park
along the Big Thompson River
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April loves to knit and had located a knitting shop (all 3 stories) in the downtown area, and even bought some yarn to take back to Texas for a project. We had a great time, but had to remember to breathe - especially when walking uphill in the mountain air!
Mike, April and the boys then came over for an awesome fish fry with the boys' catch, plus a few smaller trout that Dick had caught. Too bad we did not have another few people join us, as we had way too much food, but it was yummy!!
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| Mike and Dick frying up the catch |
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| Ben and Colby chowing down on fried fish that they caught |
On Mike and his family's last full day in the area, they took a drive to Bear Lake where they had this awesome picture taken in the snow!
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| Colby, Ben, April and Mike |
Grampa and I (Grammy) were able to have the boys for another sleepover on the final night of their Estes Park vacation. When I told Colby that we would miss them, he said: "Grammy, you have lots of pictures!" And that we do, but I must admit it is not quite the same, but will have to do until October.
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| Colby and Ben watching a herd of deer in our campground |
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| A close-up of the herd of deer they were watching |
The boys took a final swing in the playground before heading back to Texas the next morning!
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| Colby and Ben |
Memorial Day Weekend and RV Roof!
Memorial Day weekend was packed at Mary's Lake Campground with numerous RVs and tents, plus very windy and cold - and Dick and I were the volunteer camp hosts. On Saturday, most of the tent campers left early due to damage to their tents from the high winds - as evidenced by the number of cards from vacated camp sites. As Dick and I made our rounds on the golf cart on Saturday afternoon, we had sunshine, sleet and snow - all within an hour - and, always, the incessant wind!
As many of our friends and family know, after very high wind gusts until after midnight on Sunday, we heard a horrific noise at 1:38 a.m. on Memorial Day (Monday). Dick described it as kettle drums beating on our RV roof. We scrambled into warm-ups and heavy coats, grabbed phones (and my Kindle) and left the RV - only to see our roof peeling from the high winds. I was hysterical, but Dick was calm, considering the situation. He moved the car so it would not get hit, and I huddled there until our neighbors insisted we spend what was left of the night with them. As I tell everyone, we left the Gulf coast for the summer because of heat and hurricanes! We have since found out that the area we are in has been known as "Thunder Alley".
Early Monday morning, Dick called Good Sam, who gave us our GMAC insurance claim number and agent's contact information, as well as a choice of where to bring the RV for repair. We cannot say enough good words about our experience with both Good Sam and GMAC. Even though we had to pay a $500 deductible (for an almost $12,000 roof replacement) and had to pay for a motel room over our $500 living expense reimbursement (which covered 8 days and we had 11 days), we did not have to provide pictures, pieces of our roof or any other proof of this incident. We have to remind ourselves that the deductible on a house would have been worse, and we now have a roof that is guaranteed for life (as long as we own the RV).
Dick headed out on Monday to buy a blue tarp (since we gave our tarps to our kids) and, with the help of our neighbor and co-host Chuck, who willingly climbed on the roof to assist with tying the tarp down, we had a blue tarp on our roof. Yes, everyone back on the Gulf coast thought it wild that we had a blue tarp on our roof in Colorado (until we could get a temporary fix while waiting for the new roof to arrive at RV America in Loveland, CO - across the mountain from Estes Park). Check out RV America (http://www.rvamerica.com) and visit their facility when you have an opportunity. They run a top-notch operation and were super to deal with, plus they are a direct repair center for GMAC.
Motel Stay!
Since the RV roof replacement took almost 2 weeks, we were fortunate to find a mom-and-pop motel in Estes Park, which was reasonably priced and clean. We loaded up our vehicle with everything we could think of, headed to Loveland to RV America and back to Estes Park to the Columbine Inn. It was rough being out of our home for almost 2 weeks, but it could have been worse. John at the Columbine Inn (http://www.estescolumbineinn.com) was a great person to work with, and our stay was not too bad.
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| Columbine Inn, Room #15, Estes Park, CO |
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| Weber gas grill for cooking dinner |
While at the motel, Dick and I decided we were going to be tourists for a few days, and I have more stories to tell and pictures to post - hopefully in the next few days. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!
See ya! ~judy~
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