3/23/16. Home Again

As promised, I put the pictures of our last, amazing night in Alamosa.  The moon was almost full, the sunset was lovely and we saw the porcupine and a great horned owl - what a send-off!

Our journey home was a long one.  We got to the airport very early as we heard about the bombings in Brussels and wanted to be prepared for the extra security, which, as it turned out, did not exist, but better safe than sorry.  We did have a delay on the second flight from Philly to Providence so we didn't get home until about 9:30.  We are always glad to come home from wherever we have been - the snow from Monday has melted and the daffodils and crocuses are in bloom.  It feels like Spring - hoorah!

3/21/16 Monday

We got up this morning and said our good-byes to Mike and Louise.  Louise started to get a little teary-eyed, but she will be in Mystic in July and then again for Thanksgiving so we will see her soon.    We decided to take the smaller roads through the mountains to get up to Denver.  It was a very pretty ride - one which you would not want to take during bad weather, but was prefect today.  We turned in the car and made our way to the hotel.  We have just come back from walking to a nearby restaurant for an early dinner (we didn't have lunch).  We are all set for our flight tomorrow.

Last night, after dinner, we took a walk and we had a bonus.  Not only did we finally see Spike (although I only got a picture of his backside - must be camera shy), but we also spotted a great horned owl atop a telephone pole!  I just tried to put the pictures onto the computer, but there seems to be some resistance.  I will try again when we get home.  I did download pictures of the cats, however, last night.  In order, there is Ollie, Leo, and Sadie Sue.

and will put them on today's blog.

We had a wonderful time in Alamosa, both in our volunteer work and spending time with Louise, but we are both ready to go home - there is no place like it.

3/19/16 Saturday

We did get to go out for dinner last night as Louise got home at 5:45.  We ate at the Brewery again - good food.  This morning we decided to have breakfast in town at the coffee shop next to the Brewery - eggs and wonderful homemade wheat toast.  We stopped at the Animal Pound to see the dog that Louise has found Thursday morning, but it didn't open until 10 so we continued on our way. Our destination was Penitente Canyon out near La Garita (north of Monte Vista).  The canyon is on BLM land (Bureau of Land Management) and was formed 20 to 30 million years ago from volcanic eruptions of the San Juan mountains.  The rock formations were lovely and we found a neat rock art painting from early Inidans near the entrance to our hike.  We had a lovely long hike along the canyon and came across deep ruts in the rock from Carreras (two-wheeled wooden ox carts).  They were used as early as the 1850's to carry firewood and other items.  The views from the top were amazing and we finally wound our way back to the parking lot.  On our way out, we saw some prairie dogs curiously watching as our car went by.  On the way back home, we stopped by the dog pound and saw the rescue pup.  They have named him Dundee and he will be available for adoption on Wednesday.  The lady at the pound said there has already been some interest in adopting him.  Louise fell in love with him, but we tried to persuade her that she had enough to do with her work, the two dogs and the three cats.  He is very cute and I have no doubt that he will find a good home.  A little bit ago, Louise took Monte for a walk and saw something strange on the ground behind a tree off the road.  I went out with her to check it out and I thought it looked like a dead coyote to me, but we didn't get too close.  Dave came out with us later and we discovered that it was indeed a dead coyote and it had been shot.  Obviously, one of the neighbors is not fond of them.  We haven't made plans for tomorrow yet beyond packing and cleaning out the car.  We will leave for Denver on Monday morning.

3/20/16 Sunday

Today is our last full day with Louise so we packed up our suitcases after breakfast and then asked Louise what she wanted to do today.  We ended up taking a ride up to Crestone, a small town at the foot of the mountains known for having a free-spirited atmosphere.  There are many different religions, magical thinkers and just plain grown-up hippies living here.  We drove through the small town, but as it was Sunday morning, nothing was open.  We did discover a Buddhist shrine (Stupa of Enlightenment) and stopped to take a picture. On the way back we stopped at an odd looking place called the UFO tower.  Apparently, people pay ($20/person) to come out here (in the middle of nowhere) to look for UFO sightings - a sucker is born every minute.  We then stopped at the Colorado Gator Farm as Louise had never seen them in the wild.  The place started as a tilapia (fish) farm because there is a hot spring on the property.  Eventually, the owners bought some baby alligators to clean up the fish waste.  Now it is still a tilapia farm and the filtered water is used to grow plants in the greenhouses, but they are also an alligator rescue place.  Some of the alligators are from New York and California, where people were keeping them in bathtubs and backyard swimming pools!  They also have snakes, turtles, tortoises, lizards, emus, and peacocks on display.  They have two albino alligators, one of which is named Mr. Bomangles.  We came back into town and stopped at the grocery store.  Louise is cooking tonight - pork chops with spiced apples with roasted Brussels sprout and barley salad - yum!

3/18/16 Friday

Today was our last day at the ReStore and it was very slow today: about 80 people, but only $205.  The regular workers and volunteers signed a going away card and one of the volunteers that we worked with, Mary Susan, made us a lovely dragonfly in stained glass and that was our parting gift.  I can't wait to hang it in our sunroom - it is gorgeous.  We saw a lovely mountain bluebird this morning on the way to work.  After work, we went to the little airport in town to pick up Mike.  He will be here a week before he has to go back to work in Arizona.  He is an engineer at a copper mining facility.  We are waiting to see if Louise gets home at a reasonable time - if so, we will go out to dinner, if not, I have a Plan B dinner planned.

3/16 and 3/17 Wednesday and Thursday

Louise called at about 5:30 last night to say that she was slammed with patients and would not get home in time to go owning so we decided to postpone that activity until the weekend.  It was very windy so we didn't go Spike hunting either.  We had a number of donation pickups this morning and more people came in to drop off.  We priced everything and sold most of it before the day was over.  We even had a few sales happen just as we were ready to close for the day.  We came home and I made a pot roast for dinner.  Louise was late again tonight as she had a hair appointment and then went back to the office to finish up some charts.

Today, Louise left for work and then was back in about 10 minutes.  I thought she had forgotten something, but she had seen a pup running down the middle of the road and brought it home.  We put it in a kennel and fed it while she called Animal Control.  It was a very cute puppy, but quite scared and very hungry - no collar for ID.  Animal Control said they would meet her in the hospital parking lot so we put the kennel in the back of her car and she was off again.  We had another busy drop off donation day again today with one of them coming at the end of the day so we will have to deal with it tomorrow morning.  We only had about 80 customers, but made $595.  Tomorrow is our last day of working.  I think we are picking Mike (Louise's husband) up at the airport tomorrow afternoon and then hopefully going out to dinner.  Louise just came home and said that the Animal Control Officer came right away and took him to the shelter.  She wishes she could give him a home, but she does not need a third dog!  She told a friend about him and he may be adopted by someone she knows, which would be a better situation.  Almost dinner time, so will say good-bye for now.  Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.  We are remembering our wonderful trip to the Emerald Island several years ago.

3/15/16 Tuesday

It was too cold and windy last night to go look for Spike so we stayed home.  This morning we started our last week of volunteering.  It was chilly and windy again this morning.  We had a slow day today.  A few small items came in on Saturday and a few more came in this morning so we priced everything and got it out onto the floor.  It was so slow that Rhonda let us go home early 1:30 and we had only made $198.  Tomorrow she and Dave will go out on two pick ups and hopefully bring back some larger items to sell.  Dave went for a nap when we got home and I did laundry and finished the book I was reading.  In a little while, we will feed the animals as Louise is going to come home early tonight so we can go out hunting for owls.  Someone told us of a place where they hang out in Monte Vista near the wildlife refuge.  We will look for Spike on our way home.  I am putting on some pix that Dave took of the sand dunes and the surrounding mountains as well as the creek we had to wade across to get the the dunes.