A Few Pics Made In and Around Chama

Climbing  the grade from Santa Fe to Chama

The La Clinica bus during the Chama Days Parade...this is THE Hospital here!

Chama Days Parade

Count 'em...2 out of 3 Chevys require towing to be in a parade!

No parade would be complete without Shriners and go-karts!

I have wanted to ride one of these since I was a kid!

This is Lynn and Janelle. We bumped into them after noticing their Burgman  scooters.  Sharlene and I enjoyed wonderful conversation with these nice folks for a couple hours. Lynn and I enjoyed talking about old motorcycles...this guy knows his stuff about "old" bikes!

Stopping for a break on the way up to fish

Raining at the Trout Lakes

OK, so it eventually happens...I buried the Jeep in mud! This is  me with Jerald after being pulled out.

My poor, dirty Jeep!

Fishing at Trout Lake

Winch added the day after getting stuck in mud up on the mountain...

Two pounder!!!

Dinner ride on the train

Sharlene on the dinner ride up to Cumbres Pass (Colorado)

This train once belonged to Gene Autry!

Sharlene with Hank. We met Hank during the dinner ride...Hank volunteers at the Toltec & Cumbres and offered to give us a tour of the rail yard. Thanks, Hank!!!

Us

These folks are PROUD!!!

Out for a drive in the mountains

Looking South from "Kodak Rock"

More Parade Pics

Trujillo Reservoir (Colorado)

Looking South From Cumbres Pass

Nice weather here!!!

This is the Rio Chama (about 50 feet from our RV)

We are about 10 miles South of Colorado

One of the many views from the mountains

On the way to our "secret" fly fishing stream

Our "secret" stream is pretty high!!!

My Beautiful Wife...am I a lucky man or what!!!!

Sharlene at "Kodak Rock"

Climbing from Cumbres Pass into Colorado

The Toltec & Cumbres Scenic Railroad

Light Show

Caught this tonight

Chama for the summer!

 We have had enough Texas heat so off to Chama we go! We have planned to pick RV parks as we go along the road to Chama. On to Wichita Falls, TX, Amarillo, TX and Santa Fe, NM for overnights on the way. We had a wonderful lightning and thunder storm show overnight during our stay in Santa Fe! We arrived in Chama on Aug 4 to mid 70's during the day and 50's at night. We have had late afternoon and evening showers until last night. The mountain terrain is beautiful and Chama is a quite little mountain village. We are becoming familiar with our surroundings and have met several wonderful people. This is an area where a lot of people spend the entire summer. There are several small cabin lodges and basically 3 RV parks. I think we have lucked out staying at Little Creel, the sites are comfortable, we have a great laundry room and really good tap water. There is 1 grocery/hardware store here, 1 produce stand, several small restaurants, 1 saloon/hotel, 1 bank, nearest medical clinic is 15 miles away, and the main attraction other than fishing is the  Cumbres & Toltec historic scenic railroad (http://cumbrestoltec.com/). We are looking forward to riding the rails next week. The railroad was built in 1880 and operated until 1969. The states of New Mexico and Colorado saved the railroad at this point and it is now one of the oldest narrow gauge steam engine trains in operation here in America. There are several different options of train rides such as full and half day excursions, sunset dinner rides, and coming up is the Labor day train BBQ. The train operates May 25 - Oct 20, we are looking forward to the fall foliage by rail this year! This train and the rail system itself has been used in several TV and movie locations.
  We drove up to Pagosa Springs, CO and have picked up a San Juan Forest map to aid us in our 4 X 4 jeep jaunts and seeking the high country lakes and streams to fish in. Along the way we spotted several deer and two flocks of wild turkeys. Turkeys are funny in the wild as they were coming thru a meadow and they kind of hop as they run through the tall grass.
 The village of Chama has a big celebration this weekend called Chama Days. We hear it's one big party for the weekend. Today we attended a senior lunch and dance. The have a king and queen for Chama days which is determined at this lunch by being the oldest male (92) and oldest female (90). There will be a parade tomorrow morning followed by a Rodeo, Pow Wow Expo, and live music in 3 different areas. During the weekend, there are continuous softball, horseshoe, and  3 on 3 basketball tournaments followed by a fireman's competition.
 We are walking distance from most everything in town and plan to do alot of that this weekend with all the expected traffic. After the weekend everything calms back down to a sleepy little mountain village. It's very peaceful and beautiful here. So we have decided to stay for the next 2 months.
   Last night was the first clear night and the stars were so clear and bright that you could almost touch them. The milky way is highly visible and right over the top of us. Ken is looking forward to taking lots of photos and I know everyone will delight in his eye for photography. You will see them soon on the blog.
   Family updates:
 Kristin is graduating today at UNT with a Masters Degree and has been accepted in the PHD program! We couldn't be prouder of her! Way to go Kris! She is planning her wedding to Paul Petrunin and his son Alex on May 17, 2014. Welcome to the family.
Jeremiah is heading back to college at UNT for his Engineering Degree. Madisen is plugging away at TWU towards her Masters in Occupational Therapy. They are the proud parents of Tucker (the Weimaraner) and Ruck ( australian shepherd/ridgeback mix)
Ethan and Kenzie are busy raising our two grandsons Ziek and Eli. They enjoy living in Munester and hanging out with friends. One day perhaps Ethan will enter his killer BBQ ribs in some competitions, they are great.
Mark and Mallory are busy working and raising our grandson Van. He is a busy little boy so they will have their hands full.

Home again home again jiggity jig, on the road again road again jiggity jog!

 We have arrived home to our RV in St. Augustine, FL. We like staying at Stagecoach RV as the Petty's  have a wonderful park and they take very good care of the property and ours too! We actually went to the Mile Marker Brewery before going home to have a celebratory brew. The Blonde Ale is one of the best beers ever. Our friends Lindsey and Linda, were there to welcome us back. We shared our stories of the ride and enjoyed their company. We were also invited to bring in a growler of our own home brew for them to try. They have a group of home brewers in the area that will meet up there and discuss their brews. It's a fun tap room and if we ever decide to open our own brewery their's will be a great one to model.
 We made a dash to Publix for some food supplies and then it rained and rained and rained for 3 solid days. So much that we just made do with the food cupboard to create some interesting meals.
 Now it's 4th of July! We join our Stapleton family for a cookout in North Jacksonville. The brothers enjoyed sharing stories of their youth.
 Left St.  Augustine headed for Adel,  GA to visit Al and Tammy. We stayed at Cecil Bay RV park being a one night quick stop. Our son Mark was in the hospital in Flower Mound and not sure what he had or how quickly we needed to be back in town. Just outside of Albany, GA we always try to stop at Mark's produce stand. Great boiled peanuts, fresh picked corn, lima beans, mayhaw jelly and vine ripe slicing summer tomatoes! Yummy! We were headed to Lake Eufula, AL but missed a turn and ended outside of Columbus, GA and stayed at Lake Pines RV. It was kind of tight pulling into the park but it turned out to be OK, again not bad for an overnight. Mark was doing better so we stopped at our favorite COE park in Demopolis, AL. It's on a lake, as most COE parks are, and had 1 of the 2 pull throughs available. The back in sites are actually the better spots and are very long. Enjoyed dinner that night watching the fireflies and a nice brisk walk around the park in the morning. Next up was Vicksburg, MS have always wanted to stay over more than a night to explore but looks like that will have to be another time. We stayed at Ameristar Casino RV park right on the banks of the Mississippi. Walk the park first before your site is selected. Not all of the sites are level. We made do but almost considered moving. We did enjoy an evening stroll after dinner along the banks of the river. Our next night was a stay right off of I 20 at Miss Ellie's RV. Great Wi-Fi so we enjoyed catching up on our PBS shows. Now back in town at Destiny RV for 2 weeks and an extra couple of days at Willow Grove on the lake.
 We have been brewing beer, catching up with Dentist and Doctor visits, working with Kristin on wedding plans for next spring, spending time with all of our family and friends, outfitting ourselves with fly rods, and mastering the art of tying flies. We are heading to Chama, NM for the rest of the summer on Wednesday.

Last leg home

 Our last night of the ride was Alexander City, AL. We snaked through traffic out of Birmingham getting separated from our brother Jerry for a few miles. Now remember, Jerry rides mostly by himself so riding in a group was a bit of a change for him. We gathered back up and watched the storm clouds building as we rolled into Alexander City. Alexander City is a small lake town in Southern Alabama and we enjoyed a great dinner at Big B BBQ. The wait staff was fun and allowed us to linger until the rain stopped. Actually it was a quick moving gully washer and lightning packed storm that we were watching as we came into town.
 In the morning, we packed up our for our final ride day which is always the saddest day of our trip. We realized our greatly anticipated summer ride was drawing to a close. The weather was warm, mild and without rain as we departed.
 It has been a great ride and can't wait till next year. Also making plans to attend the March SC-MA banquet, although it will be without bikes.
  For those  following this blog, be sure to keep an eye out for details of next years ride!

Dinner at Big B BBQ

At the request of the desk clerk at our hotel, we had dinner at Big B BBQ .  This is our server Stephanie. Stephanie was great AND rides bikes too!!!! Service was great and food was wonderful!!!!