Jamie loading Trina while Chris cuts the grass one last time.
Around the Baltimore beltway and on to I-70. Next stop...Denver!
Oma driving Trena...does she look terrified?
Back to West Virginia, where Josh was born 34 years ago! We brought some wildflowers from home to keep Trena decorated! When we arrived, it was 92 degrees so we searched for the pool. There were some fun steps to climb, but it was very scenic and refreshing!
Hike this morning near the campground
We visited Jamie’s brother, Stephen, and his wife Sarah and their beautiful 26 acre farm. They treated us to a fun lunch in their spacious kitchen full of antiques and country charm! Josh and Meghan, wish we could have blinked you there to meet their chickens!
This is the house we lived in when Josh was born. Jake and Jason, do you remember swinging in the backyard overlooking the hill?
We had an early start to head to Lake Haven in Indianapolis. No picture of this, but imagine Jamie wrestling with the runaway water hose at the dumping station at 7:30 am. No one there but us to have a good laugh...would have made a great scene for the RV movie with Robin Williams!
Not as far outside Indianapolis as “Retreat” suggests. But it’s so hot outside we don’t want to venture too far from Trena’s A/C anyway. Let’s have a drink!
Not as terrified!
Into Missouri at St. Louis!
Our campsite right across from Stephen and Sarah.
Very nice way to end the day...
There is a lot of corn in Missouri!
We took a 5 mile bike ride on a back country road and it was beautiful...just enough hills to make it scenic!
This is where Lewis and Clark passed, as well as the beginning of the Sante Fe trail.
Hard to capture the welcome to Kansas sign in pouring rain. But there is a Wizard of Oz Museum!
Jamie does most of the driving! Chris prefers to navigate and take pictures!
Flat plains.
A hidden gem...
Pictures do not do Wilson State Park justice! This park changed my Wizard of Oz vision of Kansas! Stephen and Sarah were in a different loop on the lake, but because of the geography we could see their campsite when we went to the highest point in our loop. We had fun waving to each other a half mile away!
We only had one night to spend here so we fit in a refreshing swim, a picnic dinner, and a hike to the highest point in the park for a beautiful sunset!
That isn’t us under the sign! 🤔
The last town in Kansas before Colorado. Wonder where they got the name???
What a great RV Park/Campground right in Golden, CO, home of Coors Beer. And there’s the creek...right behind Trena.
Meghan and Josh came over for a picnic dinner. We decided on “turn the face away” hugs. Meghan and I agreed that as good as Jamie and Josh hugs are, those hugs to start this special week felt so good!
Meghan had seen pictures of Trena, but was excited to get a real tour! We also had fun hearing about wedding plan details!
Josh and Meghan are opening our wedding present ( framed landscape that Aunt Ann painted in 1978 which was the year we were married).
Josh still likes to draw and did these fun pictures for a decoration in the kitchen!
The chickens and Lucy are part of the ambiance of the venue!
New blue paint for the house and even the chicken coop got painted for the wedding!
Both Meghan’s family and Josh’s family head to the Edgewater market where tables are set up for outside dining after buying takeout. Chris’s favorite was the lobster macaroni and cheese...wow, lobster in Denver, not as good as New England lobster, but pretty good!
Clearwater Creek RV Park is only 10-15 minutes from Josh and Meghan and a very nice setting on the creek in Golden. On Friday morning we host a brunch for Jake, Jason, Rika, Josh, Stephen, and Sarah. The brunch special was 14 very fresh scrambled eggs (contribution from Josh and Meghan’s chickens)! We also had Maryland Beaten Biscuits, sent from Mommom and Granddad, which traveled across the country in Trena’s freezer!
Briar Commons Brewery/Restaurant was the setting for the Rooftop Patio Party on the eve of the wedding. The clouds were looking ominous, but the rain held back and the sun even made an appearance. Twenty four friends and family members gathered for family style food and beverages. Jamie gave the father of the groom speech with class and a love for family theme.
Stephen and Sarah treated us to brunch at Buffalo Rose on the wedding morning. Delicious breakfast dishes were served by a fun waitress with streaks of blue and pink hair!
She was spunky and had words of wisdom for the groom!
Josh and Meghan had worked so hard on this latest version of their wedding venue. It came together beautifully in their own backyard. Jamie set up a zoom link so that many more friends and family members could share in the ceremony that Jay and Mer (Josh and Meghan’s best friends in CO) conducted.
Looking at these pictures you would not realize that there was a heavy rain storm two hours before the ceremony started! Josh and Meghan wrote their own vows and included some symbolism about a cherry tree that was a gift from Jay and Mer. Special memories for the day included: the chickens clucking sweetly during part of the ceremony, the decorations and beautiful flowers (notice my wrist corsage even matched!), and wonderful speeches by Meghan’s maid of honor, Jake and Jason, and Meghan’s Dad and Mom.
The original!
Meghan’s family included us for a delicious seafood (yes, more good seafood in Denver) dinner on the rooftop at Bernie’s Airbnb.
My favorite picture is that last one!
Wyoming is flat and stretched forever. Then we start to see Mountains.
Colter Bay Village is our home for four nights and Grand Teton National Park is beautiful! We had some rain the first evening, but the mountains are majestic in any weather. And what a nice break from the heat. The nights here often dip into the 40’s in the summer!
So many beautiful lakes with the backdrop of the Teton Mountains! We stopped at String Lake, hiked around Taggart Lake, and saw the famous Moulton Barn! The water is so clear!
We also saw a moose and its cub on the aptly named Moose Wilson Road. This wildlife spotting will end up being a preview for much to come our next day in Yellowstone.
After giving my students a parabola problem about Old Faithful for the last two decades, how cool is it for Mrs. Mosberg to actually see Old Faithful erupt?!
Although we were very aware of Old Faithful, we had no idea that the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was so grand and inspiring and beautiful! We managed to avoid most of the crowded parts of Yellowstone by choosing our timing. A hike around the Northern Rim of the Canyon was fairly level, very few other hikers, and provided breathtaking views! The final destination was Inspiration Point, aptly named!
In between Canyon Village and Fishing Bridge we were rewarded with seeing lots of Bison, one herd with several calves down in a valley.
These pictures were the view from the beach and lake a 3 minute walk from our campsite! The water was a bit cold... Chris braved it to her waist and Jamie took a complete plunge!
With the Tetons to our west, we took a scenic bike ride along a path that was amazingly level!
This was one of our favorite hikes. Jamie said, “We’ve seen a lot of wildlife, now we just need to see a bear!”
When we reached beautiful Phelps lake, Chris chose a rock for a picnic. We could hear a group of hikers singing Jingle Bells about 100 yards away. Jamie decided to explore the reason for the singing...maybe they were trying to scare off a bear. And sure enough, Jamie’s dream came true! He didn’t have to use the bear spray ($49.50) and the bear cooperated by looking up for the picture!
We had read that Custer State Park was more like a National Park and sure enough it rivaled Grand Teton and Yellowstone with beauty and fun! In the first afternoon we set up camp in the lovely Game Lodge Campground, rode Needles Tunnel Highway to hike around Sylvan Lake. Because of the granite rocks, parts of the hike reminded me of Old Rag Mountain in VA. After we returned we discovered a bike path from our campground to the actual Game Lodge, famous for hosting Presidents Coolidge and later Eisenhower.
About a mile from our campsite is the Wildlife Loop and we had fun driving it three different times!
We started our morning with a Wildlife Loop drive and then a delicious buffet breakfast at the Game Lodge. Susanne and Bruno had planned to stay here if they had been able to do the trip with us...maybe a different pandemic free year!
The 1880 Train Ride took us from Hill City to Keystone and back. This is the engine getting filled with water. Same train used in TV series, Gunsmoke ( for the over 60 readers!).
Our neighbor camper said that a buffalo herd was sighted on the Wildlife Loop so we looped again... and after some back road searching off the loop we found them! There are 1700 buffalo that roam in the wild at the park, and seeing a herd is much more fun than a single buffalo alongside the road!
Iron Mountain Road is the spectacular way to approach Mt. Rushmore. There is a tunnel where after coming through, the monument is right there in a view! Of course we also visited the actual monument, and timed our visit early to avoid huge crowds.
We weren’t sure about traveling for 90 minutes to the Badlands today after Mt. Rushmore, but this vast, mysterious, and picturesque park was worth it. However, the pictures do not do this amazing national park justice!
Wow, 57 years (or so) later, I return to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota! My father, who would’ve turned 100 on August 22 ,brought us here and Rock City and every possible Indian burial mound and a million other sites across this great country! A station wagon, three in the front, three across the middle, two in the back facing backwards , two tarps on the roof rack, cream cheese and olive sandwiches, and miles and miles of asphalt.
After visiting those special parks in the West, we were wondering if the trip heading home would be anticlimactic. However, Griff’s Valley View RV Park in the outskirts of Des Moines was scenic, quiet, and tidy. A bike path right next to the park was added fun with a beautiful sunrise!
Almost home
One more sunset
One last sunset
Farmland is just as stunning on the road home!