Today was our last day here in the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and it has been a great stay! We were so fortunate to have been able to reconnect with my neighbor and classmate from DeWitt IA, Vickie (Prier) Garwood and meet her husband Bruce. We were also very glad to see Ron "Panhead" Tomlinson again. It's been a long time "Panhead" was Ron's military radio callsign, a reference to a Harley engine produced from 1948-1965.
As I've mentioned before, our travels are all about exploring our great United States but also reconnecting with friends, military comrades and relatives, and making new friends along the way. We enjoy meandering around the country, taking our time and seeking out the sights and the people. We consider ourselves so fortunate to be able to do this. So many people are not able to for a plethora of reasons or simply don't want to. Doreen and I intend to continue this quest as long as we are able and as long as it remains fun. It is a LOT of work maintaining the coach and a LOT of work setting up and tearing down at each stop. This year we will log over 8700 trailer miles and about 14,000 miles on the truck, including 42 stops (that's 42 set-ups and 42 tear downs). There is also considerable expense to these six month "vacations", but this is all "self-inflicted", so no complaints.
We are also very lucky and very thankful to have our support system in Ankeny tending to our home while we are gone. Our son Dan stops over to our house during his lunch hour at least weekly, takes in our mail and lets us know if there is anything important; does a walk-through, runs water in the drains periodically, replaces batteries as needed, reboots our router when we lose connectivity and anything else that comes along. We could not do this without his support. Thanks, Danno!!
This morning we drove north about 45 miles to the southern outskirts of Denver CO and had lunch with Doreen's cousins Jeanie Powers and Barbie Puzio and their spouses Deni Powers and Jake Puzio (pictured above). Jeanie and Deni are from Ann Arbor MI and are here visiting Jake and Barbie (Jeanie's sister) who live in Lafayette CO. We met at the Cheesecake Factory in the Park Meadows Mall. We had a nice lunch and great conversation with them. We typically see Jeanie and Deni and they travel through central Iowa in route to visiting Barbie and Jake at least a couple times a year. It is always great when they stop by over Christmas when our kids are home so they can see them too.
After returning from lunch we fueled the big ol' brown truck in preparation for our departure in the morning. Liberty was glad to see us! Doreen did a couple loads of laundry and I did my normal routine of flushing/dumping tanks, stowing hoses, uploading fresh water, cleaning and stowing the barbecue, etc etc. Ground Hogs Day for sure.
Tomorrow morning we will pull chocks, launch out of here around 0900 hrs and head east to Hwy 24 then further east on I-70 to Oakley KS, our next stop. We will be there for two nights.
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