Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado - Travelogue Week 007


Dear  family and friends,

We spent the entire week in Colorado.  On Monday we visited with Pete's nephew Keith and his wife Sheryl.  We met their son Joe also.  We had dinner with them and filled each other in on the last 29 years!  Other than a few short hours, we had not seen Keith since 1977 when he helped build our house.  They have  lived in Colorado Springs for the last 16 years.


Tuesday we spent the night in Castle Rock CO.  It has a darling old town section and looks small but is really quite large.  On Wednesday we headed toward Denver.  When we disobeyed our GPS in Arkansas it told us to head down a road to get back on track. The 2.8 mile road got more and more narrow and the trees put dozens of scratches into the sides of the motorhome.  We found The Detail King, Terry Sherrett in Littleton, CO.  He immediately came out and buffed out the scratches for an amazingly low price. Thank you, Terry.  Then we headed to Lakewood to see Jack, a close college friend.

At Jeff's we joined the Bible study as his house.  It was a wonderful group.  Afterwards, one couple gave us tickets to the Colorado Rockies vs Dodger baseball game. Jeff joined us for the game on Thursday afternoon. When we left the game in the sixth inning there were 24 runs, 28 hits and no errors!  The Dodger had changed pitchers 6 times and the Rockies 8 times!  The final was 19-11 Dodgers.  Nothing boring here!




After the game Jeff gave us a tour of downtown Denver.  There are some amazing buildings there.  They also have a great blend of new and historic buildings.




After the game we drove to West Denver to the Red Rock Amphitheater with Jeff and his daughter Jackie. Jackie is going to school in London to study fashion design and was home for a short visit.  Later Jeff took us to dinner at Red Lobster where we visited with Jeff and his son Matt.  Jeff's daughter Beth was not in town during our visit.




Friday we spent the day in the Home Depot parking lot adding a couple of shelves to the motorhome.  Then we drove to Eric and Lena's house in Commerce City CO.  Eric is also a nephew that we have not spent appreciable time with since 1977.  Eric worked with Keith and Pete's brother Mike to build our house.  We had a terrific visit with Eric and Lena.  We stayed up past midnight talking about God and church and family.  Eric and Lena are foster parents for Issac who is 14 months and a baby girl who weighs just 8 pounds and is three months old.




Lena made a Russian meal on Friday night and got up Saturday morning to make us breakfast.  They were terrific hosts as were Keith and Sheryl.  We headed back to Colorado Springs to see the Air Force Academy Falcons play the New Mexico Lobos.  Keith and Sheryl's daughter Sarah is a senior Cadet at the academy.  The game was amazing.  The pre-game included hundreds of cadets marching onto the field. Sarah was a squadron commander.  Then seven Air Force members parachuted onto the field and four jets did a fly over. The half time show included a Falcon diving the stadium at the command of his trainer.  Is this a great country or what?








Oh yeah, I forgot, they did play football.  The Falcons beat the Lobos 24 to 7.  Here is Josh Clayton sacking the Lobo's quarterback.


After the game Sarah gave us a tour of the USAFA base and the chapel.








We finished out the week in Colorado spending the night in Glenwood Springs CO.  Next week on to Utah!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading!

Love, Pete and Ellen
By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Pueblo, Colorado - Travelogue Week 006


Hello from Colorado,
Sunday morning, September 17th, we went to church at the Chapel on the Hill.  It is at the entrance to Outdoor Resorts of the Ozarks.  Pastor Teddie bought a house here and added on a church!  His original house had a motorhome garage.  He converted the garage into a cafe with a beautiful church on the second floor (sorry, we forgot to take pictures).  The building is now five stories with an incredible view from the crows nest.  Pastor Teddie takes no money from the church. He bought a second two-story house near the lake.  It is fully furnished and he leaves it open.  He allows RV park members to use the house for free when guests visit.  He just asks that they clean up after themselves.

On Monday we stayed in Branson, MO.  We had only one night, but went to the Shoji Tabuchi show.  Shoji is a Japanese fiddle player who had a dream of coming to America to play country music.  He went from Japan to Nashville to Branson.  His show is incredible and he has tremendous passion for music, dance, the USA, the military and God.  When the Japanese Prime Minister visited the US, President Bush invited Shoji to the White House to perform.  This show is a must see.

We received an email from a new friend at the Outdoor Resorts.  He said his motorhome site was struck by lightning just after we left.

Road north of Branson


Dick Clark theater
Rock wall in Branson


We had to leave Branson after one day to have a transmission service in Springfield MO.  From there we traveled out of Missouri and through Kansas to Colorado.  What can we say?  Kansas was green and pretty but flat!  We looked for what you should not miss but could not find it.  We found rain and wind storms in Wichita.  We left after two days for Dodge City just in time to miss the tornadoes that moved through Wichita.
Dodge City (duh) Kansas


On the way through Kansas we encountered powerful winds that blew the 33,000 pound motorhome all over the road, and dust storms that took our visibility away. Dust storm (this was a highlight of Kansas!)


Truck emerging out of nowhere


Ellen at the wheel


Saturday we spent the day in Pueblo CO.  We visited the annual Chile and Frijole Festival at the Pueblo river walk.



Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs



In Colorado we happened upon the KOA camp in Colorado City.  They had a free concert starring Nashville singer Roger Wynn and his family.  His voice was incredible and he sang all the best country songs to perfection. Sunday we went to church in Pueblo at the Mountain View Calvary Chapel.

Mountain View Calvary Chapel in Pueblo CO


We will be in Colorado for most of this week visiting friends and relatives.  Email you next week, love, Pete & Ellen
By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Table Rock Lake, Arkansas - Travelogue Week 005

Dear Friends,

It seems like forever since we last wrote. Has it only been a week? We finally made it through Texas. Just barely. We spent a couple nights in Hugo, Oklahoma (just across the border). Ellen looked in her Trailerlife camping book for a campsite, and after reading, wanted to keep going. Pete, however, had driven many long hours that day trying to get out of Texas, and wanted to stop. So we went to what we expected to be second rate campsite (only $15.00 per night) and were blessed with a beautiful, peaceful campground along Lake Hugo, Oklahoma. It became our favorite thus far. If the wireless connection had worked better we would have stayed longer. If you get near there, you should plan to spend a few days. Beautiful weather, warm water, no people. We took a two hour bike ride through the park and were only passed by one vehicle, and saw no other person. There were motorhomes and boats scattered about so we knew people were around. We went out kayaking and had the lake to ourselves.

Our campsite at Hugo Lake was 50 feet above the water's edge


Beautiful sunrises




View from out dinette at Lake Hugo


Eastern Oklahoma


From Lake Hugo, we drove straight up the eastern border of Oklahoma. We were surprised by the beauty; everyone thinks of dust bowls when you mention Oklahoma. We entered Arkansas at Fort Smith and continued north to Carroll County to Outdoor Resorts in the Ozarks. If you are looking on a map it is called Oak Grove (Blue Eye).  It is half way between Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Branson, Missouri. It is now our favorite spot. In the future we might consider purchasing an RV lot here. There will be 350 lots when they finish. Everyone here is between 50 and 65 years of age and as friendly as can be. There are activities  going on all the time.

View from the clubhouse at Outdoor Resorts of the Ozarks.  We had a space at the water's edge


Waterfall and fountain next to golf course at the Outdoor Resorts


This was our site at Outdoor Resorts of the Ozarks


Well, that is it from Oklahoma and Arkansas.  I never thought we would want to visit either one, let alone consider buying a lot!

The Okies and Ozarkies, Pete and Ellen



By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

San Antonio, Texas - Travelogue Week 004


Dear Friends,
We spent Sunday, Sept. 3rd in the little town of Fredericksburg, Texas. It is west of Austin and northwest of San Antonio. If you ever get close to it, don't go by without stopping. It is a darling old-west town. Lots of tourists walking up and down the streets shopping, eating and just enjoying the atmosphere. They have several bed and breakfast places to stay as well as a Best Western Motel, done Texas style.






From Fredericks we moved on to San Antonio.  After moving everyday since we left San Diego and spending three glorious days in San Angelo with the Pierce family, we settled into San Antonio for a week.  Prewarned that it would be SOOOOO hot, we were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather.

If you have not been to San Antonio, be sure to visit the River Walk and the Alamo.




This is the 46 ounce Margarita that we did not purchase. Our gracious host Darryl, loaned it to us for the picture.


And the Alamo.


Amazingly, we spent Saturday evening with our close friend Jean.  She lives in San Luis Obispo, but was visiting in San Antonio.  We met Jean at  Max Lucado's Oak Hills Church for an inspiring service.


Sunday we spent the day at the world famous Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels, Texas and then passed thru Austin, Texas on our way to Oklahoma.


Unidentifield building in downtown Austin.


And that's our week.  Let us know how your week was.

Still in Texas,

Pete and Ellen



By Pete . Ellen Mattson

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