As a child, my two sisters, brother and I, and my dad and mom spent several summer vacations in Colorado camping at Byers Creek, near Fraser, Colorado. The family didn't have a lot of money and this was an economical way to get out and have some fun (in cooler weather than the hot, humid Kansas summers). We pulled a little pop-up camper behind the 1960 Plymouth Valiant, driving what was then the back roads of Kansas and Colorado. Our air conditioning was of the 4-70 variety - all four windows open, speeding down the road at 70 miles per hour. How we ever fit into that little camper to sleep is baffling to me.
As the years went by, my dad continued to go to Colorado whenever he could and with whoever was available to go, including his kids, friends and finally grandkids. Byers Creek campground was generally the destination, although on occasion,we detoured to New Mexico.
A few years ago, Dad became ill with a blood disease that saps his strength and also began going blind from the non-treatable kind of macular degeneration. Losing his eyesight slowly has been difficult, at best. He has always been an independent man and relying on others for anything is simply not in his nature.
A couple of years ago I heard dad mention that he had talked to a friend about wanting to see Colorado again before he went blind. That started the wheels turning and I asked my brother and sisters if they would like to take a family vacation with dad. It took a year and a half of planning but the time finally arrived in June 2009.
Even with all the advance planning, we were still able to surprise dad when my sister and her husband from St. Louis met Dad, Delia, my dad's wife of 35 years, and Bob at the airport to continue on their flight to Denver. All of us nearly slipped and mentioned the surprise at some point over the last few weeks of planning. My brother, who had just started a new job, flew out on Monday. The rest of us drove with the mound of luggage.
Something my dad had wanted to do his entire life was to take the train through the mountains, particularly, the Moffat Tunnel. So, on the first Sunday of the vacation, Dad, Delia, Delia's daughter Liz, me, and my sisters Kathy and Barbara set off from Denver's Union Station on the two hour Amtrak train ride to Fraser, Colorado. Our three husbands, Bob, Dave and Earl, drove the three cars to the house we rented in Winter Park, Colorado. Below are some photos from the ride.
Here's dad and Delia enjoying the scenery, which was stunning!
Liz made friends with the conductor, who was a hoot. As you can see, they became fast friends! Take a look at the reaction of the lady on the train - priceless.
The train station at Fraser is just a whistle stop but cute, nevertheless. The third photo is the Fraser end of the six-mile Moffat tunnel that cuts straight through the mountain. The train ride was great. The seats were exceptionally comfortable. In fact, we're all talking about taking a cross country train ride!
Due to my sister's persistence in this recession, we were able to rent a 6,000 square foot house for $300 a night! This was the view out of the living room window.
There were three master bedrooms, a pool room, a state of the art kitchen, a huge television room and hot tub. To say my dad and the family enjoyed this lovely home is an understatement.
The first thing my brother did was to jump into the hot tub.
Here's the view from the tub.
On Monday, we drove to the Byers Creek campground. Nearly 50 years after our first visit, it was still the same old campground, just with bigger trees and logs that had fallen across the stream in different places. Talk about bringing back the memories. It's funny when you get a family together to reminisce - each person may have experienced the same events but remembers different pieces.
The photo below shows "the Mountain" we kids used to sit on to eat our breakfast. I'm sure we scrambled up effortlessly as kids. It was more of a production to get situated for this photo, particularly for those of us with bad knees! We all thoroughly enjoyed the couple of hours we spent looking around the old campground. We had it all to ourselves since it's early in the camping season.
On Tuesday, Dad visited a local pharmacy and picked up a prescription that had been called in by his hometown doctor and he and my sister visited a local doctor to get one of the three shots he gets each week to build his blood cells. At the doctor's office the doctor discovered that the high altitude was causing an oxygen deficit, so arrangements were made to rent some portable oxygen tanks for dad for the remainder of the visit. Once the oxygen was delivered, we took a back roads trip out of Fraser.
The wildflowers were in glorious bloom and we stopped frequently to photograph the flowers, family and generally nice scenes. We found out a couple of days later that this back road had only opened in the last week or so. It was one of the highlights of our trip. We never saw another car the entire trip, except for one park ranger, who we thought might arrest us for picking flowers (not digging them up - which we knew was illegal).
Liz was entranced by the tiny flowers in the majestic setting.
Here's my brother picking flowers for Liz.
Wednesday we planned to take another back roads trip but the planned route was closed. As a result, we drove up to Walden, not far from the Wyoming border. After picnicking at a city park, we drove back through a wildlife wetlands sanctuary. It was cold, rainy and dreary but the prairie dog patrol volunteers were ensconced in their huts watching for and counting the prairie dogs. What a job! As the license plate states: "Prairie Dog Squad - It's not a Job, It's An Adventure."
In the distance, you can see one of the squad members sitting in the elevated shed, in the rain.
Further down the road, we were stopped by cowboys/cowgirls standing in the middle of the road. It turned out to be the highlight of the day trip. We got to see more than a hundred beautiful horses galloping across the road to pasture land on the other side. Never without our cameras, I, my husband and brother-in-law all jumped out and captured the action. My only regret is that I didn't turn the movie mode on for my camera. It's a new camera and I didn't think about it until about a half hour later. It would have been nice to capture the action and thundering sound of the horses in a more robust way than still photos.
Thursday was a rainy day, so we took the opportunity to just relax. One of my sisters and her husband and my brother had flown home Wednesday, so it was a smaller group doing the reminiscing but we spent most of the day recalling the years gone by. I tape recorded most of the conversations and will incorporate snippets of the audio into a slide show I will create of the trip.
I had to include a photo of my dad's hand. He made his living and provided for the family working with his hands. They are still strong hands, albeit a little shakier these days. As you can see, he gets around with a cane.
My dad said over and over during the trip that it was a great, great trip. I have never seen him so relaxed and content. Although he couldn't see the mountains perfectly, or roam around the campsite or walk across the logs that bridged the stream at the campground, he thoroughly enjoyed driving through the mountains, smelling the fresh mountain air and having his family around him all week. We all had a great time and created new memories that will be with us for a lifetime.
Dad, thank you for all you've done for us over the years. The memories you helped create by taking us camping at Byers Creek, formed the foundation for this trip in 2009.
We love you. Carol, Kathy, Barbara, Bobby (know to the rest of the world as Bob) and Liz
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