Trip to Cortez and still no washer

July 10 – Let’s see if I can remember today a day later. We left at about 8:30 to drive to Cortez to the Colorado Visitor Center to get tickets for guided tours of Mesa Verde for Thursday. You can buy them up to 48 hours ahead and we didn’t want to drive into the park and not have tickets or have to wait for tours later in the day. We got there at about 9:30 and got tickets for 10:30 and 12:30 allowing an hour between for our lunch and travel. We have to be at the turnoff into the park by 9:30 as it’s a curvy mountainous road. We took Xena with us since we’d be mostly in the truck and we could take turns staying with her if we made stops.

They have a Safeway in Cortez so we stopped for produce and I broke another pair my $1 reading glasses so we stopped at Dollar Tree and I got 5 pair. Hope they last for a while. Bill wanted to drive thru Historic Mancos on the way home as we picked up some brochures of places in the welcome center. It was a few blocks long with several homes and buildings from the 1800’s.

Fire came right up to the back of this house

East of Mancos is where one of the fires was. On the way back we pulled off a couple of times to take some photos. It is amazing that there were houses on a knoll and it looked like just a few yards behind them was totally scorched and burned. Their once beautiful view out of their back windows is gone for many years. It looked like one big hill was burned all the way around leaving an occasional patch of green for some unknown reason. Those people were really lucky that their homes were saved after the several hundred than were not in the other fires around the state.

We stopped what we considered briefly in Durango. First stop was to pick up Bill’s shoe from the shoe repair, and then I picked up my watch from getting a new band on it and took another watch in to have the battery replaced. We decided Bill would stay in the truck with Xena while I went into Wal-mart for a very short list, plus pick up his prescription and on my way out get two subs from Blimpies that we could eat in the truck on the way home. That plan worked out well but we still didn’t get home until after 2.

Since it was our work day, we both changed into work clothes and headed out. Bill used the weed whacker and I went back to weeding. Once I get the bulk of it done, the maintenance should not be so bad. As it was, I did 20 sites today, but some were just maintenance ones and others were massive with huge weeds that kill my wrists the next day.

When we got in Carole called and said they would not be able to come in August as previously planned. Herb had been having some problems and they found out he has a 2 inch cancerous tumor in his colon and is scheduled for surgery August 1. They sound like the whole procedure will turn out fine but he’s going to be in the hospital for 5-7 days and then home resting for 2 weeks and then gradually get back to normal. We were very sad to hear he will have to go through all that but also sad that they won’t be coming.

My pretty dinner

After two Radlers and a long rest break, I got started on dinner. I went for a bit of a gourmet touch which doesn’t do much for Bill, but he really enjoyed it in the end. I grilled 2 pork chops and topped them with a mango salsa. I brought a bag of red rice I bought at an oriental store so I cooked some of that and the veggie of the day was baked acorn squash brushed with a apricot preserves and butter glaze. The salsa was good but I really liked the sweet touch the preserves gave the squash. Later for dessert I made parfaits with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. It was the perfect dessert for a warm night after a nice meal.

We watched a couple of shows and headed to bed.

July 11 - We wanted to be up and dressed and finished with breakfast by 8:30 as the appliance guy was supposed to come this morning. We didn’t have a specific time. No word by 9 so Bill rode his bike to the office to pick up our reservations and I headed out in the Mule to start weeding. He came out with the weed eater when he got back and we worked for 2 solid hours. He did some pulling of the big weeds that he passed as the weed eater won’t cut them. Today I put most of them in the back of the Mule instead of in the dumpsters as it fills them up and then there’s a problem over the weekend. I took my load to the pile down by the maintenance shed and then came back to rest and regroup. I checked my baby birds and all 4 were out sitting along the edge of the nest. They are bigger every day and then one day we’ll go out and they’ll be gone. Of course I took photos and video.

We had not heard from the appliance guy and had tentatively planned to go to the casino for the Young at Heart half price lunch buffet, so I told Bill I would shower since I’d take the longest washing my hair. I had just gotten out when I heard the tech arrive. At least this time he didn’t have to take the washer completely out, just forward and leaning to put the new circuit board in. I finished getting ready and came out to read while he was doing his thing. Well, it wasn’t the $300 circuit board. The tech was not happy. He called Whirlpool and they said the only thing left it could be was the electric harness. The good news was if it is that and not the circuit board he can return it and I think this part is much less expensive. So, he’s going to order the part and let us know when he can come back. He said he’d have to talk to his dad, the owner, and they will probably come together.

Well, Bill got his shower and we left according to plan and had our lunch. They made a few little changes to the menu but it was still basically Mexican. After lunch we registered our player cards and got our $20 each to play on. Today I went to the non-smoking room and played the poker machine with my card and when I thought I had played long enough it let me cash out with $17.50. Then I played some kind of penny machine but it takes .90 to max each play and I did win 750 pennies one time. The guy next to me said he thought I must have cashed out for a lot as I did win a lot but in pennies it doesn’t add up to much. I finally cashed out with $4.50 so I left with $21 more than I went in with.

We stopped at the library so Bill could return a book and at the welder’s in Allison to see what he would do with our bike rack. He bent it back out and said he thought that would hold find so we headed home. I checked on the birds and not one was visible and neither were the parents. Then we had a storm and I checked and still no birds. I wondered if they got flying lessons today while we were gone and have officially flown the coop.

I had bought more peaches on sale yesterday so had plenty to make a cobbler for us and a small one for Marion and Jerry and an even smaller one for Harlan. I had some blueberries too so threw some in and since Marion is diabetic I made it almost entirely with splenda. The only concession was I used some splenda blend brown sugar for that brown sugar flavor.

After I paid some bills and did some researching on the computer I called Carole as there were several sites in our camp open for at least a week starting the 15th. We have one right across from us and it only has electric but we thought they could fill their water tank when they arrive and use the public restrooms during the day and they can shower at our RV and squeeze in a week before the surgery. Being in our camp is better as they won’t be bringing a car and they can just walk over as can we. We can all bicycle if they bring their bikes and we’ll take the truck for all of our excursions. She said she will try to resolve it all tomorrow once she gets the rest of Herb’s tests scheduled. Since he’s going to be down and out for a while maybe we can work out this last adventure before.

I took the last package of venison out for dinner and grilled burgers and they were nice and juicy. Then we had leftover vegetables and that was it. We thought we better make our deliveries before another storm burst so we took leftover chicken and dumplings and cobbler to Harlan, along with the key to take Xena out twice tomorrow, and cobbler to Marion and Jerry. You never know when you’ll need back up so food is always a good way to win people over.

Our 4 babies

When we got back, still no birds, but while we were watching TV I spotted the swallow adults swooping down and around and went out and three of the babies were perched along the bottom of the roof edge down from their nest. Of course I got more photos and videos. We had some cobbler with whipped cream while watching TV. Later Bill said the mom was sitting out there with them but we only saw 3 babies. I checked all around the ground for number 4 and hope he was sleeping in the nest still.

We want to leave between 8 and 8:15 tomorrow and I’ll need to pack some sandwiches so better get moved on into the bedroom.