Wednesday 28 April 2010

We had coffee in camp before driving into Blanding for breakfast. Bob headed home after breakfast, and I called Kay Garlinghouse. I told her I was in Blanding, and she enthusiastically invited me to come on over to Lewis, Colorado for a visit. I drove to Montecello, Utah. I stopped at the BLM visitor center to ask where I could get a shower. I fueled the Honda and stopped at the Mountain View RV Park for a shower before driving to Lewis, Colorado. I greeted my cousin Jimmy and his wife Kay before going next door to greet my Cousin Carolyn and her husband Ron. Ron and Carolyn had just arrived from their winter quarters in Arizona the day before. Carolyn had just taken some cinnamon rolls out of the oven and offered me one. I gleefully accepted. Ron soon joined us, and then Jimmy. A repairman was trying to get their telephone working. We visited most of the afternoon, discussed taking a ride on ATVs to see the 234 acre ranch, but the wind was blowing up a lot of dust, and it did not look like a good day for an ATV ride. Jimmy has irrigated pasture for his livestock in the summer, and grows 50 acres of alfalfa hay. He sells about half the hay and feeds the rest to his livestock in the winter. He has about 50 head of sheep, 50 head of Boer goats, 40 head of cattle, and his son Marc has half a dozen horses on the ranch. Marc’s daughter Hunter Jo joined us for supper in Dolores. She is 11, in 4 H with projects in goats and sewing. Her sewing projects went to the state fair last year. Kay had to go to work; she is the medical emergency coordinator at the Ute Mountain Casino. Marc is an EMT, and he got called out on an emergency. Jimmy and Kay’s daughter Monica is a respiratory therapist in Denver. After supper, Carolyn invited me to spend the night, and made up a bed in the spare bedroom for me.