Merry Christmas 2014
We hope you had a prosperous year, and that you and your
family are healthy and happy. It’s been a good year for us, we’ve dodged the
health bullets pretty much… Patrice had a run in with a tic at Buffalo River
National Park in Arkansas and spent 3 days of our beltway vacation hanging out
in West Virginia being treated for ehrlichia (a tic borne disease.) She just
can’t stay away from hospitals on her travels LOL.
This year we took Serendipity (our
travel trailer) on several trips ... a couple of 3 day escapes to Mueller State
Park which is on the west side of Pikes Peak (the fall colors there at the end
of September were stunning!) and a couple of short jaunts to New Mexico and
Eastern Colorado. We visited Pueblo, New Mexico home of Kit Carson for many
years and Bent’s Fort in Colorado… another hang out for Kit. We were lucky to meet Kit’s great grandson at
Bent’s Fort where he spends summers as a docent. He’d find it hard to deny his heritage, he’s the
spitting image of his
great grandpa – short, slight and sandy colored hair.
Our big trip for the year was an 8
week long journey across the America’s midsection. We headed east out of
Colorado and wound our way through the middle states- Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, dipped
down to Mississippi as part of our Shiloh Battlefield Visit (we had to see the infamous
train crossing that provoked the battle), then on through Tennessee, North
Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Mary- land, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska… and finally home to Colorado. On the way we stopped
at as many state capitols as we could, and all the presidents homes we’d missed on previous trips and of course went back to Jefferson’s
Monticello. We followed the National Road heading west out of West Virginia and
visited the site of George Washington’s first battle with the French. We visited Fallingwater - a
Frank Lloyd Wright house in Pennsylvania, did some genealogy research in
Cambridge, Ohio, went to Springfield, Ill. to
visit the new Lincoln Library and
Museum, Mark Twain’s home and Louisiana, Mo – where Larry’s great grandfather
Levi Ruggles built several mansions prior to the Civil War … whew I could go on and on!
What we learned on this journey is what a wonderful
country we live in and how much more
there is to see. We feel like we just
scratched the surface and are itching to head out again next June for another
long journey to our northern and eastern states
this time.
We
finished off our travels for the year with a fall colors cruise Of New England and the Canadian Maritime
provinces. The weather
was great (if a little nippy) and we found many places we’d like to revisit with Serendipity
for a more leisurely
and in depth tour of the area.
In between or travels to see North
America this year, we found ourselves in California on
frequent visits. After all, our children and my
parents haven’t deserted the state unlike the run-away Stevens. My mom has bounced back
from her terrible car accident last October and while she still needs a
walker and has vertigo issues, she’s doing great. She plays poker, bridge, and
any other game that comes up at Mission Commons and has found relief in the
fact that they handle most of my dad’s care. My dad continues to slip under the
blanket of Alzheimer’s so we share as much time as we can with them while we
can.
Jennfer and Brian Berg spent all
their vacation time on a trip to watch the FIFA World Cup soccer playoffs in Brazil
this summer. They found time to get in some sightseeing and a visit the Amazon in
between games and had a marvelous time! They continue to remodel their house
when they find the time, are AVID Galaxy fans and enjoy the Southern California lifestyle. They've informed us they WILL NOT be following us to Colorado.
We spent Thanksgiving with Mom, Dad,
Richard, Mike and Heather and Jennifer’s families and plan to spend a belated
Christmas dinner with the same gang as well as my brother Steven and his wife Rhonda and
hopefully some of their family added in for good measure.
With all our gallivanting around,
sometimes I think we don’t really need a house but we have all this stuff and
we need some place to put it. Larry isn’t buying my proposal to sell the house
and get an apartment in both Calif. and Colo. (He really wants a
barn for his workshop and Serendipity and to hike the gorgeous mountains so
abundant here) so we’re settled here in Colorado with all our dear friends, and the squirrels and birds
Larry has adopted for now.
Finally, we exhort you to Come! Visit! We love
having company and showing off our beautiful
state!
Cheers to All!
May you have a happy, healthy and
peace- filled year to come!
Larry and Patrice Stevens
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