December 30 is rapidly approaching! The End is near - already!

Gold Camp Road near Victor, CO

Suddenly 2016 is almost over and we will be leaving this beautiful place along with many newfound friends.  We have lived here through four seasons and have worked hard, hiked hard, and had many wonderful experiences. On February 1, we will begin our next adventure at the International Guest House in Washington DC.  We are beginning to shift our thoughts from mountain to city and we appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we travel down this new road.

If you want the picture version of what we've been doing since our last blog post, scroll down and make sure you see the last couple of pictures showing Jonathan having his lifelong dream fulfilled - having a building named in his honor. (RIIIGHT! ;-)

At the end of July, Jonathan hiked Uncompahgre Peak with new friend, Dale Nissley




We had family and friends come to visit in August and September: Lew Naylor and Belle Duerksen from Goshen, John and Karen Donnerberg from Texas, The Schrag Family, Esther and Harold Helmuth (and David, Emmy, Anna and Ezra Helmuth), Maria Wogomon from Goshen, and Lizzy Diaz from Goshen. In November, Doug Reed and Keith Schrag visited. Fun to have all of them here especially after a crazy, busy summer!

Schrag familyb at summit of Pikes Peak. 14,115'

Betty and niece, Maria

Lizzy on top of Monkey Rock!

October was a breathtaking month of colored leaves, traveling to PA for our annual family gathering, Mennonite Relief Sale in Rocky Ford, CO, seeing the Spanish Peaks for the first time, camping, and enjoying having time off to explore in CO.

Back in "the valley" where we surprised (well mostly!) our family at our annual gathering.

Leaving Charles and Esther Nafziger's house in LaJunta - the moon setting as the sun was rising

Spanish Peaks!

Jonathan's new building ...

THE Jon-athan!

Autumn beauty

Wildlife beauty

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

It's been awhile since we posted primarily because it's summer at camp which means no time, no good internet, and not much energy at the end of the day.  So here are some pictures of things we are seeing.  One thing we are experiencing is a bit of dining diversity . . . this week one day in our dining room we had Mormons, Baptists, Mennonites, and an marathon runner from Estonia training for the summer Olympics in Brazil in a few weeks . . . all at RMMC!

Betty's favorite spot

The view from Betty's spot

Summer staff at first worship service - a great group of kids!!

Volunteer youth group from FMC in Iowa City - they worked hard!!!

Jonathan, nephew David, and two staffers hiked to Devil's Playground to view the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.

We finally made it to Raspberry Mountain (Chris Way!)

"The Heavens Declare!"

 Scenes from our hike to Sheep Ridge (Towards Devils Playground)

Mountain Sunflowers at about 11,000 ft.

Hiking back down from Sheeps Ridge

Hearse for sale at a little mountain town called Guffy.  Little handwritten sign in the window says "stay out!!!"

Last Chance Antiques - indeed!

Creative little campsite during Roots Music Camp (There are flamingos in the Rockies, Sue Plank!!!)

This reminds me of "Little House on the Prairie" schoolhouse! ... Hartsell, Colorado

Self-explanatory!

Where the only tweet heard is the song of a bird, and the internet is down all day! (to the tune of "Home on the Range" Copyright by Leanin' Tree Cards) This was on a birthday card sent to Jonathan from his mother. Describes what we are experiencing !!!  We are doing this post at the library because of slow internet. 

An Eventful Week!

We had off on Memorial Day and visited our nephew's family who live in Louisville, CO. Esther and Harold, Betty's sister and husband from Indiana were visiting them so it was a great family time with great food.  Have you ever had a grilled cheese sandwich with caramelized onions and swiss cheese on swirled rye bread?  YUM!   

On Wednesday, Pleiades, the building which has been under construction for almost two years, passed the final inspection with flying colors!  (Jonathan has been working on it 7 days/week for the past 3 weeks!)  As of today (Friday) we have the Certificate of Occupancy which means we can now begin USING the building!

Pleiades - named after a star constellation meaning seven sisters. There is a staff apartment on the far right and the rest of the building will house female staff  in the summer and guests the rest of the year.  By the way, this building is a stone's throw from our apartment.

There was celebrating with the ringing of the dinner bell, root beer, and homemade ice cream at lunch!

Celebrating passing the final inspection! (Tom Unruh, Project Manager/Maintenance Manager; Ed Shirk, Board President; Sam Hershberger, volunteer; Jonathan; and Ardell Swartzentruber, Project Manger/volunteer)

Then on Thursday, we passed camp/kitchen inspection with flying colors.  This time, we celebrated with brats and marshmallows over a propane torch (anything to get out of the kitchen!).

Eight of our summer staff have already arrived and four have been training in the kitchen.  They are a delight and I love the energy of having them around.  This weekend the remaining 28 staff will arrive as well as the first big camp which is Colorado Roots Camp, a group of close to 80 people who teach and play music: bluegrass, folk, jazz, swing, Irish.  We hear during this week there is music in the air all day long as well as a concert every night. We are looking forward to enjoying the sounds!  Until next time.

There's Gold in Them Thar Hills! Or Not.

 A couple of months ago we visited Cripple Creek which was an old gold mining town, turned casino town. We had seen all the "Ramblin Gamblin" buses headed south on highway 67 toward Cripple Creek and wondered what was happening there.  It was a bit of a shock since I had visited there about 30 years ago when it was still a run down little mining town with some dusty antique shops and not much else.  Not the case now.  There are brand new casinos, hotels and the downtown is filled with casinos built into the old storefronts.  One casino, Bronco Billy's, takes up one whole block of the 4-block long Main Street!   We also saw houses with interesting architecture and colors.

Today we ventured to Victor, a town near to Cripple Creek: another little gold mining town.  It was quite a contrast to the newness we witnessed in Cripple Creek. It was a bit depressing what with all the abandoned buildings, store fronts, general dis-repair, and dilapidated gold mining equipment littering the countryside everywhere. Victor is the closest town to the largest gold mine in Colorado, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_%26_Victor_Gold_Mine, yet for all the millions of dollars extracted, the local town doesn't exhibit much benefit.  The snow couldn't hide the huge human-made piles of mining spoils.

Abandoned mine (and dreams) combined with the gray weather made for a dismal landscape.  

Some creative soul is optimistic about Spring!

Main Street Mural added some color to the day.

What was once a booming town has dwindled to 400 people.

What once was.

One bright spot: We stopped at a lovely little German bakery in town that served fabulous food - Soup and a Miner's Pie! (It's behind the New Beetle) 

We also had coffee, a fruit turnover and a pastry called bee sting.  Delicious!  Plus the bakery's tagline is "we bake at 10,000 feet altitude where the calories all bake out!"  That's what I am talking about! We will definitely revisit.

A little flavor of the west - gotta love the blue truck at the top that says "The junk posse - our only crime is lovin' junk!"  And that is an E on the end of the name of the theater . . . just sayin!

I did wonder what makes some people leave everything to look for gold . . . in a mine or a casino.  The chances are so low for 'striking it rich' and in mining, it's such hard and dirty work!  Is it dreaming for a better life? Greed? ... It seems the cost to one's soul by both is quite high.

As Kenny Rodgers' song "The Gambler" says "you gotta know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away, know when to run . . ." Now I'll have that song going through my head for the next couple of days as well as the song, "Goin' down Cripple Creek."

And here's what we saw on the road on the way back home.

Yep!  A Mountain Ewe!  

It was a great day of exploring!

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Additional wildlife sightings: at camp, last week we saw tracks of a different animal at camp last week . . . the "kitty" passed within 20 feet of our apartment! Meow!

Tom (Maintenance Director) comparing paw size to hand:  a big cat!

Yep, 4-5 inches across!

Wild turkeys, Red fox, and deer too! (but no pics.)

-Jonathan & Betty