HOME IS WHERE YOU PARK IT!

That title is what the door mat says,  the door mat was a gift from my RVing brother Gary and his Nancy!!

Arranged on my cherry table is a Japanese wooden toy tower and candle shaped like a gingerbread house.  Very different yet both gifts and precious to me!  In fact the cherry table was a gift from a German friend when we moved to the parsonage in 2004.  All of these gifts triggered a thought:

HOME is not a certain type of structure, a prescribed number of square feet, even a PLACE.  Being RVers people ask us:  Well, where is home?  When do you go home and just this morning, "Where is all of your STUFF? And isn't that crowded with the TWO of you?"

I told that young Psycho Therapist from Boulder that we kind of enjoy each other's company and shared adventures after sixty years!  And if we have an occasion when we don't, we can TAKE A WALK or read a book!

Home is where you feel loved and understood, secure and forgiven.  Home is a special place.   We love mountains, rivers, lakes, and the glories of sunsets and lightening storms.   So we try to camp where these things are happening, or going to happen!

Ultimately, "THIS WORLD is not my home, I'm just a passin' through.  My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.  The angels beckon me from Heavens open door and I can't feel AT HOME in this world anymore."   --Campfire song - American Spiritual  

As one of our elderly church members said:  "See you in heaven, if not before!"

COLORFUL COLORADO!

 After a week at West Lake near the small mountain village of Red Feather Lakes NORTH of Rocky Mountain National Park, we are camped in the guest room at my sister's near Denver while the COUGAR is getting its annual checkup at Century RV in Longmont.   A GREAT PLACE TO BUY YOUR NEXT RV, trailer, or camper!  We had NO RESERVATIONS for the 4th of July Weekend!!  So the Wednesday before we left Lake Boyd in Loveland we took a run up the road toward Red Feather Lakes where our McKee / Reid Families used to spend long weekends when I was a child.  Tom had obtained some maps of that National Forest and we were checking out places where we might "boon dock!" - no amenities,  no power, water, or sewer hookups.  We pulled into the West Lake campground and discovered that the upper loop was first come, first served.  Sharon, the friendly host, was getting a site ready for the reservation due to arrive that day and we told her our situation.  "Our friends in space 30 in the first come loop are leaving about 9 in the morning, so if you are here by 8 - 8:30 you shouls be able to get that space!"   We told her that we would be there by 8:30.

Getting the tanks emptied at the State Park in Loveland, the water tank filled, and everything secured for an early departure was accomplished without too much ado.  We ate our granola bars on the way to Red Feather Lakes the next EARLY MORNING!!  What a gorgeous spot with wild flowers all around and on Saturday the 3rd - right at dusk - a fireworks show that would have made a much larger city proud!!  Earlier in the day a fishing derby, arts and crafts show, used book sale were on the schedule along with LOTS of traffic.  We were amazed when the afternoon thunderstorm waited until after the Veteran's Memorial at 3 PM was finished!!  Great timing!!

We were praising GOD the next morning at the Community Church and belting out "God Bless America"  with the friendly local congregation plus a few of us RVers since there are THREE RV parks in the area.

THIS past weekend, we enjoyed a family BBQ at our nephew's new home on a 30 acre hillside near Steamboat Springs, forest fire or no!!  We could see the smoke from a lightening strike, north and west of Steamboat Springs as we returned to the motel, but after the smoke LAST YEAR from the fire on Hiway 14 the haze was not disconcerting at all!!  Many family members, several of which sent their photos via email so I decided that I would LEARN how to load them onto Facebook - so checkout my siblings, all three of them and my brother Gary's 3 generations POSTED BY ME!!  Many Thanks to my IT crew - sister Nancy, Kathleen and even my brother Gary - these past couple of years!