Rocky Mountain National Park

The weekend before Joey's accident we were road trippin' through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was weeks later before I even downloaded the photos to my laptop. Then another week before we even looked at them. So I guess it's no surprise it's months before I get around to blogging about it. BUT...In order to fully experience our drive through Rocky Mountain National Park with us, you must first turn up the stereo. If you're reading this through a reader I tried to embed the music player but it wouldn't work, so if you want to get the full experience you'll have to take that extra click to get you there, to my actual site. I know..the horror. But I like to think it's worth it.

Starting point, our guest room at The Longbranch Restaurant in Granby, CO:


Lake Granby, outside the park








Clean up for lunch




While everyone else gets ready to eat, Jewel can't put down her new caterpillar friend.


Stopped at another creek:


This is where I make them stop what they're doing and smile for the camera






Hike to the bridge:

Notice the Swift Water sign?

I had an ambush waiting for me once I reached the bridge:
















Kick off your shoes...


We've got more exploring to do..




Jewel's getting brave.


Maybe not.


The boys are tough, though...they can handle it. they can handle anything.


Well......maybe not Jake...


Just don't go past that big rock.


Not a problem for some.


But of course he can't let his little brother out do him.


Jonas up to his neck in melted Rocky Mountain snow.

Wearing a shirt made the water somehow less cold, he says.

He felt so good about himself he allowed a photo.


We went to Moraine Park Museum next, where we edumacated ourselves on glaciers and mountains and Indians and buffalo and.....and....


We bypassed Estes park and planned on heading home. Then we saw Lily Lake.

Who could resist?


By the time everyone figured out it was longer than they thought, it was too late..they couldn't turn back. Jewel didn't mind at all.


Even Jonas caught the fun walking bug.



I could follow these people forever.



Every once in a while though I get a: Are you coming?

I could have stayed out here forever.


We topped off the day with a poolside room in, I believe, Eagle, CO. I do know for sure it was a Holiday Inn Express (quickly becoming my home away from home away from bus).

We got a nice discount on the room, then the free poolside upgrade, along with the boys' desire to swim and play until pool closing......we splurged and treated ourselves to room service, wonderful room service, including dessert.

As beautiful as the Park was, the kids declared the hotel the highlight of the weekend. I loved it all. Joey just dreams of being able to walk across mossy rocks in swift water again.

After rereading this post I realized there's not one mention of how it was crowded as hell and we couldn't get a parking spot at any of the major sites. The only way to see the the most popular parts of the park was to take the shuttle bus....and that wasn't happening. It also rained a lot. The massive people is what I remember as my biggest turn off for the park, but we quickly found cool, off the beaten path places and had a great time, probably even better than the key tourist places. I took a gazillion pictures this day, and thankfully!! because when we looked through the pictures on the computer we had COMPLETELY forgotten about swimming in the icy cold river and hiking around Lily Lake. All I remembered was we were there, and there were too many people. ( Joey's accident turned everything else into a big blur)The pictures bring it all back for me and each one has it's own story behind it. Not a story with words, just a lot of good feelings. Feelings that we can't wait to get back to someday...soon.

Estes Park on Dwellable

Long Overdue Update

The main thing everyone wants to know is How is Joey doing? Joey wants everyone to know that he is doing good. It's been thirteen weeks since the accident and he's happy with his improvements and he's enjoying the down time, dreaming and plotting our future. He's been in physical therapy three weeks now and reports back to the doctor end of January, to check on his progress. His arm is all they're focusing on at therapy, but that doesn't stop me from giving him a hard time when he still grabs a cane or a crutch to walk with. He's actually walking again! Something he was sure would never happen again. He's not pushing himself, rather letting himself recover one day at a time.

Once Joey started getting around on crutches he felt he could build some things and try selling them, so we, Jewel, Joey and myself, made a quick trip up to Colorado to get his truck. We were barely home when my best friend from grade school was only two hundred fifty miles away visiting family, that we had to make another road trip to visit her. Last week we were invited to family in Dallas, then over the weekend we had a family gathering here for family I hadn't seen since I was a baby. All this with therapy three times a week, Christmas shopping, keeping my mom entertained, baking, and trying to keep everyone healthily fed.....we've been busy.

I've had many of you reach out to us, offering support and encouragement, and I can't say with words how much it has meant to us.

I'mmmmmm Baaaaack

My mom has been offline about as long as I have and wrote the following in an email to all her peeps. Being the slacker I am, I figured I'd steal it and add some photos.


Okay - - - much has transpired since last we chatted. Vicki and Joey are here - - trip here was good and the weather here has co-operated quite well - - high 70's low 80's. Upon the arrival of the Watkins' crew, it was noted that we had a very useable chicken coop (hand built by my Dad and nephew)BUT there was a definite lack of chickens.

Sooooo, even though we have "chicks" on order, we were requested (what Vicki wants, Vicki gets)to answer an ad on Craigs list for 6 week old chicks. That said, - - we now are the proud parents of "Brownie" and "Princess".

They do make nice pets - - and they are very accepting of our accommodations for them - - - Good job Victor! Next was the request for an outdoor activity that the kids would use all the time - - - now we go on Craigs list and find a trampoline for a steal of a price. Having said that - - it was quite a sight with everyone trying to put it together - - - it is nice though. And as promised, does get used by the kids every day.


Approximately a week later Our granddaughters, Jewel and Lillian,

came running in to the TV room - - - - Papa - - Papa - - Papa - - - you gotta come outside - - quick - - you gotta come with us. Papa, having been summoned like this before, inquired as to the "why's and for what" - - its a parrot - - its a parrot - - - its outside!! He goes outside - - see's it on the edge of the roof - - - he stays there while the Grandaughters fetch him a chair to stand on - - He was able to step on the chair and grab hold of him. He came walking into our bedroom with a bird on his shoulder!!

I couldn't believe it. I was reading and watching TV - - never heard a commotion - - Now - - what do we do? First order of business was to build a small cage for him to sleep in. Then the following day we would check with the neighbors and inquire to see if anyone was missing a bird. Having found no takers, we were again back on craigs list looking this time for a cage. We ended up with one taller than me - - about four feet wide and three feet deep. He is definitely a mans bird! (Bites women!) Jewel and Papa went to PetsSmart a few days later and came home with a "what the heck is this?"

- - - in actuality it is a tadpole - - - BUTTTTTT - - - a Texas SIZE tadpole - - - luckily we still had a fish bowl up in the barn from Vicki's last trip through. It was a freebie - - the girls liked Jewel and it made its way in with the goldfish shipment, so he wasn't inventoried. His name is Jeff.

Joey went to the doctors Wednesday - - he took Joey's cast off his arm and took pliers and pulled the pins/screws out!!!! Joey said he was glad he didn't know the night before that he was going to have the screws pulled out, - - he would have probably been a "no show"!! He has a brace on his arm - - - and is requested to do exercises both with his leg, arm and hand. Vicki has some homeschooling, on the road, friends that have met up with them and are here at the present, for a couple of days. They also have a converted bus.


From Green Acres, Carole

Four Rats

I'm interrupting Pain on the Pipeline to introduce our newest bus passenger...

Meet Stuart.

Jewel decided for her seventh birthday last month that she really wanted a rat. We've had a dog, a cat, two goldfish, a hamster and numerous mouse hitchhikers, but this would be our first rat. None of the other pets worked out great. The dog got car sick and funked up the air, the cat got lost, fish froze, hamster died (and was an awful biter anyway), and the mice got trapped. Before getting any pet we have to think about the future, and if/how they'll fit into it. We're not into disposable pets, ya know. What about plans for Hawaii? Can we take him on a plane? Will my mom babysit? (don't know, don't know, NO) We got him anyway.

He's turning out to quite possibly be the best pet ever. Once I got over the rodent aspect, he's really quite cute, and very loyal to his mama, Jewel.

And just look how cute he is when he drinks.
I guess with Halloween coming up though he had to make himself look a little freaky.


originally we planned to get Jonas a rat too so he didn't get his feelings hurt when Jewel got her rat, but it didn't bother him at all. We also figured Stuart would like another rat to keep him company, but I think our three rats are doing a good enough job of making Stuart feel at home and loved.


The thing that surprised me the most about the rat was the fact that he doesn't try to run away. Jewel can go anywhere with him, sit anywhere with him and he won't even try to leave her lap. Jewel is also very good about feeding him everyday and giving him fresh water, and not a day goes by that she doesn't take him out and play with him. Yep, he's a keeper.

************************************************************************

Back to Pain on the Pipeline......we're still in Colorado waiting for a doctor in Texas to accept his case.

Caterpillar to the Rescue

The first thing Joey did after landing in the trench was tell the guys to call for help, "I've got a broken leg and a broken arm, but I'm stable". The guys...

took pictures.

The Fire and Rescue crew out of Battlement Mesa also took pictures, and gave me a CD today containing a few of them. They left out all the pictures of the actual rescue, including harnessing him to the basket and lifting him out with the trackhoe. No pictures of them putting the traction unit or the neck brace on, or even any close up pics of him or the actual accident scene. I have enough pictures though to show you where they had to go to get him, and how they had to do it. Plus they're pretty pictures.


The ambulance had to park at the bottom of the hill because the incline is way too steep for it to make it up. I don't know how they made it up there, but they came down with Joey, loaded into the back of a pickup with the Caterpillar backing it down the hill.

He said that ride was the worst!

But at least he had a beautiful view on the way down. :)

He rode down a hill, then up a hill, then they backed up, then down another hill. They talked him through the bumps and kept telling him they were almost there, and he did his best to stay calm and relaxed.




After talking with more people today we learned that he was thrown on to the metal pipe, then flipped one hundred eighty degrees before being catapulted almost seventy feet to hit the rock wall of a trench, then bounce to the other wall before dropping to it's eight foot bottom. What a ride.

We got new X-Rays at the hospital today, and the doctor is very happy with his progress and says we can go to Texas whenever he's up for the ride. We were planning on leaving in the morning but now we can't leave until workman's comp finds us a fracture specialist in Texas that will adhere to Colorado's laws. Slight bummer, but really after being in the car for a few hours today, I think it's best if he wait a little longer anyway.

After the Accident

I got the call Joey had been in an accident while I was at the laundromat. The message I got said he was OK, but he had a broken leg and arm, and he (Jake) would call me back once they knew which hospital they were taking him to. I didn't freak out, but the fact that Joey wasn't calling me, did have me worried. Jake called back about ten minutes later and said they were taking him to the Rifle, CO hospital so I called the boys at the bus and told them to get ready, I was picking them up. They were, surprisingly, ready and waiting for me. No one said a word in the car on the drive to the hospital, until I got another call from Jake saying the ambulance has finally gotten there and they're getting him out of the ditch now. WHAT?! Over an hour had passed since I was told they were taking him to the hospital! Another half hour passed, and I got another call from Jake: They're getting him in to the ambulance now. By this time we're already at the hospital and umm...trying not to freak out. Almost THREE hours since the accident happened, he finally arrived in the ER.


The kids were left to themselves in the ER waiting room while I stayed with Joey and helped the ER crew get the rest of his clothes off, and pull the basket he'd been rescued in, out from under him. He was amazingly very calm, and even joking with everyone. The Fire and Rescue guys put a traction unit on his leg and had his arm wrapped in a cast sort of thing. He spent about three hours in the ER taking X-Rays (which he says was the scariest part: him alone with five women and a pair of scissors), going through a CAT scan, getting morphine pumped into him along with shots into his wrist to numb it so the docs could set his bones back into place. The Doc showed me the Xrays and the best way I could describe his wrist was to compare it to broken glass. It was shattered.

We went straight to surgery after the ER, where the kids again had to wait, but this time the nurses were feeding them.....and I've long since declared them the best kids in the whole world. Joey came out of surgery around 9:30 pm and he was feeling GREAT! He was laughing, wanting to get back to his dream and wondering when they were going to do the surgery. Of course, he remembers none of that. During the surgery they put a rod in his right leg with a screw to hold it in place and the surgeon says it came out beautifully, and even showed me the Xrays. There were still bits of bone floating around in his ankle, but the Doc said those didn't matter, they got the most important bone fixed. They also had to do surgery on his wrist because the attempt to set it in the ER failed, and the bones collapsed again.


The kids and I stayed the night in the hospital with Joey, against the nurses wishes but there was no way I could leave him....and she wasn't allowed to not let us, so....Jonas and I spooned in the spare hospital bed while Jewel curled up in a chair and Jake slept in a recliner. Joey never slept.

The next day he had physical therapists teach him how to use the walker with a special platform to brace his broken arm, how to get in and out of the wheelchair, and to teach me how to put the "boot" on and off his leg. Joey's company got us a hotel room for the next ten days since there was no way we were getting him in the bus, and the hospital released him at six pm. Only Thirty One hours since the accident happened. Joey wanted to stay.

Our first hurdle was getting him into the Hummer. There was me..and three nurses... and us standing by helpless while we watched Joey pull himself up by his left hand into the car. Good thing he's strong! I don't know what we would have done otherwise. We stopped by the bus for the Wii and a few other things before heading to our hotel room.

The kids were ecstatic about the hotel. They had a heated pool and an indoor jacuzzi, so they declared this a vacation. I wasn't really looking forward to that long away from the bus, but staying in that hotel was exactly what we needed. They had an ice machine to keep his arm and legg iced up. They had a very nice continental breakfast which I took advantage of every morning. Twenty four hour hot coffee for Joey, guest laundry, yummy restaurants within walking distance, on site Pepsi machine for me, wi-fi, housekeeping, and a big bathtub for Jewel. Aside from the constant non stop caring for Joey, it was kinda like a vacation...

During the ten days in the hotel I made one trip to the bus to get a TV for the kids to play their Wii on, and to get Jewel's rat, and one trip back to the doctor so he could determine whether to cast the arm or do more surgery to put a plate in it.

He decided the five pins are holding his wrist together nicely so no need for more surgery. After a week of learning and dealing with worker's compensation (and their puny limits) that was the best news we'd heard all week! Jewel picked out a black cast for his arm, even though the doc and I tried to get her to pick hot pink.

Our ten days in the hotel was up. We could have asked the company to extend our stay but we all chose to come back to the bus. We couldn't wait to get home, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on my DVR. When we pull into the campground it's windy as heck and we immediately see screened tents blown over, so we brace for the worst. Yep, our sixteen foot awning has blown completely off and is flapping in the wind. Then I go check the black tank to make sure it got dumped earlier that day, and the handle to the valve has been broken off, and the tank is full. We are literally full of shit. The worst part, Joey can't do a thing about anything, and I have to deal with it all on my own.

I wake up the first morning back in my home, and I can't stop crying. I don't even know why I'm crying, but I can't stop (Probably because I held it all together this whole time). I called my Mom and asked them if we can come stay with them while he recooperates. Now I can take care of Joey, while my mommy takes care of me.

Emergency in the Mountains

Just to keep everyone informed - - - Joey (Vicki's husband) suffered an industrial accident yesterday. He is going to be okay...........but he will have a long road back to being himself. He was flung some 50 feet into the air - - - hitting the side of a rock pit, then dropping about 7 or so feet into the pit. He suffered crushed radius/ulna and right wrist - - also shattered his Fibia/Tibia and has a crushed right ankle. I have not heard from Vicki today, but as of last night they were going in to surgery - - placing a steel rod into his leg and doing a lot of repair work. Because this was a remote site, the ambulance could not make it up the dirt road - - - Joey had to endure the transport in the back of a pick up truck, until they could get to an area where he could be medivac'd out. He was injured at 11am - - did not get to the hospital until 2:30pm. We will keep you posted.

Carole - Vicki's Mom

Colorado Country Roads

Yesterday afternoon at exactly 2:11 PM we decided since Joey didn't have to be back to work until Monday morning that we'd take advantage of the extra days off and go somewhere. First idea I came up with was Yellowstone National Park. Everybody was all excited for it, the kids were even in the car waiting on us for a change! We quickly packed up a couple days worth of clothes, a cooler, the laptop and camera bag, and we were on the I-70 heading East by 3:10 PM. At 3:12 PM Joey asks, "Exactly how far is Yellowstone?" Crap. I totally forgot that is was FIVE HUNDRED miles away, not FIVE HOURS. Ten minutes later we were West bound headed for Strawberry Park and their natural hot springs. Ten more minutes later I felt like we needed something comparable, big and grand, to Yellowstone, so that's when we decide on Rocky Mountain National Park.

We go through Glenwood Canyon Corridor first.


Instead of taking the I-70 up and going through Winterpark we decided to use the smaller county roads, 131 and 134.

What a nice treat they turned out to be. We basically followed the Colorado River all the way up.



We were expecting a Colorado Scenic Byway to be paved, but with the awesome colors we were seeing, we didn't mind the twenty miles of gravel at only thirty miles an hour, at all.

Nope. Not a complaint one.

A storm was brewing in the distance.



Once the sun went down we tried to get a room at Sulphur Hot Springs Resort with its twenty three pools, but they didn't have room for us. We definitely want to go back there again someday, though, it looked like a pretty neat place for the whole family. Kinda reminded me of the resort in Dirty Dancing, the time of the tango and the foxtrot. It was dark though, so who knows, I could be completely off.

We ended up staying in Granby, in a guest room of the restaurant we had just eaten in. After a fabulous authentic German meal I asked the waitress about the hotel across the street and she mentioned they had two guest rooms, would I like to see them? I thought it was odd, so...OF COURSE! They were outdated, but very clean, and we could just roll our overstuffed selves from our booth, right into our beds. Oh yeah.

Granby on Dwellable

Wrapping up AZ

We left Arizona late Monday morning, taking the same route through Payson and Route 191 across the Navajo Indian reservation. Lately we'd been having bad luck traveling during holiday weekends, mostly because we didn't even know we were traveling on a busy weekend until we were stuck in the middle of it, but this trip we knew ahead of time. We knew we'd be against traffic heading out of metro Phoenix for the weekend, but it was never more obvious how against the majority we were until we hit the mountains in Payson, and the bumper to bumper stream of cars and travel trailers trying to get back to the city.

It probably took those people five hours to do the ninety miles down the mountain.

Since we got a late start most of our drive across the Navajo Reservation was simply, beautifully......illuminated.












For the rest of the picnic pictures, check out Flickr. I wasn't intending to skip over so much of the weekend, but as I type this we're in a hotel outside Rocky Mountain National Park, eager to experience it tomorrow, and I know me: If I didn't get something posted tonight, it'd all be ancient history after the excellenceness that we're sure to behold tomorrow.

Trying to catch up

Hello? Is anybody still here? It seems like ages since I've blogged. In reality, it's only been, like...FIVE OR SIX WEEKS! In some ways a lot has happened, and in others I feel like I have done absolutely nothing. We're still parked in the same campground, in the same spot, with most of the same neighbors. Joey finished the last pipeline he was on, and after a week off has already started a new one. While he was working I was spending a lot of time with Lisa, mostly just hanging out and talking shit (my favorite past time).

We also shopped, talked about walking, drank (which is not normal for me) and danced on her roof.... basically became teenagers together again. I really miss her. It's rare that I meet someone I can totally be myself with. I hope our paths cross again someday, but I know it most likely won't happen. At least I have the memories, and lots of embarrassing photos to prove it.

We also managed to squeeze in a little road trip.

We left Colorado Thursday early evening for Arizona, via The San Juan Skyway again, only to drive it in the pitch black. I thought it would be scarier in the dark, but it was actually much less stressful. There was hardly any traffic and I couldn't see the cliff drop off six inches from the road while I was driving. I still hate driving at night, but at least I wasn't driving in the dark along a landscape I hadn't seen yet. We spent a glorious night at The Holiday Inn Express in Cortez, CO and was, for the first time ever, tempted to steal me some pillows.


I never tire of the landscape in the Four Corner's area, and this day it seemed even redder than normal.

We got to Joey's mom's house in Gilbert Friday evening, which is where we spent the next three nights.
(photo removed)
Saturday we spent the whole day in Phoenix with his Dad and Dianne, his sister Gina and brother Brian....
(photo removed)
and their lovely salt water swimming pool. The pool with the waterfall that the kids are not allowed to climb on.

I thanked Dianne profusely for letting the kids explore the rocks, discover their limits, and then enjoy the heck out of 'em!

Sunday, we went to Fremont Park with everyone and had a big picnic.
This is Joey's sister, Jackie, and her granddaughter, Skylynn. Jackie is a professional makeup artist that has done makeup for some very famous people, including Sen. McCain and his wife...and most importantly, moi. She also made my wedding dress. I know, not only is she gorgeous, she's freaking talented.


Blogger is about to shut down for maintenance and unless I send this unfinished, as is....it may never get posted.

I kinda feel like her....nanernaner.....you thought I had something exciting to write about..