SOARing; Thank You, Bev! "Pooder"; A Mini-Disaster; No Groans!

Saturday was a great day here in Fort Collins, because Suzanne presented her S.O.A.R! Workshop to 28 enthusiastic attendees at the Whole Life Center for Spiritual Living.  

Thanks to our angel Bev Garlipp for her continued hard work organizing and publicizing Messages of Hope events throughout this summer tour and especially for working with BellaSpark productions and making Fort Collins a huge success!  We're looking forward to seeing you in Rochester, Bev.

While Suzanne was SOARing, I had a chance to do a long run along the Cache La Poudre (pronounced “Pooder”) River (and National Historical Area) here in Fort Collins. The name of the river means “hide the powder” in French, and refers to an incident in the 1820s when French trappers, caught in a snowstorm, were forced to bury some of their gunpowder along the banks of the river. Trappers, whether French or American, were a rough and tumble lot, often going for many months without a bath or haircut, eating well during temperate months but on short rations or even starving during severe winters when they couldn’t hunt. Dealings with Indians could often be problematic, since trappers had several horses or mules to transport beaver pelts, and had to stockpile food, clothing, rifles and ammunition for a year’s work in the wilderness. One trapper estimated that of 300 trapper acquaintances, only he and 3 others lived to 50 years of age.

After PT and lunch with Suzanne at the workshop, I did some maintenance on The Bus. We have been doing a lot of “dry camping”, which means we are not hooked up to electricity, water, or sewer facilities. It is sometimes called “boondocking”, but we don’t use that term unless we are actually out in the boonies. The onboard diesel generator (Onan 7.5 kW, ½ gallon per hour fuel consumption, for those interested in the details), powers our air conditioning, microwave, and battery charger; it has seen heavy use, including while we are driving when the outside temperature is over 80 degrees, so I have to check oil and coolant frequently. Fortunately, the entire generator slides out with the whole front fender assembly for inspection and maintenance. 

During a walk through Old Town Fort Collins, we stopped to talk with a young man in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a Darth Vader tee-shirt with "Who's your Daddy?" above the graphic of that Star Wars villain. When I commented on his shirt, his face lit up, and we had a great conversation. Turns out he is Iraqi, worked with the US Marines during their brutal combat in Fallujah, and he was shot three times by insurgents. He is studying English as a Second Language and attending Colorado State University.  After graduation he hopes to bring his girlfriend and some of his family to the US and get married. He loves the USA!

 

We went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner, and our sushi chef, a young Korean man, was reciting lines from Top Gun as he prepared our sushi.  We commented on this unusual behavior, and he told us his story.  He was adopted while his father was serving in Korea as a sergeant major in the U.S. Army.  He discussed the merits of kimchee and sho-ju, Korean moonshine, which he said they serve on ice cream.  I commented that those are both acquired tastes and that I had not acquired a taste for either!

Rudy and Gretchen needed to stretch their legs after our sushi dinner, so we took them for a long walk on the Colorado State University campus here in Fort Collins. There was a beautiful open green area that beckoned, but what we didn’t realize was that some of the trees, yet unidentified, had dropped many very sticky leaves that caught in our miniature dachshunds’ long hair. It was a “mini-disaster”. (Did I hear a groan out there? Groans are not allowed on this blog!) On the positive side, there were many squirrels here, so our two Obedience School Dropouts were in doggie heaven!