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Almost caught up with the blog. What a comfortable feeling. Kinda like when we were heating with a wood stove and I’d just finished splitting the fourth cord of wood for the winter.

While accompanying Cathy on a walk-thru of her pavilion venue on Monday for General Palmer’s Birthday Party and Tour on Thursday, we met with Stacy Fritz who showed us how to use the combination lock to get to a key which opens a padlock to a door which is wedged behind a column which blocks a hinged panel which exposes a power outlet, but not the lights. Unbelievable.

Even more interesting was this 100 gram weight which was sitting on the picnic table next to us. Hmmmmm. Wonder what they were measuring in 100 g. batches????
Monday was also my eye appointment which resulted in my 48th Avastin injection in addition to the 3 shots of Lucentis. My right (bad) eye is still at 20/70 and my good left eye (spare tire) is doing the heavy lifting at 20/20. The doc reminded me to stay away from nicotine in any form, eat more kale, take my iCaps and to get some wraparound good sunglasses. I have done all of the above including my OGFF (Old Guy From Florida) sunglasses.

We had a huge pounding rain (1.5″) later that day. We soooo needed it and were sooooo glad the Monday Concerts were over! There was one lightning strike so close that the thunder lifted plates off of the kitchen counter. Later, we discovered that Christine Agnew’s tree had been hit.

The rain was with us again on Thursday afternoon (rats!!), cause almost no one came to the General’s birthday party. Cathy and the Friends of Monument Valley Park which had joined with the HPA went to great lengths to make this a suitable event for maybe 200 people, and not even 20 showed up due to the rain. She had a HUGE sheet cake made with a detailed map of the whole park iced on the top. Jeremy Rowan set up his fabulous sound system.

Cath even arranged to have a barbershop quartet perform.

Note: I had to dig out the emergency coats from the car. They were freezing! Bummer.

To finish off the week, we had the next door neighbors over for dinner. We got to use our new deck furniture for the second time, and the weather cooperated into the late hours as we ate one of Cath’s experimental risotto and pork sausage dishes accompanied by a real good bottle of Firestone!!

Yum.

Meg and Phil Kendall get into the cowboy dance mode.

So does somebody’s grandchild.

These are the Durango Drifters that supplied the music.

The show opened with these two cowboy poets.

Monday evening was the final concert of the summer by the Friends of Monument Valley Park. It featured a local very upbeat cowboy/girl band named the Durango Drifters.

Good music, good weather and good fun!

On Tuesday, I helped Jane with her computer again, and we had a curb inspection by the city and discovered that we qualified for a program where they pay 1/2 and we pay 1/2 to have 15’+ of curb and gutter replaced. The broken driveway, however, is our responsibility.

Cath and I were to sit vigil with a 56 year-old woman, but she died before our time slot arrived.

Thursday, the HPA had a most amazing tour of the Broadmoor attended by more than 100 folks (mostly members). There were so many people, we had to be divided into four groups. Before the tour we went for dinner at Connie Wallace’s new patio home on the west side, joined by Betsy and her grandson. Connie’s place is just perfect for her – we loved it.

Our first tour guide at the hotel was one of the architect’s who helped spend the $150 million on restoration of the old hotel. He was very good, folksy and informational. Then we were passed to Larry Terrafranca, the Broadmoor resident sculptor who was trained in stonecarving at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. We have talked to him on several tours with the HPA and like him and his work.

Larry restored this fountain as one of his first projects for the hotel.

Larry Terrafranca describing the sculpture below.

The third rotation was to a historian who works for the Broadmoor archivist. He did a 20-minute photo/slide lecture on the history of the hotel and how it impacted the history of the region. Fascinating stuff: started as a dairy farm, then a casino, then polo and golf, then when Gen. Palmer wouldn’t sell the Antlers hotel to Penrose, he built his own hotel to compete! The final rotation was a trip through the Broadmoor Carriage Museum by a MOST enthusiastic docent.

Then, the long-awaited Class of 1962 Wasson High School 50th Reunion was here. After MUCH preparation, the golf tourney got off at 8 a.m. on Friday followed by lunch and a 5 p.m. Icebreaker party at the Valley Hi Golf Club. It went very well, packed the place and the weather cooperated beautifully. Jimmy Thompson, a classmate, provided the 50’s/60’s appropriate music.

On Saturday night, I wanted to arrive an hour early for the Dinner/Dance, but didn’t quite make it because Cathy thought the event started at 6 p.m. not 5 p.m.

No one was there!

I hung the banner, posted the alphabet signs for line up to check in, noticed that the Elk’s Club had set up twenty tables, not 16 as we stipulated, and several other odd placements. It was 40 minutes before the official start but people started arriving. I noticed they had a single serving line and tables set up in the bar/food service area that we hadn’t requested. We had no name tags. Dennis had also forgotten that the dinner/dance started at 5 p.m.

Finally, Jan, the co-planner of this event showed up and revealed that Vicky, the person from the Club who had taken over from Sue who had be fired, had a heart attack last night and was in ICU. She had neglected to inform the kitchen of “a few details” and in 35 minutes we would be invaded by 126 classmates who had paid up front for food, drink and entertainment.

Oh, did I mention we couldn’t get power from any of the floor outlets for the videographer, Jimmy’s one man band, or Dennis’ looping slide show?

The registration people and Dennis arrived with the name tags and proceeded to take them out of the careful arrangement by number (which put tags for the classmate and guest together) and rearranged them alphabetically! The reason they departed from what we had all agreed to do – because neither of them brought their glasses and neither could see the numbers on the tags!!

There were a handful of other “surprises”, but somehow we pulled the evening off with none but a handful knowing how close we came to a total disaster.

Earlier in the day Chesley Miller set up a tour of Wasson High School by the Athletic Director. Great tour – I learned that they built a bomb shelter under the swimming pool in 1959 to protect us from Russian bombs! …and no Dinner/Dance bombs.

We went to an ‘after party’ at Jack Anshutz’s house in Kissing Camels Estate, and even though it was a very late night, it felt good to visit with so many old friends.

Sunday morning was the Reunion Picnic held at the clubhouse for Crystal Park on the top of Eagle Mountain. Bill Porter (former senior class president) owns a house up there (another gated community) and generously offered us the facility. Except for a few issues trying to figure out the combination at the entry gate, the picnic, the weather and the fun continued.

Great reunion…great to have it mostly behind us. Now we need to edit all the video footage and produce an appropriate commemorative DVD.

On Sunday, we took Gerry and joined 45 others in Dr. Pio Guarerro’s block of seats at the Phamaly Theater in Denver. http://www.phamaly.org/onstage/little-shop-horrors/

Once again, this cast of all disabled actors did a fantastic job. All of us loved it, but Dr. Pio was a little shocked at the dark ending…he was expecting the Hollywood movie ending!

Monday night, Cathy had another of her free Musical Mondays in Monument Valley Park. Last week’s offering was washed out and cancelled due to rain and lightning, but the Mitguards had superb weather and a very willing crowd.

Deb Mitguard rocks out on a very portable drum.

Priscilla Engeln introduced the group and took care of housekeeping for this concert.

Great musician, Chris Mitguard, and leader of the group played multiple instruments and did most of the vocals.

Tuesday brought a totally different kind of entertainment: http://www.examiner.com/article/the-amazing-acro-cats-return-to-colorado-on-their-summer-2012-tour-1

Considering that all these cats were rescue cats from the Pound, it is amazing the tricks they learned. It was too dark at the Stargazers for me to get decent photos, but there are several on the Internet.

Wednesday morning was a time I had set up to help Jane Roberts with her Mac and printer. We blazed through a whole laundry list of questions and problems, and I left feeling Jane had learned a boatload. I hope Jane felt the same way.

Before the HPA tour on Thursday, Cath and I went to Palmer Lake for a little shopping and hopefully some good coffee. The shopping did happen, but all the restaurants were closed until 5 p.m. and we had to be at Maquireville in Monument around that time.

Jim Maguire has the MOST AMAZING collection of western stuff…two HUGE barns full and overflowing.

We finished out the week with the 24th Annual Wood Av. Block Party. What a bunch of great neighbors! Where else would you find people willing to lend their grandchildren’s armcycles?

Fast forward a week.

I have jumped onto massive doses of Vitamin D at my doctor’s direction – 100,000 mg/week! My bones should be much happier in a couple of months, but that sure seems like a lot of ‘D’!!

On Thursday, we took in two tours in between downpours. The first was the tiny Chadbourne Community Church which sits at the south end of America the Beautiful Park. At one point it was a grocery store, but was converted to a church in the 1920’s for this poor Hispanic community.

The second place, the Carter Payne Center, demonstrated just the reverse – a church repurposed for secular uses. Overall a very good tour.

I’m getting close to my 50th high school reunion, so the frequency of meetings (one on Friday at the Elk’s Club) has increased as well as my behind-the-scenes activity. On Friday, we also had the Logan’s and Little’s over for dinner. Tomorrow, Craig and Kathy return to Tucson and 105° temps. We had a great time out on the deck yakking until almost midnight!

On Saturday, we took another tour up Ute Pass to the Marigreen Estate which used to be the Chicago Billboard Baron’s estate, but was subsequently deeded to the Holy Cross Novitiate. The Order opens the estate up to the public only one day every three years according to the terms of the will. Several of the grandchildren were acting as docents this year. Kudos to Cathy for spotting this tour and quickly getting us on the list. I’ve driven by this place hundreds of times since 1957 and never pondered what was beyond the stone and iron gateway.

Crystal chandelier and coffered ceiling.

Fireplaces sculpted from Carrera marble.

Later we visited the large chapel across Hwy. 24 in Cascade. This was a HUGE estate, and in this southern corner, the children of the original commissioned this large structure. Shown above is a subterranean grotto just large enough for maybe two pilgrims.

It’s just a grab shot, but I had to share a photo of the scruffy dude who was our guide on the bus. Dress him a little differently, and he’s a silver medal contender for Santa.

To finish off the week, we attended Babette’s Cabaret at the Millibo Theater. Great fun as always.

(A thousand pardons….I’ve taken almost a month off from my blogging duties. I think it will become apparent why this happened if you are patient enough to wade through the next dozen or so posts.)

The drive home commenced more/less on schedule…the wrong schedule.

Cathy seemed to think Meredith and Richard flew at 1:30 p.m., however, they needed to be on the plane by 12:30! We arrived thinking they had plenty of time at 12:15 and were more than a little surprised when the airline rushed them right to the plane!

She also had a tour planned of the old Alexander Film works planned for 6 p.m. in Colorado Springs and we just roared into town at 6:30! It was a homecoming, but not a great homecoming.

Yikes!! Some horizontal rest time was in order!

 The next day………

There are still traces of smoke and the smell of dirty ash trays about the city, but the Waldo Canyon fire is almost completely contained. The weather is hot and we are WAY behind on chores again.

Friday we had lasagna made by Craig Little reminiscent of our days on the boat at Lake Powell. The Agnew’s and Logan’s were there and as usual, we had no trouble sharing stories and lots of laughs.

Cathy’s Musical Mondays in the Park Concert got rained out, but the almost 2″ of rain over the weekend was a real gift and the mudslides people were worried about in Mountain Shadows did not materialize.

Now, these are happy poppies!

In the morning Laurie, Shannon, Mary, Meredith, Cathy and I went up to Jackie Blakeman’s and Neal’s place to look at the family photos that had been abandoned in Aunt Bean’s house, later the home of Steve and Elaine Welty. They are a stunning historical record of this branch of the family.

Help is needed to identify a lot of these intriguing images.

A lock of hair and eulogy.

Bryan and Marc were lucky enough to be able to sleep in Jackie’s magnificent tipi. It’s huge and beautiful and simple inside.

The perfect backyard.

Jackie was kind enough to take us on a tour of her beautiful home. My camera was drooling.

Bliss.

A bathroom to live in.

The weather was hot, so several minds turned to floating the Wind River. I brought up 4 inner tubes from previous trips to Dubois, but only two held air. Shannon brought two new ones, but one of them was faulty. Chuck and Nancy had two in the basement and the nice guy across the  street who patched my tubes loaned us one.

Great fun commenced at the photos demonstrate.

Chelsea just sent this one of Vivi at the Wind River.

Noemie and Julian launch

Shannon and Tim avoid the rocks.

Marc cools it.

Bryan kayaks around Isiah.

Richard gives us a preview of his upcoming GQ spread.

Later, the Dubois 4 of July Parade assembled by the city park. Some went up town, others out to the curb to catch the candy and frisbees being thrown, and some of us took advantage of the cool porch and used a telephoto lens.

Low-budget political ad?

The hippy bus is alive and well.

The infamous Dubois Volunteer Fire Dept. dousing.

Later still we got a private tour of the Dubois Museum with the high point – Paul Hawley’s recently restored sheep wagon.

The new canvas would surely make Paul smile.

Meredith’s favorite hotel when she was a sprout.

At dusk all the relative descended on Chuck and Nancy’s beautiful vacation home for one final feast to clean out all the leftovers from the countless previous picnics.

Nancy, Cullen, Noemie, Cathy and Chuck ponder dessert on the deck.

Richard, Meredith, Fred, Isiah, Julian, Neal and Tim share stories to cap this amazing day.

This morning with much juggling and logistical planning, Bill Haffey and I slipped away for coffee and a bun at the coffee shop on the south end of town.

Bill gets a hug on Spring Mountain.

Two of my inner tubes were shot, but Chelsea and Neal were able to use the tubes that Chuck and Nancy had left below their deck.

Meredith and Richard headed off to Yellowstone, had a wonderful day and only made one scary call to my cell phone reporting a loud clanking noise from the rear of the car at slower speeds. We now suspect there was something loose and rolling  in the lower trunk, but it did grab my attention for all the time they were in the Park.

Cullen was in charge of the reservations for 35 or so at the Rustic Pine Tavern and Steak House tonight. The food was very good, but once again, there were issues with long waits and mixed items on the bills. All in all, it was great fun to be able to eat with the whole family together.

The idea was to leave early for Spring Mountain to sprinkle some of the Hawley ashes at the ancestral cow camp. Six 4-wheel drive vehicles lined up by the locker plant waiting on Bryan and Marc who were delivering Jackie’s kayak to our porch so they would have room for extra passengers.

Only 30-45 minutes late, our caravan headed up Horse Creek road. First, on a new paved surface, then on improved gravel, then on definitely rutted 4-wheel-drive-only paths.

Over an hour later, we reached the cow camp and cabin where cattle from the Rocking Chair Ranch, the picture-perfect place dating back to Francis Welty, Gladys’ father, have spent spring and summer for 80+ years getting fat on the high altitude grass.

The relatives wandered down to a ridge near the cabin with the two urns containing Paul and Gladys’ ashes. Soon, Mary and Fred had mixed a small portion of each of their ashes and Fred let the wind carry them over the ridge. Jackie had climbed the much taller ridge behind us with her dog Sierra and photographed gathering of relatives following the Hawley’s after-death directives.

After a sandwich and a quick rest back in town, most of the family headed up to the little town cemetery overlooking the city of Dubois. We were met by a lady named George who is the caretaker and the local VFW honor guard who did a brief ceremony. Jeff Milton, the family real estate agent blew Taps.

The two poems that Mary and Cathy read up on Spring Mountain were enclosed with the ashes before being interred.

Later we gathered at the Longhorn Pavilion, where most of the family are staying, for a monster picnic. Chuck and Nancy stopped at Costco in Idaho Falls to stock us up on beer.

An enormous quantity of food and drink were consumed, and there were still leftovers to use for our 4th of July picnic up at Chuck’s place.

Tim, Bill and Noemie get in one rehearsal before all the celebration starts.

The morning began early with a memorial Mass for Paul and Gladys delivered by a new priest from Virginia. It was nice to be back in Our Lady of the Woods with Tim and Bill providing music. Bill and Polly were the first couple to be married in this church; Cathy and I were the second.

Mary opened with a bible verse.

Then we moved to the semi-solemn tribute at the Dennison Lodge on the grounds of the Dubois Museum that Shannon, Tim, Cathy and I planned out on our deck weeks before. I did the color pamphlet with the schedule of events as an insert. Music was supplied by Tom, Bill, and Noemie – really quite good considering they had only one constantly-interrupted rehearsal.

People cried and laughed and visited well past our short ceremony.

Meredith read her poem “A Grandchild’s Concern” which brought on lots of tears.

Lots of old friends drove or flew in from all over the U.S.

Following on the heels of the tribute at Dennison, we moved about two blocks to the Headwaters. Despite phone calls and emails ‘o plenty, some of them in the last 24 hours, we had trouble with the Paya Deli. The food was 1/2 hour late and the caterer brought no plates or cups (they charged Mary $250 extra for these items for less than 50 people!!). Despite this blip, the food was good and a goodly portion of all the people who knew Glady and Paul turned out to celebrate them. Shannon (with, I suspect, a little help from Tim) turned out a beautiful slide show with hundreds of photos of the family scanned from albums housed from Seattle to Ft. Worth.

With just a little prodding, people got up and told stories about their relationships with Paul and Gladys. There were a few tears, but mostly lots of great laughs.

A couple of old truckers, Billy Koenig and Cullen Kelsoe

Gladys’ quilt with a square done by each child and grandchild.

People were having such a good time that it was hard to bring it to an end, but after a little clean up the main relative contingent reconvened at the Longhorn bonfire pit hosted by Chris and Doug. More stories, more laughter, more food and drink (hard to believe) and the world’s biggest marshmallows I’ve ever seen…like a small loaf of bread!!

Just before dark at the bonfire.

Tom even brought music to this evening gathering.

Cathy sits on the wonderful bench outside the Headwaters. The plaque reads: “Give us these hills and those we love. We ask no other heaven. Given in memory of Gladys and Paul Hawley by their children and grandchildren. July 2012”.

Chelsea, Neal and the kids show a little of the stress encountered on the 500-mile trip to Dubois. This was our first meal together at the Cowboy Cafe.

We had already packed for evacuation, so altering a few items was all we needed to get out the door and on the road to Wyoming. Nonetheless, 500 miles is a long stretch for us these days and there were still lots of concerns about leaving our home behind because the fire is still a threat.

The driving chore was broken by several minor stops for coffee and food and by two major differences on this trip. As I think I’ve mentioned previously, Cathy took a refresher, diagnostic course in driving on the freeway to boost her confidence. Penrose Hospital has outfitted a new HUGE land barge of a Chrysler with a left-foot accelerator and passenger side instructor brakes. That alone must have been terribly intimidating, but Cath weathered all the tests and felt confident enough to relieve me for about an hour on the road up to Casper.

At the Casper airport we met Meredith and Richard, had a quick bite in Shoshoni, WY and then motored onto Dubois in time for a walk-through at the Headwaters Conference Center where the commemorative bench has been installed and where the big celebration will be held tomorrow. We hardly ever travel this route to Dubois, so at least the scenery was different. It was also nice to have these two particular passengers with us. We stopped in Riverton for flowers and a case of beer for the troops. There was NO wiggle room in the back seat!