January 1, 2002, Tuesday- Happy New Year to all. After a few more hours of fun with the Jake Man and the rest of the family, we headed up to spend a few hours with Karen and Phil…..it was Phil's first day off in too long. Caught up on what's happening with them, and then we headed over to the Manor Vail Lodge to review the rehearsal dinner menu for Steve and Becky. Lots of options, but the room only holds 75 folks max.
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It was a slow ride down to Steve's house in Littleton (holiday traffic and falling snow kept things moving almost in reverse).
Got a call from Allan that Fran broke he ankle and tibia plateau. Surgery tomorrow. It will be a slow recovery. Wishing her well for tomorrow.
January 2, 2002, Wednesday- at 8 Susan got her hair colored and at 10 was at the eye doctor to get her PRK laser revision. All went smoothly this morning for her and also for Fran with her knee surgery.
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Dinner with Debi at Little Olie's….good food and great company. Funny thing happened. Shortly after 9:30 a group of 5 Oriental men came out of the kitchen, aprons, etc….and sat down at a large round table. A bowl filled with noodles and goodies was divided onto individual plates. Then the men all picked up their "forks" and consumed their dinner. Are chop sticks only used by us?
January 3, 2002, Thursday- a quick visit to the eye doctor and Susan was progressing well. Next up to Cherry Creek to find Debi's tailor. We made Fran a set of Velcro edged sweat pants so that she could fasten them around her brace, but trying to hand sew some 120 inches of material didn't work. Fortunate Andy did the sewing by machine in a few minutes.
We walked over to the furrier shop that has been feeding and watering Susan's fur coat since we've been on the road for 4 years. They said that the coat was behaving well, even after all that time away from us. Imagine our surprise when the owner of the shop, which stores 2500 coats, remembered us as the folks that changed their phone number so that the kids couldn't find them and departed in a motor home. Great memory.
Visited in Vail with Naomi and John plus the rest of the crew, and then headed to the Vail Valley Medical Center to visit with Fran and Allan. Fran looked reasonably well, considering all that she's been through, and then did some PT work with the staff on using her walker while keeping her injured leg non weight bearing.
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Dinner with Phil and Karen, and then we went to see the "Shipping News", a movie filmed in Newfoundland. We all enjoyed it immensely (having been to the island). Back home we finally got to exchange our holiday presents, but found, to our disappointment, that the package that we had the store send to Karen, hadn't arrived. The same store had sent out similar packages to Sharon and Naomi and theirs arrived a few weeks ago. When we get back to the coach, we'll have to check the receipts and follow-up.
January 4, 2002, Friday- after breakfast with K&P, we headed up to visit Jake and the rest of the family. We planned to see Fran in the afternoon to cheer her up so we arranged a few stops on the way. A quick lunch at the Wildhorse Bistro in Edwards fit the bill, then we visited with Don and Myrna for an hour. Great to see them and catch up on their goings-on. Next, over to see Alan and Sally. Fortunately they too were home, and looked great. Caught up on what was happening with the valley's sign shops. If we wanted to go back into business the void is still there to fill. Each of the existing businesses seem to be content with their existing customers. Nobody is fighting to do more business. Apparently at 5 pm the keys are in the door and weekends are locked up tight. A far cry from our business plan.
Unfortunately Fran was having a bad day and didn't want visitors, so back we went to get an early start for Art's 60th birthday party. 16 of us showed up…Art, Anna, Susan, Larry, Ben, Debi, Criag, Becky, Steve, Rach, Brad, Jake, Phil, Karen, Naomi and John. With the dinner catered by the Alpenrose Restaurant, the 5 star level of their restaurant product was achieved at the house. Two in staff to serve let all of us party. From the baked salmon and trout appetizers, to the tenderloin beef and stuffed turkey, our taste buds were kept busy. Add a chocolate cake for desert and it was definitely a belt loosening evening.
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January 5, 2002, Saturday- after a relaxing breakfast with P&K and Steve and Becky, the young ones, headed out to ski, Karen headed out towards Arizona, and Susan and I headed to Art & Anna's to pick up leftovers to bring to Fran and Allan. Fran was better today with full color and spunk. I showed her a few tricks with crutches and her walker, and hope that the physical therapists could really show her the ins and outs.
It took us about 20 tries to get out of Phil's driveway….our rental Olds Alero has a front drive "limited slip differential" which switches power from the slipping wheel to both wheels. (Or at least that's what is seems.). As we would near the top of the driveway and one wheel would loose some traction, the car would stop. With the gas pedal floored, it wouldn't get above 1500 RPM. So back down the drive and try again in another spot. It felt like the car's engine was just too small to provide the needed power. Sometimes we would disconnect this "electronic system" and charge up the hill. One tire would start spinning and we'd start to go sideways. Finally, success, and we were one pavement.
Back up hill to visit Jake and family and then back to town to Après Ski at Los Amigo's with Steve, Debi, Becky, Rach, Brad and Ben. Naturally a dozen other people were around that we said hello to…some of which we even remembered their names.
Over to Carol and Peter's house for drinks and dinner. Casual….hit the spot. Always good company.
Back to say our final goodbyes to Jake and everyone.
Finally back to Phil's to solve some of his computer problems and then say thanks for the hospitality.
January 6, 2002- Sunday- since Phil had to leave early for work, we'd put our rental car in the garage and his Explorer stayed outside. No problem for him to exit the driveway, and no problem for us. Starting in the garage gave us sufficient momentum to crest the driveway at mach 2 speed.
Sloppy drive to Denver…not with snow cover, but with road spray. We finished a gallon bottle of washer fluid before reaching the Denver dry roads. Our car definitely looks like a dirt test.
Dropped Lika, Karen's late Mom's dog off at Jim and Mad's. Got to see their new home, a classic 50's place (as they call it). As Jim said…it gives them lots of projects to keep them busy for the future. The major one being worked on is a new electric feed and circuit breaker box. We hope they have a lifetime of good memories there.
Next, lunch with Molly, Bill and Lani at the bagel deli and then back to their house to catch up and play with Molly. At 3 years and 10 months, she is a pistol of knowledge and conversation.
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Back to change at Steve's and then over to 240 Union for dinner with Steve, Becky, Cami and Paul. More wedding plans covered. Great to see them and spend a casual evening.
January 7, 2002, Monday- stopped off at the Great Indoors at Park Meadows. What a great store. Susan was drawn to the special paint effects section where the display of faux paints and papers was superior to anything that we've seen elsewhere. Got lots of ideas for doing some interior work on our coach.
Stopped off for new batteries for the digital camera. We're not sure if it's the batteries or the camera since with a new spark, it's still tempermental.
Good report from the eye doctor on Susan. They removed the protective contact lens that covered the PRK and were pleased with the progress.
Next over to Bill's office to get a letter for the new health insurance company to see if we can get removal of the preexisting conditions that shouldn't be excluded under Colorado law.
Listened to a 20 minute section on Colorado Public Radio covering our friend Bob's attempted purchase of 640 acres in Eagle County. To prevent the sale the state may condemn the land pay him fair value. Although the purchase has been under contract since the early 90's, lawsuits and red tape have prevented closing. Maybe it will all be resolved in the near future.
Dinner with Becky, Steve, Debi, Carol and Bill at the Wellshire Inn.
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January 8, 2002- Tuesday- returned to the airport shortly after 12. No traffic getting there and only 5 minutes at security. But, arriving early gave us some perks…again an emergency row with unlimited legroom. Well worth the early arrival at the gate. Smooth flight. Arrived in Miami at 10, and departed at 11 from the hotel where the car was parked. Temperatures were cold here in Florida with 37 showing on the car, a far cry from the 60's for lows when we left. Naples appeared in the headlights at 1AM. Not too bad since it was only 11 PM body time.
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