Sunday, August 04, 2002
Four Seasons RV Park, Salida, CO - July 29-Aug 4
This is a lovely park if you can get a space along the Arkansas river, but one of the more expensive parks we have stayed at. Our friends Carole & Delbert (who live in Illinois and whom we met at Pioneer RV Park in Port Aransas in 12/2000) met us here for 4 nights. We had a great time playing bridge & other card games. We also took a long drive around the area together. We stopped in the little town of Saguache, where we toured the very interesting local museum. We hope to see Carole & Delbert in IL next year.
The town of Salida is quite charming & has many interesting activities. We enjoyed walking around the historic downtown buildings & watching kayakers playing in the river. We went to a chamber music concert in the restored Steam Plant building. The newly formed (actually still forming) group of musicians had very eclectic backgrounds: one was a lawyer from Salida with a BM in performance (he played French Horn); another was a former Trappist Monk who has masters degrees in both music & theology as well as a doctorate in education, who played oboe; the third was a pianist & piano tuner by day and a postal clerk at night, who formerly attended the Peabody Institute of Music and the Lamont School of Music; and the fourth was a semi-retired professional violinist, who had played with the Metropolitan Opera in NYC as well as with groups in the Detroit area. The concert was quite enjoyable, and many more interesting events are planned at the Steam Plant. Willie celebrated her birthday here (only one more year until she can get a Golden Age pass -- free admission to Natl Parks and half-price camping in federal areas -- YAY!!). We went out to a local upscale pizza place for a late lunch and then went to the Chaffee County Fair & Rodeo for the rest of the day. It was quite a different experience, but basically enjoyable. If anyone has concerns that women are advancing too rapidly in our society, we want to assure you that chauvinism is alive & well in the world of rodeo!! Those "pretty girls" just keep on riding forever!!We also took a lovely hike near Salida, which started with a rather frightening ride along a 4-wheel drive road (mainly frightening due to the narrowness of the road and the large size of our truck!). It was along Pass Creek, though we did not get as far as the lake. It was nice to walk along the creek & see the cascades, beaver ponds & open meadows where there used to be ponds. We were pretty close to treeline when we decided to turn around.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 9:39 PM 
