Creede Repertory Theatre

With the decline of the mines, in 1966, the City of Creede needed a new source of income.  The Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce) agreed to bring performances to the old opera/movie house. The Jaycees drafted a letter and mailed it to various universities.  Steve Grossman, a theatre student, saw the letter, and answered it.  It was the only response the Jaycees received.

Under the direction of Steve Grossman (age 19), twelve students drove from the University of Kansas to Creede. The Jaycees joined with them and with $32 in the bank, they mounted the first season.  Tickets sold for $1.00.

We seem to be heading to Creede a lot!  There is so much to do there.

Last month while having lunch in Creede we sat next to a very nice couple (Don and Carol) that have a summer home in this area.  We started talking about the theatre and a couple of weeks later, while having dinner with Don and Carol, we picked a show to see.

With the closing of Creede’s last mine in 1984, the theatre has become the largest summer employer and is a nationally-recognized theatre.

We had a great time and hope to see another show before the summer is over.

Gone Fishing

A couple of weeks ago we had “kids fishing day” here at the refuge.  Once a year several of the national parks host this event. 

Here at Monte Vista a pond was pumped full of water and 750 rainbow trout were brought in.  The kids were allowed to keep 4 fish and if they caught a ‘tagged’ fish, they got a prize.  The turnout this year was low and less than 100 fish were caught.  We also had a fishing day for the local nursing home and a day for disabled kids.  The refuge will no longer pump water into the pond and, we have been told, the water level will drop about 10 inches a day.  So, the whole point of this story is, we get to fish all we want!

I got a new camera!

Well, actually Mark got a new camera and I got his old one. 

There is a very nice walking trail (4 miles total, out and back) at the Alamosa refuge.  Although we've been here for 10 weeks, this is the first time we've walked the trail. 

These are all pictures from Mark’s new Canon 7D.

 Black Tern

Brewer's Blackbird

Elk

Gadwall

Raccoon

Snowy Egret

Song Sparrow

White-faced Ibis

Hope you have enjoyed the debut of Mark’s new camera!



Rafting the Rio Grande

The Rio Grande River begins as a small stream high in the San Juan mountains, at the Rio Grande Reservoir, about 27 miles west of Creede, Colorado.  1896 miles later it ends up in the Gulf of Mexico making it the fourth or fifth longest river system in North America. 

We signed up for a 1/2 day guided tour with Mountain Man tours.  Our guide, Ryan, did all the rowing while we sat back and enjoyed the trip.

This part of the river is rated a Class II: Medium rapids of moderate difficulty with passages clear. Requires experience plus suitable outfit and boat.

The water is so clear you can see the bottom:

We even had a dolphin:

Not really a dolphin, just a rock!

There were plenty of rocks and fallen trees in the river but our guide was very experienced and we had a smooth trip.

The views were amazing!

 

We had a great time.

Geocaching

Mark has downloaded about 100 geocache sites for our area so we decided to look for a few of them.

Geocaching is a type of treasure hunt using a GPS unit (Global Positioning Satellite receiver) to help you find hidden "caches" placed by people all over the world.  Geocaches are everywhere.

What is a cache?  A cache is typically some type of container, from small to big, which contains something inside.  Sometimes, it is simply a paper on which you write your name. 

Sometimes a cache will have treasures. 

When you find a cache, you may take what is hidden inside, but geocaching etiquette suggests that you replace it with something else.

I use to carry a ziplock bag of little trinkets I’ve collected but I seem to have misplaced it when we moved into the new RV.  We rarely take anything out of a cache but I think it’s fun to contribute a little something, especially if it has a Texas theme.

We looked for 7 cache’s but only found 4.

At one of the sites we went to we found ourselves standing in the middle of a brand spanking new paved parking lot.  No geocache there.

Another site had a new fence.  And frankly, after our recent encounter with a Prairie Rattlesnake, I wasn’t too interested in stomping around the tall grass.  We looked around a while but thought that maybe with the new fence, the cache had been removed.

We had the best luck in the cemeteries where we found 3.

It’s a fun hobby that gets us out and about and exploring the area.  If you’re interested you can find out all about it at www.geocaching.com.

Rock Creek Campground

A few weeks back we drove up into the mountains. There are a couple of campgrounds right up the road from us that we thought we would check out.

We started out at 7500 feet in elevation here at Monte Vista/Alamosa and ended up at 11,250 feet!

There is still some snow on the mountains.

We took our lunch.

Hiked around.

Fell through the snow!

Saw some beautiful flowers.

Red Columbine

Beautiful birds and butterflies too.

Green Comma

Green Comma - closed

Painted Lady

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

This is a really nice area that we’ll come back to again.

Today’s Assignment

Our assignment today was to drive to another Refuge to pick up two 15 passenger vans and bring them back to our Refuge.  They are needed for an event here at our Refuge on Friday.  Apparently, there weren’t two vans in the state of Colorado!  It was a long drive.

A little over 300 miles (one way)!

We ended up at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

We drove straight there, spent a few minutes looking at the volunteer village at Bosque and, twelve hours later, we were back home.

On Monday, we get to drive the vans back to Bosque!

An Unwelcome Visitor

I was in my sandals and headed down the stairs when I spotted something out of place on the entry mat. I retreated into the trailer and called Teri over to see our new visitor.

Can't see it too well. How about this one??

I am not a "The only good snake is a dead snake" kind of guy, but this one was a little too close for comfort.  So the snake was dispatched.  Here is the rattle.

Hopefully this is a one-time thing!!

Mark