Jim with a nice Koekone

Stu and Jerry in 2003

Stu fishing the Gunnison in 2003

A pretty field of purple in Gunnison.

A perfect fit

All hand done wood from single pieces of wood

Pretty cool work!

The 1949 Plymouth

Jackie and Tippy enjoying an afternoon card game in Brigham City

Jerry cleaning coach in Brigham City

Catching Up

Wow, where does the time go? We are now in WaKeeney, Kansas enroute to St. Louis to see John and his family. The past twelve days have been a blur as we traveled from Polson, MT to Gunnison, CO with overnight stops in Dillon, MT, Brigham City, UT, and Fruita, CO.

We met Jerry and Jackie in Dillon and went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant which was very good. Our drive down I-15 the next day to Brigham City, UT was quite beautiful, especially the section through Idaho. Jackie made some delicious pork chops for dinner so we stayed close to home that evening. A guy parked next to Jerry in the RV Park had a 1949 Plymouth that he had rebuilt into a “Woody.” It was something to see!! I will post a picture or two so you can get a look.

We took highway 6 from below Salt Lake City over to I-70 near Green River, UT. The drive was spectacular and very enjoyable. We pulled off at a parking area for lunch and then completed the drive into Fruita. Jackie and Jerry went out for a rib dinner while we stayed home and had a frozen pizza.

On Wednesday we had a terrific drive on highway 50 into Gunnison, CO where we met my friend Jim Magette and several of his friends at Ray Nesheim’s lovely home in the small town of Almont which is about 10 miles north of Gunnison on highway 135. There were ten guys plus Jackie and Tippy and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.

We played golf and fished for four days. Teams were drawn on Wednesday evening, with the plan to redraw every evening, but as it turned out the teams never changed. Everyone put in $25 a day for the pot which was distributed $20 to the winning team and $5 for individual net skins. There just happened to be 5 skins each day so they were each worth $10. I did get a skin on Friday with a net eagle, but my best holes were tied every other day.

On Thursday we had a great day weather wise and our team triumphed in the three low balls net format. The second day the format was 2 low balls net on the odd numbered holes and three low balls on the even numbered holes. Again we won but it was much closer than on Thursday. We also played in a “Shamble” format today and Saturday which allowed everyone on the team to play from the best drive location on each hole and then finish the hole with their full handicap allotment.

On Saturday we played the “Shamble” format again and counted two lows balls on the 1st hole, three low balls on the 2nd hole, and 4 low balls on the 3rd hole and then continued to rotate in the same manner through the 18 holes. I hit a shot on the 7th hole, a par three where everyone on our team got a handicap shot, about 6 inches from the hole so everyone played from there and ended up with five net 1’s. One of the players on the other team was feeling poorly on Saturday so their team did a blind draw for one of our players to fill out their team. They happened to select the player with the lowest net score on the front nine and ended up beating us by two strokes.

On Sunday the format was individual play from the white tees and we scored the same 2-3-4 low ball format. Our team won again by a pretty wide margin and we enjoyed another victory.

Some of the guys played a second 18 each day and some of us returned to Ray’s home for some fishing and relaxing in the afternoon. I will post a couple of pictures from two years ago since I never took a picture this year, oops. The meals we had we quite delicious and certainly filling. We started on Wednesday with Tippy’s lasagna followed by spicy shrimp on Thursday, ribs on Friday, and steaks on Saturday. After a long day at 7700 - 8400 feet a good dinner sure tasted good.

Everyone but Tippy & I and Ray left on Sunday afternoon. I didn’t want to chance getting caught in the dark going into Littleton, CO so we waited to leave on Monday morning. Ray’s wife LuAnn flew in on Sunday afternoon and their friends Richard and Pam drove up from Tucson to spend a few days with them. I spent the afternoon getting the coach ready to leave in the morning and then we all went to dinner at Garlic Mike’s and had a tremendous dinner and much good conversation with everyone.

Monday morning we were up, hooked up, and on our way shortly after 8:30. We drove east from Gunnison on highway 50, we have never been on that stretch of road before, almost to Salida where we turned north on highway 285. The drive on highway 50 took us over Monarch Pass which had some spectacular views. As we crested the summit we came upon a small class C camper that was doing 25 mph tops! On curves he slowed down to about 15 and then gradually made it back to maybe 20 before braking again. We don’t know if he was having trouble or was just afraid of the grade but for us to stay that slow we had to ride our brakes a bit and they heated up a little until we could finally get by him. Other than this problem the trip was just great.

We found our way to Jim’s house, with his help on the cell phone, since I had neglected to upload the map set, from Fruita east, into my GPS. Jim and I left almost immediately to the golf course where he managed to separate me from $6. He got me real good on the front, -4,-2, but I got to +3, +1 on the back before he recovered nicely with a par birdie finish to go +1, -1. I think he finished $2 ahead for the five days of golf so I guess neither of us had a big advantage. I feel confident I will get him next time.

Jim had to do a special assignment on Tuesday so we couldn’t play golf but it worked out okay since I had time to get a new phone from Sprint and we did a little shopping at Costco. We bought some filets for dinner and a couple of other things to enhance the meal. Jim is real good at barbequing as he demonstrated with the filet on Tuesday and with chicken on Monday.

Jim and Lynn were very hospitable but it was time to head east on Wednesday morning. We are anxious to get home for a while but even more anxious to see the grand kids that have grown significantly over the last four months.

Wow, the time does go by quickly. I have just finished this report in Lawrence, KS after the worst day of driving on this trip and maybe ever! It was very windy, over 30 mph, and it rained much of the way. I needed to keep both hands on the wheel and it was turned about 10-12 degrees to the right just to keep the coach going straight. We just took it easy and made it to Lawrence around 4:30. This is much later than our normal arrival but slower seemed to be much safer today. Tomorrow we will be in St. Louis and will see Florence, John, and Christine. Talking with Christine this evening it sounds like Florence is growing by leaps and bounds but all of the numbers are appropriate for her height. We can’t wait to see her and give her a big hug.

More from St. Louis, with baby pictures. Be safe and forgive me for being so late with this report.