Custer State Park

 Day 2, we knew was going to be a long one.  Custer State Park & also the Badlands were on our schedule which meant most of the day in the car.  A quick stop for Becky to see Mt. Rushmore came first. We stopped to get some pictures & met the gentleman below. He rides horseback around the county & blogs about it.  The license plate is from Iowa.  His horse died in Iowa and some one was kind enough to give him this one.  Wow.  There are so many good people around.  Rarely do we hear those stories.  I can't imagine doing this but I bet he meets a lot of interesting people. (Like some wild widows)

       The beauty of Mt Rushmore never gets old.  And I love the story of how they were chosen.  Sometimes you hear things and they don't sink in. This time it seemed to mean more.  Funny how things become more important as we age.  Not that I am of course.  This blog has some fun information.  http://blog.caravan.com/mount-rushmore-opresidents/ 

 Custer State Park is beautiful in itself.  Of course our highlight was the buffalo stampede.  And this one actually stopped for a pose.

  

           



         The Badlands were
              amazing!

Some very weary travelers and a night time view of Mt. Rushmore ended our day!

                                  

Mt Rushmore

Oh my the days come and go and we never posted out trip to Mt Rushmore.  So much fun.  Becky flew in from Tempe to join us.  Our destination was chosen because she had never seen it.  It was a wonderful time.  Enjoying the beauty of nature along the way and all through the trip.  We stopped at Crazy Horse on our way in.

 We were able to see some progress from the times we had been there before.  It's amazing what you pick up each time you visit.  One of the bits of information that stuck out the most was this monument has been built with absolutely no help from the government.  Their reason for this was the freedom to do as those chose and not to be under the government rules.

And we ended the days with a glass of wine, fruit, cheese and crackers, laughter and good company.  Sharing memories, hopes, dreams and sorrows. And of course tomorrows adventures.

Time for a short jaunt

We never know when the time is right for a trip.  Sometimes it doesn't need to be a big trip, maybe just a little get away.  So a one nighter to Fort Collins sounded good.  Widow Sue had never been on a tour of  Anheuser-Busch so we had a destination. Our entertainment.  Even though we never seem to want for that.  Just being together seems to be the balm that unites us.  We had a wonderful lunch at Hu-Hot.  Who would have know Mongolian food could taste so good? Then it was off for the tour.  We made this same trip in 2010-where have the years gone?  Our widows come and go but the beauty of the time spent with them is always there.  Our days always end up with an ice cream cone of course.  It's become a tradition.  This trip we ended up with two. You can never have too much ice cream, right?  Always think of my mama when we have out cones.  She enjoyed those cones.

Our Widows today

Our Widows in 2010. 

Ice cream from The Walrus so yummy

And to end our trip in true Widow style "ICE CREAM".

The Widows are Headed to Mt Rushmore

We are headed out.  Tomorrow is the big day.  My Rushmore is our destination.  Why Mt Rushmore? Becky widow # - we haven't given her a number yet, anyway she had mentioned a few years ago she had never seen it.  Everyone has to see Mt. Rushmore at least once right? Last time the widows went it was 10 below.  With a wind chill of -20. These widows were 86,  84 & 79.

The weather this weekend will be in the 50's. The widows this time are 88, 69, 67 and 60.  A little bit younger but just as adventurous.

Here's to the Wild Widows

San Fransisco

What a beautiful group.  If you
are wondering why I am always in front,
my phone was used for all the Selfies...

San Francisco 

Golden Gate Bridge

A tour of the city.

Cable cars were a must.

One of Sue's favorites.

Blue Angels such a treat.

And Ghirardelli's Oh my what a treat.  I had a
Salt Caramel Sundae that I didn't want to share with
anyone.

Tell Your Heart To Beat Again

Have you ever heard the song "Tell your heart to beat again" by Danny Gokey? I listened to it and thought of my widows when we first began our travels.  It was like their identity was gone.  A friend's mom lost her husband almost 2 years ago.  She doesn't leave her house.  To all my widow friends, when you loose your spouse, no matter how long it's been, I hope you will "Tell your heart to beat again". It's OK.

Tell Your Heart To Beat Again

You're Shattered

Like you've never been before

The life you knew

In a thousand pieces on the floor

And words fall short in times like these

When this world drives you to your knees

You think you're never gonna get back

To the you that used to be.

Tell your heart to beat again

Close your eyes and breathe it in

Let the shadows fall away

Step into the light of grace

Yesterday's a closing door

You don't live there anymore

Say goodbye to where you've been

Tell your heart to beat again

Beginning

Just let that word wash over you

It's alright now

Loves healing hands have pulled you through

So get back up, take step one

Leave the darkness, feel the sun

Cause your story's far from over

And your journey's just begun

Tell your heart to beat again

Close your eyes and breathe it in

Let the shadows fall away

Step into the light of grace

Yesterday's a closing door

You don't live there anymore

Say goodbye to where you've been

Let every heartbeat

And every scar

Be a picture that reminds you

Who has carried you this far

Cause love sees farther that you ever could

In this moment heaven's working 

Everything for your good

Tell your heart to beat again

Close your eyes and breathe it in

Let the shadows fall away

Step into the light of grace

Yesterday's a closing door

You don't live there anymore

Say goodbye to where you've been

And tell your heart to beat again

Plans were made!

Being in Oakland on the day the Broncos were playing the Raiders was just too good to be true.  John & Sue held season tickets for years, rarely missing a game. Even when going through a bone marrow transplant, they did their best to never miss a game.  So Sue blessed us with tickets - fourth row up, for the game.
Family & friends worried about us being in Raiders territory.  They needn't worry.  Although boisterous, the Raider fans were congenial & quite good at bantering.  They youngest one was probably 8-10 and gave us his RAIDER's chant as we went in for breakfast.  The Widows immediately returned our BRONCO's reply.  We had the most enjoyable time.  Interacting with both Bronco fans & Raider fans. We even found us a Bronco fan at the BART station.  The best part of course was that we won the game.  These widows are not only wild but also very brave!

Introducing our 2 new widows

In November 2010 my brother Dan went to be with the Lord, after suffering with multiple melanoma. He left behind a wife Becky, two children, Jeff & Sandra & 4 granddaughters (that number is 6 now).

In October of 2012 my oldest brother John left this world after suffering from a rare blood cancer.  He left behind his wife Sue & two sons, Matthew & Joseph.

Now both of my brothers were devout Bronco fans.

Back to the bucket list train trip.  So were headed to California - Emeryville was the end of line. Just outside ofOakland.  Our trip was planned for the second weekend in October.  John's anniversary date was 10-11-12 & rightly so. He was a math teacher.  We began joking about going to Oakland, the Bronco's major rival.  One of the widows made the comment, wouldn't it be funny if the Broncos were playing that weekend.  A quick check of the schedule revealed that the Broncos were indeed playing in  Oakland on the day we would be there.

Sue is on the far left and Becky beside her.  So we welcome them to the our world of the Wild Widows (much younger version).

We lost another one!

We lost another one of our original widows.  Bina suffered a broken hip which she never fully recovered from it.  As the mother of 11 children, she provided a different spark.  Quite a few of our destinations were places she had always wanted to see but never had the opportunity.

We love you and miss you Bina.

Take a train trip you say

Do you have a bucket list? Some of us Widows have small ones. Some large. Some simply. Some, more complex.  

One of ours was to take a train trip.  So we began the process of looking into AMTRAK. Did you know that for most trips east - even if you want to go south - you have to go through Chicago.  So to go to Nashville from Denver you have to go up to Illinois to go down to Tennessee.  18 hours to Chicago - another 18 hours from there.  Now a train trip did sound exciting, but maybe not 36 hours on a train.

So we began the search.  One of our newer widows, Sue, (I will have to introduce her to you later) suggested the California Zephyr.  Well I have to say the trip to California looked much more appealing than the Chicago-Nashville route did.  Plus we picked October to do it. Traveling through the Rocky Mountains in the fall sounded like a great idea.  We would travel through Utah, Nevada & then to the end of the line Oakland.

We made it to Union Station in plenty of time.  We were so excited.  The first glitch in our trip was a little delay.  It seems the railroad wanted to take some cars to the museum in Grand Junction. No problem. Our delay was an hour. We can make that time up.

So we are off.

  

Well it seems those cars they added......well they really didn't have the right connection....... so a train that usually would travel 70-80 mph could only go 30-40 mph.

We used that time to enjoy a little drink......

 It seems the only mode of transportation we were faster than was the traffic stopped on I-70.

Our trip ended up being a 36 hour trip.  We had to make frequent stops to check the fitting.  As the passengers began to grumble and ask for something for their misery, we all (at least most of us) took the time to talk to one another.  The poor chef received constant ribbing - are your going to feed us for free? was a question he heard quite often.  The funny thing is, that because of our delay & our verrrrrry slow trip, we became friends.  Used the joking about how awful it was, to stop and ask questions, to visit with people we most likely would never have.  Guess God took something meant for evil and turned it into good. In the end, we were so glad to be off the train but have to say now (after 6 months) I'd do it again! But this time I wouldn't get seats by the stairs.....

Maroon Bells - From Oct 2012

For years I have seen the most beautiful pictures of the Maroon Bells in Aspen during the fall but never had the priviledge of seeing them.  We had planned a two night Widows Trip to Canyon City to see the Royal Gorge.  One of our Widows, Bina,  had never been there.  Unfortunately she suffered a severe fall resulting in a broken hip.  We could make that trip without her but still needed a getaway.  It's always so amazing what those times together do.  So where else can we go?  Aspen in the fall just seemed a wonderful possibility.  And so to Aspen we went.





The Widows are back

Well it's been a while since we have posted. Age does crazy things to you. Like you are so sure you have the correct email address for your blog that you spend hours fighting your computer, only to discover: oops wrong email address.  So thank you Jason with Webmaster Central Help Forum for giving me hope that our blog was not lost in cyber space. Or that there was some conspiracy (because in my life there always has to be a conspiracy theory, right?).
Although we have lost 2 of our beautiful widows, we have also gained some.  And the statistics show unfortunately the chances of us adding even more is very high.
Here's to learning to enjoy life when your life changes and you don't know what to do!