24/07/2009 - Rapid City, Wyoming - Longmont, Colorado. After The Big Fella dragged me away from the Bears we started to make our way down to Colorado. On our way down we stopped at a little town called Lusk for a couple of nights. We left Lusk and headed for Wolford Mountain Reservoir to catch up with our friend Peter Kaiser (the Austrian we met earlier on in our travels).
26/07/2009 - 28/07/2009 - Wolford Mountain Reservoir. We decided to take the scenic route through the Rocky Mountains National Park and arrived at the Lake at around 6:30pm. When we arrived Peter had told us that there was no need for me to worry about dinner, he had already prepared a delicious pasta meal (you gotta love this guy). The remainder of the evening was spent chatting over a few drinks. The next morning, the Big Fella cooked us a great breakfast on the grill and Peter let us know that he had rented a boat, to take out on the lake, of course Peter had lined up a good deal with the Camp Host. He had all the fishing gear already lined up, so we finally jumped into the boat and headed out onto the lake. We were fishing for fresh water Salmon, and let me tell you we tried all sorts of bait, but unfortunately it didn't look like we were going to have fish for dinner. We decided to go for a cruise around the lake and stopped just off shore. When we had stopped we noticed a few yabbies in the water - so next minute Dave is hanging over the edge of the boat trying to catch them with the fishing net, and Peter and I are putting Ham (from our lunch) on our hooks, we gave up on worms and bait etc. After about an hour we had just over 20 
and we decided that would be enough for an appetiser (plus we had to get the boat back). When we got back, I decided that it was time for a little rest, The Big Fella thought it was a good time to give the generator a little attention. When I woke up I noticed that the weather was turning a bit ugly and that the winds had picked up. Peter had been out chatting with the Camp Host and had just got up to pull his annexe down, and for some reason the Camp Host took off, but Dave and I didn't realise that he had left, so Peter was left trying to get the annexe down himself. Of course by the time Dave got over there to see if they needed a hand to put everything away - the annexe had already gone.
Peter cooked the yabbies in a garlic butter sauce, well Dave and I were happy, Peter is still undecided. Dave cooked a great steak on the grill and we had a couple of quiet drinks before we settled in for the evening. Peter had planned on riding his bike back to Longmont (about 30 minutes outside Denver) where he owns and runs a bakery where he sells his great breads at the Farmers Markets in Colorado. He has approx 13 people that work for him. He has bought a few Austrian students over to help out. However, the weather still wasn't looking good so he decided to hitch a ride back with us in Stubbie.
28/07/2009 - 19/08/2009. We had a nice drive back to Longmont and caught up with Peter's family and spent a lovely evening with Connie, of course Peter cooked us yet another delicious meal. (I can see now after only a few days, the effect of living this lifestyle with Peter is going to have on The Big Fella and me - we'll be lining up for carrots, celery sticks and water for breakfast, lunch and dinner when we leave). Dave is going to help out in the bakery tomorrow, so he needs to be up at around 5:00am - so needless to say we didn't have a late night, Dave had worked in a bakery in his younger days. The next morning Connie came by and picked me up and we went to the Bakery. The Big Fella had fitted right in and was working really hard, he had a lovely Mexican lady that was helping him out and telling him when he was doing it wrong - in her Spanglish, needless to say there was lot of pointing and showing, he was covered in flour from head to toe. The Big Fella finally arrived back to
Stubbie around 3:00pm, I knew tomorrow wasn't going to be pretty when he struggled to climb the 3 stairs into Stubbie. He had a shower and tried to sit up and have a chat, but that only lasted about 30 minutes until he decided it was time to lie down and that's where he stayed, I even took his dinner into him in the bedroom. The next morning I woke up and started to get out of bed, when I heard Dave start to mumble something about getting him some pain killers, I don't even think his eyes had opened up.
Over the next few weeks, we spent a lot of time with Peter, his family, the Austian students (who have come during their holidays to help out with the Bakery) and at the farmers markets (where Peter sells his bread). We got to know two of the students in particular - Bernie and Eva and they are great people - so hopefully our paths will cross again either in Austria or Australia. Eva was trying (oh so patiently to teach us some German - but she kept telling us we were sounding more like we were speaking Turkish). Of course trying to keep up with these students just led to a few headaches in the morning - but we had a lot of fun. I had to give the selling of the bread ago - so I end up doing three markets at Minturn - just outside Vale -and as sad as it sounds I actually had a good time, I even sold out. Dave decided that he only needed the one day in the bakehouse. Dave and I helped Peter with a few things that were going on. We would spend Friday's - Monday's up at the Wolford Mountain Reservoir. The market was on Saturday and then we had a few days relaxing around the Lake. Of course Peter cooked us some fantastic meals and we drank way to much - trying to keep up with the young Austrian students - so needless to say the clothes are now a bit tight - okay really tight. I know I did over 9 lbs (4 kilos) - after that I didn't hop on the scales - and I'm sure that Dave was right behind me.It was sad to leave but we needed to get to LA to sell Stubbie so we can come back home. We had a lovely drive - the scenery really is quite breathtaking. Of course the route we took from Denver to LA - just happened to take us past Las Vegas, so of course we just happened to stop at Circus Circus for a couple of nights - needless to say we didn't have a win - but we did have a good time.
22/08/2009 - 03/09/2009. We arrived in LA and have set ourselves up in the Arbor Mobile Home Village at Long Beach, California and we have put Stubbie on the Internet for sale - so who knows how long we will be here. It has been good to be back in a routine of eating and NOT drinking as much. We've been here for over a week now and I've only had one glass of one - so hopefully the happy belly that I gained whilst with Peter and in Las Vegas will start to disappear. We've been trying to get Stubbie looking her best and sorting through our cupboards etc - I really don't know how I'm going to get everything home. Dave says he thinks he will be okay - so of course he is now looking at buying a set of Clubs.
01/09/2009 -Dave has got washing Stubbie down to a fine art - every time someone says that they are going to come and have a look at her - out he goes. We have been to a few movies - and thanks to Janice and Norm (with their tips) have got this public transport thing down pat.We have met a couple of great guys - Randall (from Texas) and Doug (from Oklahoma) which are making our stay at Long Beach even more memorable.
All we need to do now is wait for the buyers......and of course Dave has new golf clubs being delivered.
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