This past year, our friends kept asking, “When are you going to be home?” These pictures may help to explain. We began the year by visiting Puerto Vallarta for two weeks in January. Here is a picture of Yelapa, an hour away by water taxi.
Back in Fort Collins for a tour of the Walker Manufacturing Plant. Here are some units ready to be shipped to places all over the world, although several will probably be happy to cut grass in northern Colorado. Thanks to production manager and fellow Fort Collins Investment Club member Steve for a great tour.
February sounded like a good time to visit Arizona and New Mexico. Darel had never been to Los Alamos so we headed south on I25, just missing a big storm on February 22. Raton Pass was closed, so we drove through Alamosa. There was so much ice on the side of our car that it was difficult to open the door.
Los Alamos was worth a couple of hours at their museum. Good or bad, what happened there during World War 2 changed the course of history. Highlights were replicas of the Fat Man bomb and the letter signed by Einstein that encouraged Roosevelt to fund the Manhatten Project.
The next day we visited nearby Bandelier National Monument. We climbed a latter to get into this cliff dwelling.
There are advantages to being old, such as free access to national parks and monuments. The next day, drove through El Malpais (unfortunately too much snow for a hike) then we stopped at El Morro National Monument. You can see why this was a well-known rest stop for wagon trains. Many travelers left their names here.
Finally, warm weather in Tucson. The most difficult task is to decide which trail to take. We did the Camero Loop.
The next day we walked around the zoo with Mary Ann and Boone. We managed to pick the day when they were setting up all sorts of colorful displays.
Not much to see between Tucson and Las Cruces. Unless you go through places like Tombstone
Whitewater Draw. The place was full of birders. We felt completely naked without our mandatory binoculars and telescopic lenses. The best we could do was to look through these stationary binoculars.
Reminiscent of our days as students at NMSU, we had a nice walk along the Rio Grande River just east of Las Cruces.
After visiting family and eating lots of wonderful food in Las Cruces, we headed north towards home. Our first stop was at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Since we still had no binoculars for bird watching, we took a hike up a side canyon instead.
At the end of March, we took a quick trip to Montrose, with a side trip to Utah to visit Arches National Park. It must have been spring break for a lot of people, because there was a very long line of cars waiting to enter the park. It was a beautiful day and made the wait worthwhile.
Our big trip for the year was Eastern Europe with Grand Circle Cruise Line. Our trip started in Bucharest, Romania and ended in Budapest Hungary, with a pre-trip extension by bus to Transylvania.
Transylvania is a mountainous region full of castles. We toured the Bran Castle, home of Vlad the Impaler, and the Peles Castle, one of the most beautiful castles in the world.
In Bucharest we were told the story of when Michael Jackson gave a concert there and told the crowd that he, “was delighted to visit the beautiful city of Budapest.” The crowd roared in laughter. I certainly can’t blame Michael for such an error.
As with other trips that we have taken, we learned a great deal about the countries that we visited. Many of the people in Eastern Europe suffered through World War II under Nazi extremism followed by years under communist dictators. In December of 1989, rebels in Romania cut the communist symbol from the center of their national flag and wore these flags around their necks in defiance of the communist government. We listened to one such former rebel explain what it was like.
The Palace of Parliament was designed by the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, but was not finished until years after his death.
After a ride by bus to Constanta on the Black Sea, we finally boarded the River Adagio for our cruise up the Danube River.
Here are a few sights along the Danube River.
Our final stop was Budapest, with its impressive buildings and monuments.
In 1956 Imre Nagy became the Hungarian leader and attempted to introduce free elections and other reforms. Hungarians believed that there would be support from western democracies. The United States and western Europe were involved in the Suez crisis and help never arrived. Some 6000 Soviet tanks crossed the Hungarian border and smashed the revolt and 30,000 people were killed.
It is hard to get very far away from some of the terrible images from the recent past. This memorial remembers lives lost when Jews were forced to remove their shoes before being shot and pushed into the Danube River.
Back in Colorado, we rented a house near Ridgway with Janet, Allen, and some of their offspring. We took a day to visit Telluride. The slopes were closed for the season but the lifts were still operating.
Preston is our newest Eagle Scout. A very proud event for friends and family.
Our summer in Colorado included golf, hikes, time with friends and family, and relaxing weekends at our cabin. It is unnecessary to travel far from home during the summer since there are so many thinks to see and do here in Colorado.
We also did two bus tours with the City of Fort Collins, one focused on water use and the other on electric power.
The Old Chicago Seminar started sometime in the 90s to drink beer and talk about teaching and learning mathematics. The purpose has changed over the years and now we talk about old age and biking. Past bike tours have included the Katy Trail in Missouri, the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota, the Natchez Trace in Mississippi, and the Coeur d’Alene trail in Idaho. In 2019 we decided to do the Great Allegheny Passage during September. Darel and Mike drove a big Ford F350 loaded with two trikes, one tandem, and three road bikes. We made a big mistake in Ohio. In need of diesel, we stopped at a station and found a bargain green pump and filled up. Unfortunately, it was gas and not diesel.
After a many-hour delay (there is no simple way to drain a fuel tank), we made it to Pittsburgh and joined our colleagues. We spent part of the first day touring around the city of Pittsburgh, one day of sight seeing, and four days on the trail for a total of approximately 170 miles.
In October, we went with Janet and Allen to Cancun. Here is the required shot to prove that we were actually there.
We did a full-day excursion to Chichen Itza. We visited a native Mayan village for lunch. Chichen Itza is one of the must-see attractions in Mexico, and was well worth the trip. The downside was the extremely large number of vendors, selling identical souvenirs, with little of no hope of doing so. Also included in the excursion was a cenote, where we all took a dip.
The highlight (expecially for Allen) was a fishing trip by Allen and Darel. Allen was the man. Allen caught a Dorado (Mahi Mahi), a Baracuda, and a Wahoo that barely fit in the fish cooler. We took two plastic bags of fish fillets to a local restaurant and enjoyed a feast that evening.
The next event was a wedding in Las Cruces. Congratulations to Elaine. It was a beautiful November day in the Walker back yard.
Next was a week in New Orleans. A mandatory picture of Jackson Square, a visit to Preservation Hall, a cooking tour, visit to a jazz museum, and a jazz and gumbo festival in the park. It is easy to understand why New Orleans is a favorite tourist destination.
We couldn’t leave New Orleans without going to Manning’s for lunch.
While we were still in New Orleans, we learned that there had been a fire very close to our cabin. We went up to our cabin the weekend before Thanksgiving and inspected the blackened landscape. No damage, but too close for comfort. More fire prevention activities are on our agenda for 2020!
Thanksgiving weekend is our traditional time to cut a Christmas tree. Luckily, we got our tree before the huge snowstorm that hit northern Colorado on November 25 and 26. Officially we got 16 ½ inches in Fort Collins. Our yardstick measured 13 ½.
In December, we got away from the snow by flying again to Puerto Vallarta, just in time for the Christmas lighting ceremony at our resort.
We have many good memories from our favorite beach restaurant.
Here’s looking forward to 2020.