Tag Archives: Brush

Colorado

FCRV Rally – continued (Brush, CO)

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On Saturday, we joined most of the 100+ FCRV attendees here at the Morgan County Fairgrounds for a flag-raising ceremony.  The flags arrived in a parade of old John Deere tractors.

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After the flag-raising ceremony and accompanying musical tribute(s); we were able to peruse some of the classic agricultural-engineering-vehicles; aka “tractors”.

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Checking out tractors was almost as fun as a classic car show 🙂

Then we joined the smaller group for our morning 2-mile walk again:

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As we rounded the park on our walk-about, we came upon a rather large group of local boy scouts:

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They were shooting up their Estes Rockets…

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Several of our walking group stayed to watch some of the rocket-launching activities.  We saw one go into a tree; and one got hung on a telephone cable; and another one or two, plummeted down like missiles when their parachutes didn’t open.  It brought back memories of childhood… ahhh, to be young again.

Later in the day, around noon-time, we took part in the raffle and vendor sale activities in the event building.  They served hot-dogs, brats, and ice-cream.  We also joined many others in wandering around the grounds on a scavenger hunt.  We had to find hidden flags with a flamingo on them to mark our scorecards… when complete, we turned them in for a chance to win prizes.

Then it was time for another “happy-hour”:

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Just before dinnertime, we watched another storm front move into the area.

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Luckily, the heavy rain passed us by and we were able to stay somewhat dry.

After another fine dinner at the events building we gathered again for announcements and door prizes.  I won one of the 50/50 drawings from earlier, Yoo Hoo!… $65 dollars!

Our friend Linda, (below) won a $25 gift certificate from the previous days’ downtown scavenger hunt.  Unfortunately, the certificate is only good at local establishments… and guess what?  They’re all closed on Sunday and the certificate expires in a few months.  Sorry Linda.

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And then Stilla won the drawing for the Flamingo scavenger hunt!  A $30 dollar Visa gift card.  Yoo Hoo again!

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Today (Sunday), we head on back to Colorado Springs.  It’s been a great time with family (Dad & Stepmom Elaine), and our other friends in the FCRV group.

In other news from the home-selling front:  We got the results of the home inspection that was conducted on Friday by the buyer.  I was pleasantly surprised, but we have a few things to work out with the buyer.  More on that in my next posting… stay tuned…

Colorado

Dodging Tornados at the FCRV Rally (Brush, CO)

Our first full day (Friday) at the FCRV “Spring-Fling” Rally started out with a 2-mile walk for those members that wanted to go.

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A rather nice, scenic route was marked for us by Rally volunteers.  It went around a pond and the local park.  The weather was cool but dry.

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Here’s our friend Linda walking Porter… or is Porter walking Linda?

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We walked past the Brush Area Museum and Cultural Center, which is a former schoolhouse built in 1912.  Maybe we will find time later to check it out since it’s right next to the fairgrounds where we’re parked.

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We returned to the fairgrounds after our walk-about.  We logged in our miles at the events building… the miles are converted into “Brush-Bucks” that can be used to purchase FCRV related items.

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We hung out at the fairgrounds most of the day except for the girls who went on a scavenger hunt of sorts, to get stamps from local businesses downtown.  A drawing for prizes will be held later this weekend for those that participated.

And, then we had a little excitement just before dinnertime.  We got tornado warnings on our iPhones and could see the clouds heading our way:

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Pretty ominous looking, eh?

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The local police even stopped by to make sure we were all aware.

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We watched the whirling clouds as they got closer and closer… luckily (for us) they passed over without incident.

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We put away all the chairs and tables and hunkered down to hide from the rain that we could still see coming our way after the tornado-like clouds passed.  The rain, mixed with a brief hail-storm passed quickly.

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We then went to the events building to enjoy a catered meal of BBQ pulled-pork.

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There was also a section of “flea-market” type items for sale that we perused.  Members donate the items and the proceeds go to the club.  There was even a kitchen sink for sale there 🙂

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We finished off our first evening with entertainment from a Father/Daughter team.  They were really good, and had CDs for sale after the show.

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That’s all for now… stay tuned…

 

Colorado

A House Offer & Weekend Outing (Brush, CO)

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It’s was a good morning Thursday.  First-of-all; it wasn’t raining for a change.  And second-of-all; we finally got a good offer on the house!  I got the email from my Uncle (the realtor) as we were packing up to meet our group so we could convoy to the FCRV “Spring-Fling” Rally in Brush, CO.

We delayed our departure a little bit while I brought up the contract via email and applied our digital signatures.  We got very close to our asking price with no seller concessions.  Now, the only thing to worry about is the home inspection scheduled for this morning (Friday).  Hopefully it appraises appropriately and the inspector doesn’t find anything expensive for me to fix that I wasn’t aware of.  Our expected closing date will be the first week of June contingent on the buyer getting his existing house sold.  He’s scheduled to close on his house in Canon City at the end of this month.

We were about 15 minutes late joining our convoy at the designated  place (E Woodmen Rd and I-24).  After hugs and greetings we all headed east on I-24 to Limon where I left the convoy to fuel up at the Flying J.  Since we were going to be dry-camping (no electric or water) at the upcoming rally, I need to have at least 1/4 tank of diesel in the fuel tank or the generator won’t run.  This is a built-in safety feature to prevent folks from using all their fuel while boondocking and then not being able to drive to a gas station.  It’s no easy task to get a diesel engine started again after it runs out of fuel due to air in the injector lines.

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After Limon, we took Hwy 71 north to Brush.  We never caught back up with the group on the road, but they were still setting up when we joined them again at the Morgan County Fairgrounds.

So, about 150 miles later… we parked the Urban Escape Vehicle and joined everyone for “Happy Hour”…

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Even little Coach enjoys “Happy Hour”!

After “happy hour”, we all (eight of us) went out for dinner in downtown Brush and made it back in time for Stilla to join the other girls for card bingo at the event building.  No, she didn’t win big 😐

Here’s my Dad and stepmom Elaine in front of their Jeep.  They towed the Jeep for the first time since he got the baseplate installed and  found a good deal on a used Blue Ox tow bar.

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My Dad and Stepmom Elaine.

So stay tuned… we’ll enjoy activities and the company of the FCRV group this weekend and then probably head back to Colorado Springs on Sunday.  Our spot at the Elks Lodge is already paid-up until the 1st of June.