50 Shades of Green or Taxi-Mom

Mt. Mansfield in the distance.

Dan has been keeping an eye on things in Las Vegas while I am in Vermont.  Jordan had his ACL replaced last Wednesday. He is doing well one week later. PT started and first follow-up with the surgeon complete.  I wish I could say he is on the road to a full recovery but he will have another surgery when a cartilage transplant can be organized.  He is on a transplant list and will need to be on crutches until the transplant happens. But he is in good spirits and we are thankful that a repair can take place at some point.  

Souvenir screw from his first surgery!

Quality time on the CPM.

On a positive note I am in Vermont for my absolute favorite week! The week when everything turns green.  50 shades of green or more! Not to mention all of the trees and shrubs that are flowering. Beautiful. The high temperature has ranged from 54 to 88 since I arrived in Vermont.

Mother's Day was great as I was with BOTH of my kids.  Erin was here for a week's vacation as well. Yay!

Erin treated me to a Mother Daughter pedicure.  Sweet!

I am missing my Taigo and Sage but Riley is keeping me company.  We take a walk around the neighborhood twice each day.

Riley

Lap dog. Taigo would be jealous.

Watch dog.

I spent quite a bit of time behind the wheel of Jordan's Subaru Outback.  Nice car.  Aside from my daily trek from Fairfax to Williston I drove Jordan home from surgery, to physical therapy and to the doc's office for a post-op visit. We did a little outing on our way to see the doctor that ended up with lunch at Al's French Fries! Yum. I also made a trip to Manchester, New Hampshire to drop Erin off at the airport.  She is a thrifty frequent flyer and I think it cost her something like 20 bucks to fly to Denver from Manchester and she could check 2 bags free!!!  So Taxi-Mom is my nickname this week. I have to mention that before Smartphones I use to be Google-Mom.  Erin would call me from Chicago and get me to look up something online for her usually related to directions.  I once used Google to find her a coffee shop while she waited for several hours for a car repair!

Taxi-Mom

I am back home in Las Vegas now.  Dan and the cats were all happy to see me! No new adventures this week but we have been working on the backyard. Added a new table and chairs so we can eat out on the patio.  We also bought metal trellises for the vines, we cut back this fall, to hang out on. Getting ready for our first full summer in Summerlin. We still can't believe we are here.  10 months already since we left Vermont.  Time flies.  

It's all about the journey!

Have a great summer everyone!

Nancy and Dan

Sunday Drive

We headed out early Sunday morning with a destination in mind, Big Bend in the Colorado State Park. It is located near Laughlin, Nevada.  I wanted to go south because it was going to be warmer there than our neighborhood! We were headed toward Searchlight on Route 95 when we meet motorcycle after motorcycle after motorcycle.  Turns out it was The River Run, a biker weekend in Laughlin. Thousands of bikers were in town for the event! (We counted over 600 on our journey.) There were a few bikers at the Nugget Casino where we stopped for breakfast.

Back on the road after a delicious breakfast I realized if we made a slight detour we could see one of the easiest to get to and largest petroglyph sites in southern Nevada. So we headed down a dirt road to Grapevine Canyon.

 It was worth the 2 mile drive.

 

We could look at these all day!

My favorite is the guy (medicine man) on the right!

Big Horn Sheep

Looking toward Arizona.

Bird of the day: Phainopepla (I think)

Phainopepla

Next stop the state park. Big Bend of the Colorado. What a nice park.  The woman at the entrance booth told us that a lot of the park had just been updated.  There are full hookup camp sites, covered picnic areas and two beautiful crystal clear beaches on the Colorado River. We totally plan to head down for some beach time this summer!

Nice getaway homes in Arizona!

One of the beaches.

Very friendly Mallard.  Looking for a handout. No telephoto here.

Sweet young lady sharing her shells with me. 

Knee deep in the Colorado

One more adventure on the way home.  We crossed the river and headed to Chloride, Arizona.  It's an old mining town. Not a ghost town but very unique! Here is a little photo journey through town!

Someone is creative and had access to lots of bowling balls!

Heavy metal groupies.

Wheelie

Mysterious

Water Fowl

Tinman

Take me to your leader!

Gun slinger

Archer

All over town were artfully arranged junk (antique) collections!

In this higher elevation all the cactus were just beginning to bloom! Beautiful.

Lots of rock to build with.

Another photo op!  I wouldn't let him get in the coffin!

On route 95 northbound toward the Hoover Dam you pass under three bridges to nowhere.  Arizona was thinking of safety for humans and big horn sheep.  The bridges were specifically built where the sheep trails crossed the highway!

Final shot of the day, a dust devil.  Probably stirred up by guys with 4-wheelers doing spin-outs on the dry lake bed. It was a very windy day.

Dust devil and Solar Array

The big fight weekend has begun.  I know nothing about boxing but I hope Pacquiao wins. It's going to be in the 90's today and tomorrow. I think we will just hang out at the pool and keep an eye on the news reports about the impact of the "fight" on Las Vegas! Have a great weekend.

Someone recently asked my if I could notify them when a new post went up.  Sure.  If you would like to be notified about each new post on the blog, Moving on Vegas Style, send a quick email note to msgross82@gmail.com and I will put you on an email notification list.

It's all about the journey.

Nancy and Dan