Tag Archives: Meeker Colorado

Trip to Meeker and the Western Slope

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My mom, brother and me in Steamboat on our drive through the mountains

We just got back from our trip to Meeker, Palisade and the western slope of Colorado. While in many ways it was a lot of fun, it wasn’t all easy. For one thing, we were visiting my dad’s grave, which brings up so many memories and thoughts of what could have been; what would be now, if he were still alive and well.  But it was also difficult because my mom, my brother, Britton and I are all such different people, on different paths in life. Britton and I are of course on a closer, more similar path, and Justin and my mom are also since they live together, but still, anytime you have four grown adults with different experiences, lessons to learn, opinions, and viewpoints on the world all in one car and in one hotel room, you might be a little uncomfortable.

All in all though, I think it was so important to do this trip. When Britton and I move to Puerto Rico, there just simply won’t be as many opportunities to spend time with our families and friends here in Colorado. Sure, they may visit and we may visit, but it just won’t ever be the same. So I am glad we did this trip.

We started our journey mid morning going through the Poudre Canyon. We wanted to see how much the fire had ravaged the area. In fact, it wasn’t too bad -near the road anyway. Although we did see a few blackened trees. Oddly enough, it was really hazy the whole trip, though not from any fires in Colorado. It all came from states surrounding us. It was unfortunate because it blocked some of the views. After driving through the Poudre, we stopped in Steamboat Springs for lunch and walked around a bit.


The view from the Meeker cemetery

We arrived in Meeker around 5 or 6pm and checked into a hotel. Then we headed up to the Meeker cemetery called Highland Cemetery where my dad is buried. We spent quite a bit of time there. It was powerful and emotional. And very beautiful. I can see why Dad chose this area -not only because he was born there and his mother and father are buried there, but also because of the sheer beauty of the place. It sits on a hill that overlooks the river that runs through Meeker with a backdrop of the mountains.


An angel carved from an old pine tree


Dad’s gravestone. Though he never actually went to Vietnam, he was apparently classified as having served in that war.


We also found my paternal grandmother and grandfather’s headstones. Iris is my middle name in reverence to my grandmother that I never met


In the cemetery at sunset


Meeker is a very small town of less than 3000 people. Agriculture- such as hay and sheep- is the main industry. Interestingly enough, the founder, Nathan Meeker, also founded Greeley and after being scalped by Native Americans in this area at the Meeker Massacre was buried in Lynn Grove Cemetery in Greeley!

The next day we headed out to Palisade for the peach festival, but found out that the festival really didn’t start until Friday! But anyway we were able to take some of the agri-tours around. We stopped at an Alpaca Farm and Mill where they make yarn from alpaca wool. We also stopped at some vineyards and wineries as well as fruit orchards.


At the Suncrest Alpaca Farm in Palisade


We learned alpacas are from the camel family and prized for their hypoallergenic wool


They had an extensive set-up to produce the yarn and final clothing products from the alpaca and other animals


Some people call this area the Provence of Colorado with all of its grapes, lavender and fruit orchards.


Wine Grapes


My brother and mom enjoying a wine tasting


Britton and I in our favorite place -in a jungle of trees. In this case it was a peach orchard


Gorgeous peaches. We didn’t bring any home because we were peached out from our own tree


Britton and me with a sculpture and the Grand Mesa in the background

We were planning on staying another night, but after our tours we decided we had done what we had come to do on this trip and started back to Greeley about 5pm. We took I-70 through Glenwood Springs, Vail, Georgetown etc. It was a nice drive. We arrived home at about 10pm.


Driving on I-70

All in all, while it was emotionally draining in many ways, it was also a lot of fun and I am so glad we did it. Thanks to Britton, Mom and Justin for going on this adventure together. And thanks to Dad for making it happen in a round about way.

 

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Colorado Bucket/To-Do List Before Moving to Puerto Rico

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We have started to talk about what we need and want to do here in Colorado before we move to Puerto Rico. I think of moving to Puerto Rico sort of like graduating from school and moving on to the next thing in life. And of course before graduation there is usually a checklist of things to get done first.  So here are a few that we have started to put into motion. I am sure there will be more that we do or think of but this is a start:


Curvy mountainous roads

1. Climb a 14er. If you haven’t ever heard of the term “fourteener” you probably aren’t from Colorado. Everyone here knows that a 14er is a mountain that is over 14,000 feet high. Colorado has the most mountains over 14,000 feet so there are a lot to choose from as you can tell from this list. We are thinking Mt. Bierstadt as it is a beginner mountain and can be done in about 6 hours (3 hours up the mountain and 3 hours down). And it is also fairly close -about 2 1/2 hour drive from Greeley. We’ve done most other things in Colorado that it’s known for including skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, sledding, hiking, bicycling, white river rafting,camping, etc but we haven’t yet been to the summit of a 14er. It’s a must and will take some training to do.


Pretty mountains in Estes Park, Colorado

2. Visit my dad’s gravesite in Meeker, Colorado. My dad decided he wanted to be buried in his hometown of Meeker, Colorado which is about 6-7 hours away by car. My mom went to see him buried, but the rest of have not yet seen his final resting place. We were waiting on the headstone to arrive before we went there, and so it should be there by now. We are hoping to time this trip with the peach harvest in Palisades and Grand Junction and have a little fun while we are there too.

3. Begin moving our rental properties to a management company. We had been waiting on this one because a management company charges about 10%, but now that we have a few whose leases are coming due (or people who want to break them), we think this would be a good time to transfer management over. There is no way we will be able to manage the day-to-day things especially if there is turnover when we are living in Puerto Rico. This year with a management company will give us a good idea of how it will work (or what we need to tweak) when we are away. Plus it should save us some stress having some help with them.

4. Stand at the four corners. I would like to go down south to the only place where four American state lines intersect. These states are: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Then we could say we were in 4 places at once!  On this trip I would also like to see Mesa Verde, the Garden of the Gods, and other southern Colorado attractions that I either haven’t seen or it has been a long while.

5. Visit/walk around every park in Greeley. Greeley is a park city. The city planners definitely did a good job with the parks as you would be hard pressed to live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have a park. When we first moved to our house, we were in that minority, and then they built “our” park, Ramseier Farm Park which is just about 1 block outside our little subdivision. We have visited most parks in Greeley, but Britton said he found a list with some that we hadn’t even noticed!

6. Throw a big going-away party. Yah, we’re already thinking about the party- well parties plural because we want to have a house-warming party in PR too once we get things fixed up and furnished.


Taken from the tower at The Dam Store near Devil’s Backbone

These are some of the big ones that we want to do in the next 500 days or so. Obviously there are a lot of small day-to-day things that will need to be taken care of like selling everything, packing, making arrangements for the animals (who’s going and who’s staying?), etc. But can you think of anything else we definitely should do before we leave Greeley, or Colorado or our current lifestyle?

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