Surprise 75th Birthday Party

My brother, Ron, had his 75th birthday yesterday, on Friday, but his kids planned a "Surprise 75th Birthday Party" for him on Saturday, the following day, so more friends and family would be able to attend. The party was in a large meeting room at the Clarion Inn in Modesto.

Everyone was gathered in the room at 2:00 PM when Ron was escorted in by one of his friends. He was truly surprised! At the time, some were hoping his life insurance was paid up because it looked for awhile he might have a heart attack. His shock and surprise was caught on camera below (sorry, but a little out of focus).



Most of Ron's family were present. His oldest son, Tim, is on the left below, wearing a hat Tim's son arrived wearing. Tara, Ron's granddaughter is in the background peering out the front window looking for Ron to arrive. Carole and Pat, Tim's significant other, are on the right below.

















Ron's oldest daughter, Holly, and her husband, John, were on hand pictured below. I think Holly was the principal organizer of the party. She had also prepared a slide presentation of Ron's life, which was very interesting and recalled a lot of memories.



Holly's twin daughters were there, Tiffani and her husband, Daniel Soares, on the left below. Tara and her husband, Derrick Aschwanden, on the right below.

















Many of Ron's friends and relatives attended. His very good friends from Visalia, California, Jack and Donna Bailey are pictured below with Ron.




We enjoyed a variety of hors d'ouevres, appetizers and snacks, followed by a very nice dinner of beef or salmon as well as an endless supply of wine. Of course, there was also a birthday cake for Ron to cut, but without candles. I suppose the Modesto Fire Department wouldn't allow that many candles on a cake . . . but we did sing "Happy Birthday".



Ron's sister-in-law, Marge, and her son, Mike, and his wife, Michelle, were flying in from Fort Wayne, Indiana, but were not expected until 9:00 PM. We were all concerned how to keep the party going until they arrived, as Ron did not even know they were coming.

We had to abandon the meeting room where we had been gathered and moved into the hotel bar. Fortunately, Saturday was Karaoke Night, so we had a "reason" to continue the party. Finally at about 10:00 PM, an hour later than expected, the three arrived from Indiana.

Ron was surprised again when he saw them, Marge first as pictured on the left below. Later, Ron and Mike reminisced, as pictured on the right.

















The party continued with music in the bar interspersed with someone singing along Karaoke style and lots of reminiscing by Ron with friends and family. We also were able to dance a little between Karaoke numbers. Ron is shown below dancing with his barefoot daughter, Holly.



We finally closed up the bar at midnight. Fortunately, most of us had a room at the hotel to spend the night, so we only had to walk down the hall to go to our room. But, even though the party was long and lasted late, everyone had a great time . . . most of all, Ron.

Ron must be very proud of his kids to have arranged this fine celebration allowing friends and family to share the day with Ron and help him to celebrate 75 years.

Happy Birthday, Ron! . . . and we wish you many more.

Eat Italian

On Friday night, the "girls" wanted to go out for dinner. So we drove to an Olive Garden Restaurant to "Eat Italian". We enjoyed a nice meal. Melissa is pictured on the left below. Carole and I are pictured on the right.

















You might think those are halos above our heads, but unfortunately those are just light fixtures at the restaurant.

California, Here We Come

The weather in Kansas continued to deteriorate, looking more like fall-winter every day. So it was with some relief that yesterday afternoon we boarded an airplane bound for California. "California, Here We Come"!

We were routed through San Diego where we changed planes for Sacramento. Our flight out of Kansas City left about 45 minutes late which gave us some concern about possibly missing our connecting flight as we only had a 35 minute layover.

Our Flight Attendant told us not to be concerned because our connecting flight knew we were coming. My thought was, "Ya! Right!" Sounded suspicious to me. However, in San Diego we walked briskly to our connecting gate and, as we approached the gate, the attendant asked if we were the Davis'; that all of the other passengers were already on board and as soon as our luggage was transferred, we would get airborne. Wow! What great service! I recommend Southwest Airlines.

The flight to Sacramento was a little bumpy as the pilot said we had a 150 MPH headwind. But we arrived in Sacramento almost on time at about 7:30 PM. We rented a car, and drove to Melissa Krallman's home, Carole's granddaughter, where we planned to stay for a few days.




Melissa's home is in Orangevale, California, a northwest suburb of Sacramento. We'll stay with Melissa until Saturday, when we plan to drive to Modesto, California, to attend a surprise 75th birthday party for my younger brother, Ron, which explains why I had to wait a few days before posting this blog.

Another Allegro

We have been wandering the country for several years in our motor home, an Allegro Bus, and we will be on the road wandering again soon. Hence the title of our blog, "Allegro Wanderer".


However, there is "Another Allegro" in the Kansas City suburbs, a youth choir organization, the Allegro Community Children's Choirs. One of my granddaughters, Madison Crowl, John and Becky's youngest daughter, has been singing in this organization for a number of years. She started in the youngest beginning group and has gradually progressed to more advanced groups.

Several times a year, the Allegro Community Children's Choirs produce concerts featuring all of their choirs. Today, we attended the 2009 Fall Concert, a beautiful event with beautiful music and beautiful youth voices.










We caught up with "Maddie" in the vestibule after the concert. She's pictured here and I am so proud of her. She has grown into a wonderful and talented young lady.

Keep it up, Maddie!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Today the outside temperature fell signaling the winter weather to come in Kansas. We can't leave here to go South just yet, so the next best thing is to build a roaring fire in the fireplace. We had some firewood left over from last winter . . . enough to start a nice fire.

We relaxed in the living room, warm and cozy, but "Baby, It's Cold Outside".

Christmas in October

Carole's Christmas Cactus sets dormant most of the year, but is supposed to bloom at Christmas time. Maybe that's why it's called a Christmas Cactus. Duh!

However, this year the cactus' internal calendar must be off. It's blooming in October!

It's beautiful with a large number of blooms. So this year we have "Christmas in October".

Dash for Home

Carole felt much better this morning, so we were back in the Blazer to make a "Dash for Home".

It was a full day's drive for us, nearly 500 miles . . . and we were "Allegro-Less". It was a long but uneventful drive. We arrived back home in Kansas about 7:00 PM.

Breckenridge had been a lot of fun, but it was good to be home. Maybe the next trip will not be "Allegro-Less".

Homeward Bound . . . Almost

It seems like we just arrived in Breckenridge only yesterday . . . but our week's up already. So we loaded our belongings into the Blazer, said "goodbye" to Ron and Holly, and headed for home.

The weather was rainy and cold, but we didn't get very far anyway. Carole got sick so we pulled off of the Interstate in Strausburg, Colorado, and checked into a motel.

Carole went to bed early for a good night's rest and, hopefully, a better day tomorrow.

The Other Side

We have been exploring the West side of the Blue River Valley above Breckenridge, so we decided to take a look at "The Other Side" of the valley to see what's over there. We were surprised to find it is quite different. It's not built up nearly as much as the West side and the homes and buildings are not as high priced. In fact, much of it appears a little "junky", although there are some rather nice homes. But it is certainly more "rural" and more of a "wild" mountain setting.


The view of the town and the ski slopes on the other side of the valley gives you a very different perspective.


We stumbled on to a gorge which had been the center of gold mining activity in the past. A huge dredge worked up or down a small stream digging up rock from the valley floor and washing it for gold. The left over rock was then piled up beside the stream while the dredge worked its way ahead. What a mess they made of the area . . . leaving huge piles of rock behind. I'm surprised the Environmentalists haven't complained more about this scaring of the land. The rock piles are strung out for a couple of miles.


There were five such gold mining dredges in this area of Colorado and only one of them is still visible. We located the one remaining dredge sunken in a pond and we were able to walk around it. It's probably well over 100 feet long and maybe 50 feet wide. In it's day, it must have been an impressive operation to watch.



"The Other Side" of the valley sure is different.

On the Slopes

Since we have been in Breckenridge, we have only stared up at the ski slopes coming down the mountain. Most of the snow has melted, even on the mountain, so we decided to go up "On the Slopes" for a closer look at what the skiers see.

We found a two lane trail which was probably used by slope maintenance vehicles and took it up the mountain occasionally weaving around ski lifts, through uncut areas and across ski runs.
The trails branched out so that we were able to traverse much of the ski area. The view of the valley below was really great looking down on the town of Breckenridge.
















It was interesting to see the ski runs up close. The picture below on the left is a wide run all of the way down into town, which is why some of the resorts advertise their location as "Ski in, Ski out". The picture on the right is a run coming down the hill in the distance. This is obviously for more experienced skiers as it is a lot steeper than it appears in the picture.
















Some of the ski runs were in fairly wild looking areas. I'm not sure I would want to ski down slopes that were very narrow and wound around through the pines, but I'm sure all of the various slopes are quite busy in season. We were told that the Breckenridge ski area will accommodate 12,000 skiers. They certainly have a lot of area to spread them out. Also there must be 12-15 different ski lifts, chairs and gondolas.


It was fun being up "On the Slopes" on a pretty nice day. It was an opportunity to see the ski area up close.

Snow in the Mountains

We awoke to an inch of snow on the ground . . . and it was still snowing! We had planned to drive South over Hoosier Pass to Alma, Colorado, to visit a friend of Ron's. But Carole didn't want to drive over the mountains in the snow, so we stayed in Breckenridge for the day while Ron and Holly drove to visit his friend.

By 10:00 in the morning, the snow stopped and the sun came out. Shortly thereafter the snow had melted on streets and sidewalks in Breckenridge, but there was still snow in the mountains. We could see that the ski runs had snow on them, but certainly not enough for skiing.

The sun was shining much of the time, but the temperature was pretty cool and the wind was a little brisk. All in all, it was turning out to be a day that was not as bad as it had started out.

So Carole and I decided to go for a drive through the "high rent" district of Breckenridge . . . the area up the side of the mountain where the homes are big and the resorts are even bigger. We were in awe of the huge multi-million dollar homes. There are literally hundreds of them, many of which appear to not be occupied, so we assume they were only used during skiing or hiking season. I'll say it again, some people just have too much money!

I was also surprised that many huge home are still being built. Several giant lodges are also under construction to house even more skiers. There is certainly no recession in the construction industry here.

Ron and Holly returned to Breckenridge safely late in the day. Even though there was "Snow in the Mountains", they had not experienced any problem driving over Hoosier Pass.