Back to Cripple Creek

Donna and I just returned from a week long trip to Cripple Creek, Colorado, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were hoping to enjoy some high country cool air, but the temps were above average during our stay. Still, we had an enjoyable time.

Miss Donna and I looking north on I-25, with Raton Pass in the background.

Looking north towards Colorado from Raton Pass.

We left early last Wednesday morning. By our route (see map below), the distance to Cripple Creek from our home is just over 700 miles. If I were a bit younger, I would probably make that drive in a long day, but I'm not any younger, so it takes me 2 days to get there.

Add caption

We stopped for the night in Raton, New Mexico, at the Microtel just off I-25. We walked next door to the Arby's for a sandwich upon our arrival, then returned to our room and collapsed -- at least, I did. Miss Donna still had plenty of energy. As my brother said about her recently, she seems to be "forever young." I, on the other hand, am forever old, and have been for the past 40 or 50 years, so I needed my beauty sleep. My college chums always made fun of me in my younger days. When they would get in to my car, the radio would be tuned to a local AM station, usually the farm report or something like that. Guess I was born too late.

After a waffle and yogurt in the hotel breakfast room the next morning, we hit the road north. It is just a few miles to Raton Pass from Raton, and I like starting the day that way. After climbing to the top of Raton Pass at 7,834 feet, you feel that you are truly in the high country after crossing the high plains of the Texas panhandle and eastern New Mexico. The old Santa Fe Trail snaked its way through this pass on its journey from the U.S. to what was then Spain and later Mexico.

The interesting town of Trinidad, Colorado, lies just north of the pass. One of these days, I'd like to spend a night or two there and explore the sights. We've only made pit stops there, but what we have seen of the town is very attractive.

The drive from Trinidad to Pueblo is easy. We have never encountered a lot of traffic along this section of the interstate, but we do exit on the south side of Pueblo onto Highway 45, which loops around the western edge of Pueblo. We normally stop at the Walmart gas station to fill up, then make a pit stop at the McDonalds just north of there for coffee and snacks. However, we have now had 3 bad experiences at that McDonalds, so we will pass it by in the future and hit the one on U.S. 50 or farther on in Canon City.

And speaking of Canon City, what a lovely place that is. We drove through the downtown area on this trip, and it was very interesting. Of course, it is home to the Royal Gorge, and that certainly has lots to offer the adventurer. This little town on the Arkansas River is another place that we may stop in for a little play time some day.

Now, if you are familiar with this part of Colorado, you might wonder why we go through Canon City to get to Cripple Creek rather than staying on the interstate and going through Colorado Springs. For one thing, I don't want to drive through Colorado Springs. That is a busy, busy place. And I don't care for the highway leading into Cripple Creek from that direction. It comes around on the back side of Pikes Peak, and I just don't care for that ledge driving, especially when you are on the down side of the ledge and there are no guard rails. And to be honest, the distance is virtually the same, so I prefer the route less traveled as well as the one that is less hectic and less terrifying.

After leaving US 50 to the west of Canon City, we travel for the most part on county roads, and the scenery is quite good. The early part of the route goes through some rugged country, then there is a more open section in the middle. On the final approach to Cripple Creek, the road twists and turns as it climbs to the 9,494 elevation where the city lies cradled. We were disappointed that we did not see more color, but as I said earlier, temps have been above average for the area.

We spent a total of 4 nights in Cripple Creek, and I'll write about our time there in the next entry. For now, here are some pictures of the countryside on our drive from Canon City to Cripple Creek.

Somewhere along County Road 11 between Canon City and Cripple Creek.

Looking west from a pullout along CR 11. Note the speed limit. It takes a long time to get anywhere in the high country.

We didn't see much color on our trip to Cripple Creek, but we saw some when we left. I'll show that in another entry.

Mt. Pisgah has an elevation of 10,410 feet, and lies on the western edge of Cripple Creek.

A Wet Week

As I reported in my last entry, we've had rain. It has continued raining at least a bit every day since that entry. In fact, right now our gauge has nearly 2 inches of rain as a result of rains that started about noon yesterday. Altogether, I think we've had about 3.5 to 4 inches of rain at our house since Monday. Other parts of the Concho Valley have had more, while some areas have had less. My biggest hope is that some of the rain has flowed into OH Ivie Reservoir east of here. At last count, it was down to about 14% capacity.

Another blessing resulting from the rain has been the cooling temps we've enjoyed all week. I don't think we've had anything higher than 83 or so, while many days have topped out in the upper 70s. As I write this at 2:00 PM on a Saturday, the temp is 71. I like that!

The rain has disrupted my walking schedule, but I don't mind taking a few days off. Tomorrow should start clearing, though, so I'll hit the streets then and put in a few miles.

Some Rain, Some Deer, and a Memory

It was late when I rolled out of bed yesterday morning, at least for me. I am usually up before the sun. No, that isn't true. I'm ALWAYS up before the sun. But yesterday, I opened my eyes at 6:52 AM and I saw light coming through the window. What got into me?

I quickly rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, and threw on my walking clothes. Just a few houses down, I spotted 2 bucks and a few does working the brush behind some neighbors' houses.

The bucks are centered in the picture, but if you look carefully, you can see a doe behind the orange flowers as well.

I got my 5+ miles in and returned home. After my shower, I did some work on the computer, then it was time for lunch. I wrote an item about a week ago concerning the places we ate on our recent trip. I enjoy eating out, especially tasty, exotic food. But my favorite place to eat is home. Donna is a truly good cook, and she recently made some kafta (Lebanese beef kababs) and all the trimmings. Boy, was it good. I really made a pig of myself. Thanks for fattening me up, Donna. She must be getting me ready for the slaughter.

Last night, we spent quite a while on our back patio. The skies had been overcast much of the day, but we could tell a storm was moving in from the south. Sure enough, a nice and easy rain began to fall. We set our plants in the yard to catch some of that precious nitrogen rich rain, and we collected some rain water as well. We were able to water everything and even store some of the water. This morning, I checked our gauge and was pleased to see just over half an inch. That is good for us. As I write this, it is still overcast, and I am hopeful we will get some more rain.

Look at these beautiful clouds in the northeast above our club house. They are reflecting the setting sun.

These are the clouds moving in from the south that brought the moisture. Thanks!

Just a hair over half an inch.

This morning, I set out on my morning walk. I love walking. Usually, I spend the time sorting through my thoughts, making plans for the future and perhaps reliving past adventures. This morning, my thoughts were about my father. He died exactly 10 years ago this morning, and I still miss him. I followed around after him as a child; as an adult, I followed in his footsteps and became an educator, as he was. But I never measured up to him. Thanks for being such a great role model, Dad.

I hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable Labor Day. Donna and I had lunch at one of our favorite local places, Rosas. As is our custom, afterwards we drove out to the lake. Despite the overcast conditions, there were quite a few people along the shores and numerous boats on the water. People seemed to be enjoying the fishing on this unusually cool day. Tomorrow, they will have to return to work or the classroom, but Donna and I won't. We're retired, you know.

Transition Time

We've finally made it to September, the transition month. Since June, the weather around here has been rather predictable -- hot and dry. The temps have hovered daily near the century mark, and we've had at least a month of days in excess of 100 degrees. In that same time, we've had very little rain.

I snapped this photo of some healthy looking ocotillo early one morning at our club house.

But with the arrival of September, things start to change a bit. The first half of the month will remain hot and dry for the most part, but by the end of the month, autumn will begin to tease us. Thus begins my favorite time of the year. The kids are back in school, temperatures begin to gradually fall, a few rains will move in, and autumn colors will begin to appear, peaking in late November or early September.

One of our neighbors certainly does like yellow flowering plants.

I love how vibrant and rich this purple sage is.

It looks like we are starting the month off with a good weather forecast. On Labor Day, temps will drop about 10 degrees, and we have a 30% or 40% chance of rain in the Concho Valley much of next week.

This neighbor has a nice mix of colors in her yard.

This is my favorite time of year to travel, as well, and I really miss having an RV during the fall months. I miss camping in one of our state parks as the mornings and evenings begin to cool. It's a great time to hike, build a camp fire, and watch the wildlife. Maybe I can talk Donna into buying me another RV.

Deer spotted on a recent drive through Spring Creek Park

Although the days are still summer warm, Donna and I have both felt just a bit of difference in the early mornings during our walks. There is a freshness there these days that has been missing since May or June. I look forward to it cooling more so that we can return to taking walks in San Angelo State Park. Because of the heat, we tend to walk in our neighborhood early; in fact, we are usually finished with our walks before the park even opens its gates. But once the morning temps drop another 10 or 15 degrees, we may postpone our morning walks until 8:00 AM so that we can enjoy the peacefulness of the state park. It's nice out there, and only 2 miles or so from our house.

Notice the rich color of this sage in front of one of the restrooms at the state park.

Good Eats on the Trip

One of the things we really enjoy on trips is finding good places to eat. We especially try to find places to eat food that we cannot find in San Angelo.

For years, we've enjoyed good Greek/Lebanese food in Shreveport at Athena's Greek and Lebanese Grill. I've written about this place several times before. However, the last couple of times we have eaten here, we were disappointed. Oh, it wasn't necessarily bad, but it simply wasn't up to its usual standard. We sensed that a change in ownership had occurred. We decided to give the place another try on this trip, but we were again disappointed. I really think we are convinced that it isn't going to return to its previous quality. On our next trip to the boats, we will probably go to Yeero-Yeero on Youree Drive. This was a favorite stop of ours for years while we lived and worked in the Kilgore/Longview area of East Texas, but when we discovered Athena, we found the menu there to be more to our liking. But Yeero is actually closer to the boats, so it will be more convenient. It specializes in Greek food. We look forward to renewing our taste buds with the food at this place.

On our trip to the boats in earlier this year, we visited a Bossier City staple, Ralph and Kacoo's, which is just down the street from the 'Shoe. I wrote about our meal there -- complete with pictures -- in an article entitled "Play Time at the 'Shoe" in January of this year. We really enjoyed our meal then, and we vowed to put it on our list of stops while in S/BC. So, on this latest trip, we made a return visit; again, we were not a bit disappointed. Everything about this place is good. We started with iced tea, and it was very good, not like the watery stuff served at so many places. We could actually taste the rich tea flavor. We were then served a nice basket of bread and hush puppies. This was really the only negative part of the meal, as I was not crazy about the hush puppies. Oh, they were quite good, and Donna easily put away a few dozen, but I thought they were a bit over cooked. The sour dough bread was wonderful, though.

Butter, tarter sauce, hush puppies, and sour dough bread. YUM!

Donna loves raw oysters, so she ordered half a dozen. I made the mistake of blinking when they were served, for they were suddenly gone. I guess the party girl liked them.

Raw oysters on the half shell for the party girl. She really enjoyed them.

Then our main courses were delivered. Donna went a bit light, choosing a wedge salad. I was tempted for I enjoy a good wedge salad as well. But we were in a place known for seafood, so I opted for something more fitting. I love a good po-boy sandwich, so I ordered a po-boy with boiled shrimp. Both of us really enjoyed this meal.

Donna's wedge salad.

My shrimp po-boy with red beans, white rice, and smoked sausage.

Yeah, we'll be visiting this place again!

Our next interesting meal was at a Lebanese restaurant in, of all places, Marksville, where we were staying and playing at the Paragon Casino. Habibi's Lebanese Cuisine is tucked away on a side street just north of the casino. We were surprised to find such a place in a small town, but these folks know what they are doing. The food looked so good that when we were served, I began eating before taking a picture. So, the picture below does not do true justice to the beautiful presentation.

For an appetizer, we ordered zaatar. During our days in Saudi Arabia, the zaatar there was served on thin baked bread, but the zaatar at Habibi's was on small, puffy, soft bread. It was quite good, and I would certainly order it again.

This is a stock picture from the Habibi Facebook page, but this is exactly what the zaatar looked like that we enjoyed. When the zaatar was served, I couldn't wait to dig in, and I forgot to take a picture.

For our main course, we both ordered the gyro plate, with hummus, rice, and salad. The gyro was, of course, topped with tzatziki sauce and red onions. This was the same meal we had a few days earlier at Athena in Shreveport, but the quality was much better at Habibi's. All in all, I found Habibi's to be the best part of our trip to Marksville.

Gyro plate with hummus, rice, and salad.

We ate at other places on the trip, but these were the ones that stood out. It's always nice to get away and enjoy something different, something a bit exotic.

Cheers!

Paragon Casino

Our final destination on our recent trip was Paragon Casino in Marksville, LA. For specific info on this casino, you can also consult the American Casino Guide.

I had been curious about this casino for many years, and the VPFree Video Poker page indicated that the casino had decent video poker at the quarter level. However, the last update of that info was about 2 years ago, so I was a bit skeptical as most casinos have been downgrading their video poker pay tables in recent years. I really was not hopeful that we would find such good games. Also, while playing video poker at the 'Shoe, we struck up an acquaintance with another retired couple, who also had been in education, and they warned us about how smoky the casino was. So, as we drove to Paragon, I was not that enthusiastic.

Front of Paragon Casino

Hotel at Paragon

Upon arrival, we parked in the garage, which is our habit. We prefer parking in a garage to protect our car from the elements. As we approached the automatic doors of the south entrance, anytime they slid open, we could smell a strong smoke odor emanate from the casino. Well, our Horseshoe friends were correct about that.

After joining the player's club, we headed to registration to get our room. Check in was relatively easy. One elevator was not working, but that was not really an issue, even though it was never repaired during our 2-night stay. I wonder how long it had been out of order prior to our arrival, and is it still out of order?

Hotel lobby tries to recreate the environment of this part of Louisiana. Pretty nice!

This shot reminds me a little of Sam's Town in Vegas.

Residents of the faux swamp in the hotel lobby.

The room was adequate, at best. The sliding door on the shower did not want to slide, the water in the tub was difficult to turn off, and there was very little pressure in the shower. I could nitpick all the little things wrong with the room, but I would be here all day, so I won't. We've certainly stayed in worse rooms during our 41 years of marriage, but we expect better from the casinos we frequent. We also noticed debris strewn about the halls, and I watched as hotel personnel passed by frequently without picking any of it up. There was one water bottle on the floor outside a neighboring room. I could have picked it up, but I wanted to see how long it would stay there. It remained there for over 24 hours.

The casino was a bit messy, too, mostly as a result of smokers who feel entitled to dump ashes on machines. The far south end of the casino does have a small non-smoking area, and we played there awhile. However, most of the machines there that we were interested in did not work properly. For example, most had keys that would stick, but many had monitors with visual issues.  In fact, this was a problem throughout the entire casino. In the course of our 2-night stay, if I found a machine that worked well, I tended to stay with it a long time.

Video poker area of the casino. I wonder why no one is playing? Pay tables are poor!

Area with slot machines in the casino. Again, even the slots were not being played much during our stay.

Here are the table games. Guess what? Hardly anyone here, either.

And how about their games? Were there any of the 99.54% VP games I was interested in? Nope, those were long gone. I saw no good games with a return of 98% or above for low rollers. I only checked the dollar or higher level on a couple of machines, and saw nothing there I could recommend.

We ate only 1 meal at the casino, and that was shortly after our arrival. We ate at Roxy's Diner, and neither of us was impressed with the quality of the food or the service. Cleanliness was also lacking there. On our first morning at the casino, we walked next door to the McDonald's for breakfast. For lunch on the second day, we went to a local restaurant which I will report about later.

We did drive through the RV park. There does seem to be shuttle service from the RV park to the casino. In fact, as we were walking back from McDonald's, the shuttle driver offered us a ride, which we declined. I do not know what the rates at the RV park are, but it looks like a very pleasant place. Occupancy was very low, though; I would estimate that only 10% or fewer of the sites were occupied. There are also some cabins.

Section of the RV park. Where are the RVs? Well, I see some way in the back. The sites look nice, so why is it so empty?

Another view of the almost empty park. Along the back you can see a row of cabins.

Cabins along the perimeter of the RV park.

So, we are done with Paragon. "Been there, done that!" as they say. It did afford us an opportunity to see some of Louisiana we are not familiar with, but there is no incentive to return. Now, if they had good video poker, I would gladly return and play and put up with the other shortcomings, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Natchitoches, LA

We left the Horseshoe Casino in Bossier City last Wednesday and headed south on I-49 to Marksville for a 2 night stay at the Paragon Casino. About halfway, we turned off the interstate for a visit to Natchitoches. For those of you who are not familiar with this town, it is pronounced, oddly enough, Nak-i-tish.

Natchitoches is an old town. I find its history fascinating, especially the time when it served as a jumping off place for immigrants coming to Texas. In fact, El Camino Real starts on the banks of the Red River in the Natchitoches area and runs from there through East Texas on to San Antonio and beyond.

Home to Northwestern State University, a lovely campus on the southern edge of town, most of old Natchitoches lies along the Cane River. There are numerous shops, B&Bs, and restaurants in the historic district. We spent a little time walking the streets and admiring the beauty of the river.

Below are a few photos.

Some of the shops along Front Street. You can see just a bit of the Cane River on far left.

As with San Antonio, the river is a level below the business district.

Looking north along the Cane River

Looking south along the river

You can see from this photo the wonderful job the city has done developing the river front.

And of course, I have to include at least one photo of the original party girl.

One final photo of Front Street taken from the river.