Home in Denver, Colorado

When spring comes around, all roads lead to Denver. That is because a big part of our family is here – our daughter, their wife and children. I see that I haven’t written a lot about these times since the first summer we were here, and now we have spent four summers.

I really wish sometimes that we could settle into one RV park and stay there, but Denver isn’t blessed with good commercial RV parks. In the state parks one can only stay two weeks. So we stay at the two state parks nearby and rotate through the summer. I’ve come to look forward to these times because each one has its merits.

It’s funny to say that a state park feels like home, but Cherry Creek is that for me. It’s nestled smack dab in suburban Denver, an oasis in the city. Yet, deer welcome us back almost every time we come in for the first time.

We are close to our family at Cherry Creek, and are often called to babysit or otherwise help out. We might have the kids over for some outdoor play time, or the whole family for dinner. I can visit with my friends on Monday mornings if we’re not busy. We try to cram in dentist or doctor visits while here. In between the busyness, I get my daily steps in with two favored walks.

One of them is a walk through the campground to a trail that goes down along the beach. Over the winter they had erected a brand new bath house, along with this sign:

It’s fun to imagine what the view ahead would have been like without the lake!

This view is on the far side of my beach walk. You can see that the waterfront is covered with weed growth. Until last year, I could walk along here all summer to see a lot of shore birds at the far end. A flood in 2023 raised the lake level and now I have to wait until fall, when the water recedes and opens enough sand to walk on.

When that finally happened last fall, I was so excited to finally walk all the way back to visit my bird friends.

The other walk is along the dam to the marina, although if the day is hot I don’t make it that far. It’s a four mile round trip, and I’ve started to push myself farther. One day, I think, I will walk all the way around the lake. Or maybe not.

Along the dam trail, I enjoy watching the egrets, ducks, and pelicans along the shoreline. In August, flowers begin to bloom.

When our two weeks at Cherry Creek are up, we move over to Chatfield. Here we are about a half-hour’s drive from our family, and it’s possible for busyness to still reign over a stay here. We try not to have to make too many trips into town, though, because we relish time to just enjoy a bit of the back-to-nature feel of this park.

In July, we had some excitement during our stay. We could see the smoke from a forest fire over one of the distant peaks from our site. Helicopters flew overhead constantly, getting water from the lake and dumping it on the peak to wet it down. Luckily, it never advanced to our side of the mountain.

At Chatfield, we can ride bikes around the park’s trail. In late September it had cooled down enough to head out on the north side, up on top of the dam for a spectacular view of the city of Denver–

and discover a whole new area on the other side of the dam. There’s a huge dog park, with a place to wash your pups after they’re done romping around the small lake there.

The bike trail went out of the park and onto shaded trails in the cottonwoods alongside the Platte River, and finally to Breckenridge Brewery for a fine, refreshing lunch. Yes, food did follow the beer.

Every year, when the nights get chilly and the calendar rolls over to November, we are on the road going south. But not this past year. At the beginning of October, we put the RV in storage and moved into an AirBnb apartment for a seven month stay. I wanted to care for our newest grandbaby two days a week so she wouldn’t be in day care for all five days, and that was very fine with her parents.

Our apartment is in an old, refurbished building in an suburb of Denver which bumps right up to the city and is only ten minutes from our family. It has a small-town feel which includes a downtown where the old buildings have been converted to restaurants and small shops. The old post office is still in use and on the National Register of Historic Buildings. We can walk there and, best of all, there are more restaurants just steps away from our apartment.

Not far away is a small park that has sprouted several of these beautiful mushrooms.

We can have a number of different walks when the weather is fine. We can take our life in our hands to cross a busy road where there are natural areas with paths and multi-million-dollar homes set back from narrow, winding lanes with views of the mountains. In the other direction, homes from every era of the 1900’s line the streets of neighborhoods that go on forever. Cozy 1930’s bungalows sit alongside ranch styles from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Many have been remodeled and given a fresh look. In between, someone may have built a new contemporary home. There is a whole neighborhood of mid-century modern homes, many of which look like Frank Lloyd Wright himself had overseen their construction.

Early in the fall, the other reason we are here revealed itself: our daughter-in-law has breast cancer, and her treatment regimen stretches for a year. We are so happy to be here for them. Yes, there are some very long days, especially when I babysit my grandbaby and am needed to stay for dinner and bedtime, but there have been a lot of rewarding times with the children. We are here for sick days, but we are also here for fun trips around town on weekends and school holidays.

Here are our two oldest at a park, pretending to roast marshmallows over a fire. Yum!

We are not used to winter anymore, so having cold and snow has been different. On most snow days, we can’t luxuriate in just looking out the window: there are things to do and we have to go out. It’s better that way, anyway.

Blogging time has been sorely diminished, but I’m still not hurting for blog material. I can pull out of my pocket any number of adventures we’ve had for that. And, there are only two more months left in our AirBnb stay. Although our hearts are here, with our family, we are also looking forward to moving back into our RV. These months have taught us that our happy place is on the road. Trips out are already planned, but the road always circles back to Denver.

Next time…visiting the mountains southwest of Colorado Springs