Close to Nowhere

My oldest granddaughter, Merideth, her husband Tim, and their two children Shepard and Ruby June moved to Colorado a couple months ago and they are loving it. Every week I get pictures of their latest adventures. They’ve been hiking a lot.

One Saturday they went to Dinosaur Ridge and hiked a couple of hours. The air is thinner up there so they didn’t hike as long as they wanted. Surprisingly, six-year-old Ruby June was the toughest of the lot. She only fell down 100 times, but she loved it.

Merideth says everyone in Colorado is skinny because the food is horrible. The cooks all have nice, white aprons and use avocado oil and sugar free ketchup. They don’t even have fried pickles.

One of her new neighbors told her that since she was a good Southern cook, that if she cooked for her neighbors and friends they’d be lifelong friends. She does make the best chicken and dumplings I’ve ever eaten. They have met one neighbor who smokes meat though.

They go kayaking a lot and one of their favorite places to go is the Buffalo Bill Museum. There are apparently many, many things to do outside.

She took them to a nearby park last week and after a bit Ruby came up to her and said she couldn’t find Shepard. Merideth found him with a park ranger, a couple other kids and a homeless man. They were grilling out a meal for the homeless man.

One thing they don’t miss is the humidity. There is apparently no humidity up there. Last summer, when they were still in Coldwater they went fishing at Arkabutla Lake. It was one of our really hot, really humid Mississippi days. Ruby June got hot and went to sit in the car. To her parents surprise a little while later a police car pulled up. Ruby had dialed 911 and said she was dying she was so hot. After checking out that she wasn’t really dying the policemen left and Merideth and Tim gathered everyone up and they went home to the air conditioner.

Merideth home-schooled the kids while living in Coldwater. The first year Shepard went to kindergarten at the school in Coldwater there were a couple school shootings. At the school they go to in Littleton the doors to the classrooms are bullet proof garage doors. The main lobby is set up and all the students gather there first thing in the morning and they all practice an art or a musical instrument.

She was really nervous about sending them to school, but, after visiting and seeing all the safety precautions and the learning environment, she wants to go there also.

As wonderful as Colorado sounds, I sure wish they were back in Mississippi.