My New Friend, Samantha

In my last blog I mentioned that I acquired a new friend in Colorado Springs, CO. Her name is Samantha, and is a three-year-old Chocolate Labrador Retriever. As you can see in the picture to the left, she is a good retriever--and gentle, too. She never bit hard on my arm as she carried me around. In the picture below, you can see that she was concerned about my welfare. She has become very protective of me, and my friends Betty and Billy.

Samantha was rescued in Colorado Springs by Jim and Pat's daughter and son-in-law. They got her before she was to be taken to the animal shelter. Since they already had two nice dogs, and I was looking for a dog to fill the void left by the loss of Felony almost two years ago, Jim and Pat agreed to give her a try. She has adapted to the motor home quite well, and is getting Jim and Pat trained to meet her needs.


Some people think Samantha is large (77 pounds) but she seems small compared to Felony, who tipped the scale at 200 pounds. She does have a lot of energy.

We are still in Espanola, NM, and Jim and Pat having been seeing many of their friends. They hope to see many more before leaving in a week or so for Arizona and California.
I do need some help from you. Even though Samantha is the "official" name of my new friend, she responds to Sami. At least that is how I spell it. Since I never attended school and do not spell very well, I want you to help me with the spelling. Should I use Sami, Sammy, Sammie or some othere derivative of Samantha? Please leave a comment on the blog to let me know your spelling preference.

Your friend, Gus

Welcome to New Mexico

We left Colorado Springs on Tuesday (Oct 14) and headed south on I-25. When we got to Walsenberg, it was snowing pretty hard, so my driver and navigator (Jim and Pat) made a change in plans. Instead of heading west across La Veta Pass and then Wolfe Creek Pass to Durango, they drove south to Trinidad and Raton. The picture to the left shows us entering New Mexico at Raton Pass. We went down to San Felipe Pueblo that day and then drove to Farmington the next day for the Rocky Mountain Area Motorcoach Rally. The weather conditions were great after we got south of Raton.

I picked up a new friend in Colorado Springs and I will tell you more about her in another posting.

Your friend, Gus.

Colorado Springs

After we left Dubuque, IA, we visited Jim's mother again in Cascade and then headed for Colorado Springs. We did make a stop in Council Bluffs, IA, to visit the Wilsons. They prepared a great steak dinner and we had a good time catching up on old times.
In Colorado Springs we got to attend Chris' (Jim and Pat's grandson) soccer game. The team played very well and seemed to be having a good time. The coaches obviously have done a good job, as the 7-year-olds did not bunch up around the ball, but actually spread out on the field.
While in Colorado Springs we had a good time with family and I prepared a brats dinner for everyone. I brought the brats back from Wisconsin and even prepared some cheese curds (with help from Pat).

'Til next time. Gus

Dubuque, Iowa

Here we are on the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa. It was just a couple of months ago that I was able to walk across the Mississippi River in MN and barely got my feet wet. Besides this paddle boat, there were some barges with coal going upstream to supply the power plants and barges going downstream with grains and lots of pleasure boats on the river. We were camped on river just north of the bridge joining Iowa and Wisconsin. Less than a mile south is the bridge from Dubuque to East Dubuque, IL.

I finally made it to college. Here I am at Loras College in Dubuque, IA. This is where cousin Jim graduated. I promised I wouldn't say what year he graduated, but it was between the years 1962 and 1964. He got together with about 40 classmates at homecoming last weekend. The weather was great and he seemed to enjoy seeing how the campus has grown and to find out what some of his classmates have been doing over the last 45 years.

The past week was also great in that we were able to spend some time with Jim's mother, who lives in Cascade, IA. Cascade is only about 25 miles from Dubuque. The area is much drier than it was in June when we were here. All the rivers were flooding in June. The crops are looking pretty good considering all the rain in the area this Spring.

We are now on the road heading to Colorado Springs. We plan to get there on Wednesday the 8th.

Wisconsin Capitol

Here I am sitting and waiting for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court justices to enter and take their seats. I am a little nervous, but this is not the first time I have been in court!

Here is the capitol building in Madison; it is the third Capitol building for Wisconsin and was built between 1906 and 1917 at a cost of $7.25 million. The interior features forty-three varieties of stone from around the world. The Supreme Court room above is decorated with German and Italian marble, mahogany furniture, and four murals by Albert Herter.

After visiting the Capitol, I strolled down state street and ended up at the UW-Madison campus. I think most of the 41,000 students were also out on state street, and it was the middle of the day. I did find a new friend on state street whom I will be bringing with me to Colorado next month.

The weather has been great this week. Hope it hold for the next week or so before I begin the trip to Colorado.

Warmest regard, Cuzzin' Gus

Historic Cedarburg, WI

Today I traveled to Cedarburg, WI, just northwest of Milwaukee. Here I visited a number of special places, but I was very impressed with the stonework on this old mill located on the Cedar River. There are many historic buildings in town constructed with Niagara limestone from two local quarries as well as cream city brick. The town was first settled in the 1840s by German and Irish immigrants. The railroad reached town in 1870. No matter where I go, I seem to get a history lesson about what was happening in other parts of the country at the same time as a local event. Of course the Civil War ended in 1865 and the country was trying to recover when the railroad came to Cedarburg.

I have been tasting a lot of great cheeses and sausages here in Wisconsin. Since I am not old enough, I have not tasted the wines but I have also found some excellent chocolate, some of which I found in Cedarburg today. Do I look a little heavier in the pictures?

Just north of Cedarburg I found this old covered bridge. It is reputed to be the only remaining covered bridge left in Wisconsin. It is not as old as some I have seen in Pennsylvania, but it is a nice bridge. There were no nails used to build the bridge when built in 1876, only hard wood pins hold it together.



It is now off to Madison so see the state capitol.

Hope all is well. Your friend, Gus.

Here I am in Milwaukee with the "Fonz." I met two nice guys from Minneapolis when I spotted Fonzie standing near the river .
I am having a great time on the River Walk and seeing some of the sights. It is not quite the same as the River Walk in San Antonio, but they are working on it.

The real highlight this past week was meeting Walt and Myl Rundle. They used to teach in suburban Chicago and owned Black Bear Lodge in Red Lake, Ontario. I have heard so much about them and how good they were to Pat and Jim. Cousins Jim and Pat had not seen the Rundles in 40 years. They live here in Milwaulee to be near their daughter, Jill.

After walking around for several hours today, we wanted something to eat. We found a great German restaurant (Mader's) and had a great late lunch. We sat at the same table used by Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers several years ago; the waitress wanted my name so they could put up another placque by the table, but I don't think they'll do it.