The Great Meetup Tour of 2014 Concludes in Stevens Point Wisconsin

The Great Meetup Tour of 2014 Concludes in Stevens Point Wisconsin

It has been a busy month with meetups stretching from Wisconsin, to the Dakota’s and Wyoming, then down to Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and back to Wisconsin.

The tour started with an elderly lady who works at our church who needed help, though we certainly did not have the time or the money, seeing a need and with nobody willing to help, I figured that I should step up.

So we interrupted our busy rental and forestry season and headed on down the road.

South Dakota

The first stop was in the Black Hills of South Dakota, just south of Sturgis, during the bikers rally, kind of loud but certainly busy.

My parents did show up for this meetup, but the only rainers that showed were Nick and I.  It was a good meetup with BBQ and a long overdue visit to my parents’ home.

Colorado

Next we headed down through Wyoming and into Colorado where we had a morning meetup with Dick Greenberg at the Starbucks by Dick and Marys' new office.

Then we headed down to Centennial where we stopped by Belinda’s office, she was not in, nor were any of the other Denver area AR friends that we hoped to meetup with.  So we enjoyed a nice lunch at the little outdoor café near her office.

Unfortunately, with a difficult schedule that had to keep moving along we did end up missing all of the other Colorado rainers and even missed out on a meetup up with my favorite Aunt Debbie in Colorado Springs.

New Mexico

Tuesday morning found us arriving in the Land of Enchantment, and one of my favorite old homes, New Mexico.

Here we met with the McCormacks and the Riemenschneiders, at the Pueblo Museum Café in Albuquerque.  What a dream meetup!

After our meetup in the Q, we jumped on I40 heading west to my old home in the Southwest, Grants New Mexico.  Here we met with some old friends who we had not seen in quite a while, some over a decade, some nearly 3 decades.  Sure was nice to see these old friends.

Arizona

By dark we were back on the hwy and heading into Arizona, still sharing some of the old stories with my son of the days when I was young and tramping through the mountains of the San Mateo and Zuni Mountains of New Mexico, measuring trees for the government.

We drove through most of the night, taking a break in one of my favorite Arizona towns, Flagstaff, always seems like such a cool oasis in the desert.

I wish that we could have taken a southern detour from here to visit a few friends in southern Arizona, but we were on a deadline, so after a short nap in the truck we were heading out of town toward our next can’t miss meetup in the mountains 40 miles East of Kingman.

Some of you may recognize Willows Creek Ranch from the many blog posts shared by Elise Herron on Active Rain.

Elise was a great meetup host, meeting us at Exit 87 riding her Mule, wearing a pistol, and greeting us with hugs (just like in a cowboy movie).  She led us a short distance from the freeway where the only road ended in a parking area, then we all jumped onto her heavy duty mule for a tour of the ranch.

It was a great meetup where Elise treated us to spectacular views, questions about Silviculture, lessons in how grazing leases are handled by the State of Arizona, introductions to her favorite livestock, stories about the history of the ranch, and so much more.

If you are looking for a great place to get away for a vacation or a retirement property, give Elise a call, she has some very good ones.

Next we headed down into the valley of heat on our way to our final destination, Bullhead City, Arizona (just across the river from Laughlin NV).

We got Christine’s stuff unloaded, took a nap, posted a few blogs, pared down our luggage before heading for Las Vegas early in the morning.  Wish that I could have met with Vegas Bob but we had a plane to catch so we grabbed a taxi from Penske to the airport and headed for Texas.

Our stay in Texas was a bit longer than anticipated, with a missed connection that led to a long night in the terminal waiting for the next flight to Wisconsin.

After the rest of the trip, the meetup in Stevens Point was rather uneventful, with 9 attendees, 5 of whom were human, and 3 were Active Rain members (Bob Crane, Sally Crane, and Nick Crane).

Though the crowd was small, the snacks were plentiful and tasty.

Sally served platters of veggies, cheese, crackers and more.  And the real tasty treat was the Mocha Frappes which were not only tasty but a welcome shot of stimulants after a long day of dealing with catchup projects.

I was kind of excited to hear in the comments to my invitation to this meetup that though my Wisconsin neighbors are not willing to drive to Stevens Point, Sally Hanson may be willing to host a Milwaukee area meetup the next time around.  Hopefully this will generate a full house of Wisconsin Rainers.

See you then!!

Ps, there will be a few more posts in this series, the Grants Meetup and the Arizona Meetup.  Stay tuned..