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 FINAL? For those few of you reading my blog, I plan to make this my last entry before my 88th birthday. I don't feel I have much to say and will conclude with a summary before we retired. As I said we sold the motel in 1983. It was messy as we took a house in trade (not paid off) and a note which I later discounted. We decided to take our children to Florida to see my Mom and husband Jim. We had a friend who lived in Cheyenne, Wy who owned a motor home, a 28 ft Winnebago. We picked an iffy time to go (December) and none of us had ever driven a motor home. At the time I had a small Ford Escort in which we loaded our 3 children plus their cousin Chester and drove through through the snow to Cheyenne, leaving our friends and relatives Cap and Julia to watch our home. From Cheyenne we drove to Kansas City to see my brother Paul and his wife Karen. We were met at the door by their dog Murphy, who proceeded to hump all legs he could find. The next day we drove to Nashville thinking Gran
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RAINBOW COTTAGES (continued) The 8 years we owned the cottages were very busy even though a lot slower then the time in Saratoga. We moved with 4 of our children although Renee moved ahead as she said she didn't want to ride with her crazy father! She was not happy about the move to start and didn't feel her reception by "locals" was very nice. I thought she was well received but I was not in her shoes. She graduated from Steamboat Springs high school in 1978 and was beautiful (still is). She had several jobs in town but one in particular do I remember. Our friends, Ron and Lyle Kohler, owned the Rabbit Ears Motel in downtown. We belonged to the Motel Association so spent time with them there plus we all played golf together. Renee was working in housekeeping for a woman named Beth when I received a call from Lyle. She said something to the effect that she would have to let Renee go unless she apologized to the head housekeeper. It seems she told Renee a room wasn'
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 Steamboat Springs first 8 years I have been trying to write chronologically but I am now convinced I should just try highlights to try to make more progress! I'm not sure I mentioned that Ellen was born in Steamboat Springs. When we met she was working for Borden's Dairy on Wazee street in Denver. Her dad was a rancher, never owning his own ranch but doing a fine job with others. When Ellen was little she went to a one room school until she entered high school. When little she road a horse to school. I can't imagine a six year old girl today who could do that! As a funny (strange) side note: she was born in the same building that later became the high school from which she graduated. It also was 3 blocks from our motel on 7th street. When she started high school she had to work for her room and board to be in school. The ranch which they were in was too far and hazardous for buses. At that time her folks were managing a ranch owned by a fellow named Barby, who owned the ap
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  Rainbow Cottages II It seems a lot happened during the time we owned the Cottages. We certainly had some interesting characters stay at our place. One that stands out was a fellow named Dallas. He came from California and, as it turned out, was supposed to be on patrol for manslaughter. It seems he shot some fellow in a phone booth. I'm not sure why but he doesn't seem the type to cross with. Of course I didn't know that so when he was late with rent, I asked him to leave and pay the balance. I think he owed about $100 or so.  It turns out I caught up with him and threatened him with the police, he paid up. Later I found out his past and how lucky I was. He was nice to us and polite. Not long after that the local grocery was robbed and after that Dallas disappeared. Seems like a strange coincident! One more character and I'll move on. Another fellow that stayed with us was a fellow named Tim. He had a good job when he moved in as an equipment operator. Not long after
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 RAINBOW COTTAGES We owned the motel for about 8 years. I would say we had a few adventures during this time. I believe I said my friend Milt (Mike from now on) moved to Steamboat after we arrived, but sometime before that we tried an experiment renting ski equipment from the motel. Seems like a good idea doesn't it? During this time we had an older couple, Polly and Bill, who had a room reserved during ski season. I think they drove from Texas, or at least they had a car when they showed up at our place!. I'm pretty sure they were hesitating about the stay as Polly stayed in the car and Bill was sent to look at the room. This was after our remodel of the rooms so the beds and carpet were new. Our place was old but we kept it very clean and we had new linens. After Bill's examination, the couple decided to stay. We invited them into our home and after some discussion, Bill and Polly decided to take advantage of our ski equipment rental. The equipment was in the only place c
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 MORE STEAMBOAT SPRINGS I have many recollections of events but I still forget many and placing the time is difficult after so many years. A couple of things I neglected involve my personal habits and my relationship with family. When growing up I never drank alcohol or smoked tobacco (or chewed). I learned these habits as I grew older. Smoking came when I joined the Air Force. When in boot camp, if on a break, we were told to light 'em if you have 'em. Otherwise you were cleanup detail. I chose to light up, so started a habit I have since learned to hate. Drinking came as part of a social desire and today we both still enjoy a cocktail at 5! I love red wine and am particularly fond of Chianti and other Italian red wines, so if a gift is in order I am easy(hint, hint). In December of 1969 we were in Steamboat Springs for Ellen's brother Mike's wedding. We were staying at the cottages when Ellen's mom woke us up with bad news. It seems Ellen's brother Tom was in
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 STEAMBOAT SPRINGS II My son Tony has a slightly different recollection of the furnace detail he had but it's my blog so I will stick with my memory. He was less than ten years old so maybe his memory and mine are correct for different episodes! Anyway, the auger to the furnace in the house quit so we were forced to convert the boiler to gas in that location. This was a dark and small basement with a lot of coal dust to deal with over the years.. The heating system was no more efficient no matter what heated the water!     We joined the Chamber of Commerce and signed up for their booking system for the ski year of 1976/1977. We were taking reservations soon for the coming year. All looked good at that time but wait! I had been traveling to Steamboat Springs since 1976 and if you ever wanted it to snow just ask me to travel there. By November we anxiously waited for the inevitable snow to arrive. By late November when the skiing usually began there was still no snow!. We lost all of
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