Teresa and Andrew wish you a Healthy and Happy Holiday Season
Happy Holidays to all!
Teresa's Family Reunion in Fort Myers
Teresa's Family Reunion in Fort Myers
We did an Escape Room called Tesla's Tomorrow with friends Mark and Becky Merklein and Rob and Paige Teegarden at Corvus, one of our funkier stores in Salida.
Andrew's March birthday. Good friends Mark and Brenda brought a cake!
COVID-19 shut down the world... And wrapped it in toilet paper.
Teresa gave Andrew a Pandemic Haircut. With dog clippers.
We did more jigsaw puzzles this year than we've probably ever done.
We went camping with some friends at the beautiful Elk Creek campground in San Luis Valley.
Got some friends together and did a socially distanced Salida Historic Walking Tour. Lots of fascinating history in our old western town.
A visit to Edwards to see Mom and Dad.
Teresa's sister Ann had been in poor health for a while and in a nursing home. She tested positive for COVID-19 and seemed to recover well, but due to other health issues, she passed shortly after.
Andrew was lucky enough to get invited on a 5 day river trip on the Green river through the Gates of Lodore. Being in the sweep boat, he even got to rescue a fellow rafter high sided on a rock.
2020 wasn't crazy enough, so we decided to become landlords and invest in a home not far from downtown Pueblo Colorado in the funky Mesa Junction neighborhood. We have fantastic renters in the main house. It has a cottage in the back that we plan to rennovate. We may use it every now and then or offer it as a short term rental.
We got out with friends (socially distanced of course) for biking near Durango, including the legendary Phil's World out of Cortez, Colorado.
A big snow came early, then melted completely away for a nice warm fall.
Another trip to Pueblo, this time for some biking fun at Lake Pueblo State Park.
On another weekend, we finally made a day trip to the Royal Gorge Park about an hour away.
We managed to have a nice weeklong, socially distanced trip to Utah in October. We are camped off of the road to Toroweep, a remote parcel of Grand Canyon National Park. We have about 55 miles of slow gravel road driving (and three miles of rock crawling) to get to the overlook.
The cliffs around Toroweep are completely sheer... 3000 ft straight down. Lava Falls (one of the bigest rapids on the Grand Canyon) is down there somewhere.
One of Andrew's best sunset photos at Toroweep.
The Toadstools in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
Andrew hiked Buckskin Gulch to Wire Pass. This is Buckskin Gulch, and is large enough for horses to get through.
After a night in Vermillion Cliffs, we hike up to some pretty cool petroglyphs... nearly no one else on this walk, but we drove by the Wire Pass parking lot and it was overflowing on the way out.
Nice dip in the Paria River along Cottonwood Road.
Along Cottonwood road (south of Kodachrome Basin). Amazing colors in the rocks! (The panorama doing some wierd stuff to Teresa's anatomy.)
Utah Highway 12 is pretty amazing.
The Burr Trail switchbacks in Capitol Reef National Park.
The National Christmas Tree in Washington DC was cut nearby on Grand Mesa and made a stop in Salida on its way to our nation's capital.
Andrew's employer had a virtual competition for a gingerbread house. This is our gingerbread creation. We decided to go for the ole' damsel in distress tied to the railway by an evil villain and being saved by the good guy.
Max (above) and Millie (below) in their natural state. They are ready to put 2020 to rest, as are the rest of us! Happy New Year!
Pause Resume
HO HO HO... Oh no! Is it time for the 2020 Holiday Card already!?!
Keeping it brief again this year, although you can find more details in the photo captions.
We are doing pretty well considering the circumstances of this very strange year. We do have much
to be thankful for. We are both gainfully employed, and our home town bounced back quite nicely
(after spring shutdowns) over the summer. As you can see with the photos, even with the pandemic,
we still had time to play and enjoy this wondrous part of the world we live in.
Our usual Thanksgiving trip to Atlanta to see Andrew's parents went virtual and became a Zoom gathering.
We also had a Thanksgiving Zoom with Teresa's siblings.
We volunteered at our local Community Thanksgiving dinner, which was all "to-go" this year, and plan to
similarly help with the Community Christmas Dinner.
Andrew is still working full time for
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) based in Pueblo
and really enjoying the work.
The housing boom continues in Salida, keeping Teresa's business
(TandaCAD) busy as well.
Jack Koransky (Andrew's dad) is also doing well with no major medical events this year.
We hope this finds you well, and.....
May the Universe smile on all of you with Peace and
Happiness!
