Old Things R New

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

I remember one morning, there in Sapinero, as we were launching Ivan’s boat at the boat ramp, the front mooring line slipped away from us as the boat came off the trailer.  Yep! The boat kept moving out into the lake.  Luckily the mooring line was made of hemp and was floating, trailing after the boat.  Ivan had to wade out to catch the line before it was out of reach.  Whew!  If the mooring line had not been floating, the boat would have glided out into the open lake and someone would have had to swim out to retrieve it.  That would not have been fun, as the water was really cold!  Burrrrr!  Or, we would have had to get one of Ivan’s friends to launch his boat and take us out to get Ivan’s boat.  That would have been very embarrassing, and Ivan would not have been able to live that one down.  I guess he figured it would be better if he got a little wet than the alternatives.

Photo: https://www.trustedchoice.com/l/utah/trailer-insurance/

The Trout and Kokanee Salmon in the Blue Mesa Reservoir were good size and gave us a good fight.  However, the fight was worth the effort when Ivan cooked them up for us for our evening meals.  Ivan and Dora were good friends with the owners of the Sapinero Trading Post and had become a part of the ‘family’ there at the RV Park.  Ivan helped with RV Park repairs and Dora helped in their “Ley-Z-B” Restaurant.  On the weekends, they both helped cook and serve the restaurant’s outdoor Bar-B-Q dinner that drew folks from near and far.  It was an “Old Home Town Event” every Saturday night.

Photo: https://www.mantitlement.com/bbq-party-ribs/

In addition to the RV Park repairs and helping with the Saturday night BBQ, Ivan spent much of his non-fishing time entertaining the young children who seemed to always be running around the RV Park.  They thought it was magic that ‘Uncle Ivan’ had an endless supply of rock candy in his pocket to hand out to them.

Note: The town of Sapinero has an interesting story.  It goes that the original town was founded somewhere around 1882, and was named for the famous Ute Indian Chief ’Sapawanro’ (it is believed to have been changed to ‘Sapinero’ by the railroad).  It was located on the banks of the Gunnison River about halfway between Gunnison and Montrose, CO.    About that same time the D&RG Railroad pushed its tracks thru the area, and Sapinero became a railway stop on their Denver to Salt Lake City route (see Wikipedia for the detailed history of Sapinero and the influence of the D&RG Railroad on the area).  In 1962 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was given the responsibility for the design and construction of the Blue Mesa Dam across the Gunnison River.  When finished, the dam forming the largest artificial reservoir in the state of Colorado.  It also covered the homes, businesses, schools and churches of the town’s 500 residents with over 300’ of water.  The residents of Sapinero had to relocate just as the Ute Indians had to do in 1864 when they were forced to relocate from these same Colorado lands, by the U.S. Government, with the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851.

 Photo: https://coyotegulch.blog/2018/09/09/forecast-for-blue-mesa-reservoir-record-low-territory-coloradoriver-coriver-aridification/

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

Tags: Family fishing memories

A Slice of LIfe

Bill Lites

Having been raised most of their younger years in Colorado, Ivan and Dora both liked the high cool Colorado areas for their hot and humid summer months ‘get-a-way’ living when possible.  One of the Colorado areas they found to their liking was Sapinero, CO (elevation 7621’).  This small community is located on US-50, roughly halfway between Gunnison and Montrose, and on the southern edge of the Gunnison National Forest, adjacent to the Blue Mesa Reservoir (the fishing hole).

Photo: https://maps.roadtrippers.com/us/co/nature/blue-mesa-reservoir

They liked this location so well that they made arrangements with the RV Park owner to permanently park their 30’ Silver Streak travel trailer on one of their upper level lots overlooking the lake.  They had spent several summer seasons there in Sapinero, and were even allowed to build a permanent wooden roof over the trailer to protect it from the winter snows.  They extended one side of the roof (on the door side of the trailer) to include a very nice covered Patio deck.

The time DiVoran and I visited Ivan and Dora in Sapinero we stayed in one of the ‘Rustic Cabins’ there in the RV Park.  I use the term rustic loosely, as it looked like it had to be at least 100 years old and never been painted.  As I remember, the lap-siding boards were nailed to the 2x4s that held up the roof and that was it!  There was nothing much on the inside to stop the cold and wind from coming thru the cracks in the siding.  There was a small table, two wooden chairs, a sagging double bed (with squeaky springs), and a small stained and chipped porcelain sink with a single faucet.  The water was ice cold and drained on the ground outside the cabin.  The single pull-chain lightbulb hanging from the ceiling gave off barely enough light to see your way around the cabin at night.  The outhouse was about 25 yards away, and seemed much further than that at two-o’clock in the morning.

Photo: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/309622543126549588/

DiVoran remembers that there was a good sized gap under the door.  We didn’t pay much attention to it until, in the middle of our first night in the cabin; she almost gave me a heart attack.  She woke me up screaming and jumping up and down in the middle of the floor.  I asked her what was wrong, and she said, “Something was crawling over my head!”  In the poor lighting, we searched the cabin but couldn’t find anything.  It was really hard to get back to sleep that night.  Visions of what might be scurrying around the cabin didn’t help.

The next morning, when we told Ivan our story, he just laughed and said, “It must have been one of my little friends that like to come in from the cold.   You wouldn’t blame them from wanting to get in there where it is warm would you?”  DiVoran didn’t think it was funny.  The next night you better believe we stuffed a towel in that gap under the door, to keep any visiting critters from bothering our sleep.

Image: http://clipart-library.com/laughing-man-cliparts.html

—–To Be Continued—-

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

Tags: Family fishing memories

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

After their retirement, Ivan and Dora tried to spend the three hottest months, each year, in a cooler part of the country.  They would pack-up their 30’ Silver Streak travel trailer and head for an RV Park somewhere near a good fishing spot.  Dora had a brother who owned an RV Park on Marrowstone Island, located in the Port Townsend Bay area, northwest of Seattle, WA.   They had visited Smitty and his wife, Waunita, several times over the years.  One year (I believe it was in 1980), I had a business trip to the San Francisco area, during the time Ivan and Dora were on their summer stay on Marrowstone Island.  When I completed my business, I took a week of vacation and joined Ivan and Dora for some relaxation time.  DiVoran had flown out from Florida to be with her parents a few weeks before I got there.

Photo: https://www.roverpass.com/c/smitty-s-island-retreat-nordland-wa/

DiVoran and Dora both enjoyed painting and they found lots of subjects to use to apply paint to canvas.  When they got tired of painting they would walk down to the beach to look for special pieces of driftwood they could use in their artwork.  They also found ‘Jade’ rocks that seemed to be prevalent along that beach.  On Wednesday evenings Dora would take DiVoran to her weekly Bible Study with some of the other ladies there on the island.

       Each day Ivan would take me somewhere different where there were some old pilings (at low tide) where we gathered ‘tube worms’ for the day’s fishing.  Each day, after collecting our bait, we would head for another of his ‘secret fishing spots’ (he usually had more than one) to fish for Cod and Mackerel for our dinners.  That was always great fun learning how to fish for the different types of fish.

Another day Ivan took us to the clam beds (again at low tide) to dig for Horseneck Clams.  We learned how to watch for the clams to spout water in the air; then we would rush over quickly, and dig them up before they could borrow their way back down into the sand.  What an interesting learning experience that was.  DiVoran and I learned to eat a large variety of seafood, and other things (well at least I did), during our visits with Ivan and Dora.

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One day Ivan and Dora took us for a tour of Fort Flagler, located in the Fort Flagler State Park.  The fort is located at the northern tip of Marrowstone Island.  I learned that Fort Flagler (1897), along with Fort Worden (1898) and Fort Casey (1899) once guarded the Admiralty Inlet, which is the nautical entrance to Puget Sound.  Because of the many tourists that visit the park, some of the wildlife are very tame.  As luck would have it, Dora got a chance to feed a small deer the day we were there.  What a thrill that was!

On a couple occasions, DiVoran and I made the trip to Port Townsend to do some shopping and to enjoy a bowl of the most wonderful Crab Bisque I have ever eaten.  I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant.  Ivan was an excellent cook, and he and Dora kept us well fed.  It didn’t matter, what the season was, or in what location we happened to visited them, the food was always good and plentiful.  However, I don’t believe I have ever known Ivan to cook fish any other way than pan fried.  Yummm!

I was amazed at the tide levels in the Port Townsend Bay area.  The difference between Low Tide and High Tide was over 9½ feet.  In the photo below, you can see the pilings behind us (at low tide) which will give you an idea of how much difference there is.  This amazing tidal difference gave us wonderful opportunities, during low tide activities, to participate in such interesting adventures as beach combing and digging for Horseneck clams.  It’s amazing the kind of things you will find on a beach, at low tide, especially after a storm. 

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

Tags: Family fishing memories