The Miller Moth Infestation of 2015

We stopped at a KOA CG in Wakeeney, Kansas on our way home. It  was a nice CG with few trees and NO SHADE because it was in the middle of the Kansas plains and pretty hot and boring. The CG was OK, your typical CG, but due to the heat we didn't sit outside with the kitties at all.

David noticed a couple of moths in the grass, but no big deal. He didn't think any thing about a couple of moths on the Kansas prairie.. Well, it was a huge BIG DEAL. The next morning after we pulled in the slides and started heading for the next stop in Oak Grove, Missouri we noticed more, and more and more moths inside the MH. They were at the windows, the door, on the ceiling and flying around the MH. We opened some windows to let them out, swapped them and did whatever we could do to let them out. Little did we know this was the tip of the iceberg. It was a very frustrating drive because no matter what you did there were more and more and more of them. If you got rid of 1 there were 10 more to take it's place. They were hiding in dark areas in the MH or in the windows.

When we stopped in Oak Grove David went out to hook up the MH. When he opened the bays thousands and thousands of moth flew out of each one. It was like a swarm of bats coming out of a cave or a swarm of bees. Unfortunately they were not all flying out. Thousands more were hunkered down inside of everything we had stored in the bays. Some were dead, but most were just asleep or looked dead until something stirred  them up and they started swarming about. And that was on the outside of the MH.

On the inside a similar scenario was going on. When we opened the slides we found hundreds of them that were inside under the slide section. We spent hours vacuuming up as many as we could. they were hiding every where. They were around all the windows, behind everything and on the ceiling. As soon as you thought you had them all there were hundreds more. This went on most of the evening.

We read on the Internet that since they were attracted to light, if you put a bowl of soapy water underneath the light they would fly into the bowl and drown. We set this up in the kitchen and within minutes had a full bowl of them. This is when we THOUGHT there were only a couple left in the MH. We did it again and caught about 75-100 more. We went to bed thinking we would catch the rest by morning.

The kitties got me up at 5:45 and when I went into the kitchen there were 12 or so still flying around the light with hundreds dead in the water. As soon as I went to add more water to the bowl hundreds more flew out from around the window.  We set up a new bowl of water, but now it is daylight and many of them are more interested in the windows than the bowl.  UGHHHH I guess will be entertaining moths for the rest of the day at least or better put THEY WILL BE ENTERTAINING US.

It could be worse. It could be bats, or cockroaches or mosquitoes instead of a million Miller moths..

Headed Home

We left Colorado Springs yesterday morning headed back to Tennessee. It was sad to leave this area. There are just so many areas and things to see there that we did not have time to visit. We have decided that this is a place to visit again on our way out west.

Right now we are in Wakeeney, Kansas and will be leaving this morning for Oak Grove, Missouri, the same CG we stayed in on our way out.

The big change is the temperature which was 85 yesterday instead of the enjoyable 65-75 during the day. Back to the lower altitudes and summer weather and flat landscapes (UGHH  Kansas). No more snow topped mountains and cool breezes.

No pictures to report today.

Another Fun Day in Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs is a nice town with lots of nice restaurants, nice downtown area and little historic communities to visit. We would love to come back here again and visit more of the areas. One thing missing on the entire vacation was a major lack of wildlife. We expected to see lots of elk, moose,, and other animals, but we saw very few. The kitties have found something to entertain them in every CG. In this CG it is bunnies and boy did they love looking at little gray bunnies. They couldn't take their eyes off of them.

After breakfast we drove over to the Garden of the Gods. What a beautiful park and the scenery was spectacular. Being Sunday morning and the fact that it was going to pour down rain in a couple of hours everybody and their brother was there sightseeing just like us while the sun was still shinning. The traffic was just too much and we didn't get out and walk most of the trails because we were trying to see everything we could before the rain set in. We made it through, but would love to be able to visit one day and spend more time walking the trails there.

                                        You can see Pike's Peak in the distance in the picture below.

                                  We were too close to get a good picture, but this is balance rock.

After Garden of the Gods we drove to Manitou Springs to visit the Miramont Castle Museum. At least if it rained we would be inside.

The Castle was built in 1895 as a personal residence for Fr Jean Baptiste Francolon and his mother. When he returned to France the Sisters of Mercy purchased it to be used as a sanitarium.

The castle has 30 rooms, 14,000 sq ft along with a small garden.

                                              The formal dinning room.

                                           The Sisters added the Chapel.

   Below is a personal pocket dosimeter used during WWII to measure radiation exposure. What these items have to do with the Castle I don't know, but there they are.

We had a very nice tour and there were lots in interesting artifacts to look at. We returned to the MH for a large, noisy thunderstorm and lots of rain.

We decided our last  dinner would at Jack Quinn's Irish Pub downtown. The hostess sat us in this little segregated room/booth with stained glass windows. It was a little strange. David said he felt like he was in a confessional. We didn't see the rest of the restaurant which I'm sure was very nice. This was the view out our door.

                                                 David pondering the menu.

                                           David had Fish & Chips and I had Chicken Boxty.

                                       Back to the CG. This is the view from our CG of Pike's Peak.

And the kitties saw more bunnies.

                                         Our view of Garden of the Gods.

                                                  Better view of Pike's Peak.

We will be leaving tomorrow to head towards home. Colorado Springs is a city we would definitely like to visit again.

Colorado Springs

We arrived in Colorado Springs yesterday afternoon. Our CG is "The Foot of the Rockies CG" on the west side of Colorado Springs. It isn't the nicest CG we've stayed in as there are no trees, grass or CG like features other than hook ups and a place to park. When I made the reservations months ago I tried to get space at the Cheyenne Mountain State Park which had great reviews, but they were booked as well as every thing else around here. I was lucky to get the last spot in this CG. Although the CG isn't the best, the people who own it are very nice and provided us with lots of information about the area. We are situated high on an over look which gives us a nice view and we are near so many restaurants and shopping areas.

It has rained and stormed a bit since we have been here. We heard there were tornadoes north of Denver so we were  happy not to be involved in that at least. We didn't do much yesterday, just kind of chilled out. Since we hadn't had lunch we went to an early dinner at the Colorado Mountain Brewery. It was a very nice establishment and a little fancy for a brew house. Because it was 3:30 in the afternoon David didn't have a beer, so he didn't get a chance to sample the brewery. The meal was OK and nothing to write home about. We came back to the MH just in time for a big thunderstorm and just hung around here with no agenda for the day.It was nice not to have to do anything.

Saturday, David wanted to go out for breakfast to Over Easy, which is downtown, They were named #10 on Urbanspoons 101 top breakfast restaurants. The meal was excellent. The coffee was great along with the sausage and gravy, eggs and hash browns. We were set for the day.

Afterwards we went to Old Colorado City to a laundromat to do some laundry. Old Colorado City was a really nice old town neighborhood with lots of small shops, restaurants and neighborhood events. Today they had a Farmer's Market in the park. After finishing the laundry we visited some of the 5 quilt shops in the area, Two were very nice with lots of fabric and 2 were so-so.  I did find some FQs with motifs that I could use in an I Spy quilt. I've been collecting small pieces of fabric for 2 years for that quilt.

We came back to the MH to check on the kitties. They were all fine, but since we found there were bunnies living in the CG our 3 kitties have become much more interested in looking out the windows and doors. It didn't hurt that we threw carrot sticks out the door to entice the bunnies. What we do to entertain our kitties.

In the afternoon David wanted to look for some local IPA beers, so we went shopping again followed by an early dinner at Pizzeria Rustica, which happened to be in Old Colorado City. We had a meatlball appetizer followed by their house specialty pizza.

This was no American pizza, but made the authentic Italian way in a brick oven with almost no toppings. It was excellent, although we weren't really sure what to expect based on the description on the menu. We would definitely eat there again.

Then back to the MH to spend some time with the kitties and relax. We had discussed taking the train up to the top of Pikes Peak, but the weather has been so bad that I'm not sure we would see much or enjoy the trip. Hopefully tomorrow morning will be a nice morning for some sight seeing.

Where we are now.