The Tale of the Traveling Vanilla...

While we were in Colorado last year we met several wonderful couples at the campground we were staying in. Jim and Bobbie were the camping hosts and Charlie and Dawna were the campers across from us. When we arrived at Big Meadows just outside of South Fork, Colorado Bobbie gave me a hug like a long lost friend. When we got our campsite in Loop A and got set up, Charlie came over and said hello and told us if we needed help with anything just to let him know. We had a great time at the campground and when we became stranded with car trouble both of these couples helped us out.

Charlie is standing on the bench with his hand on Dawna, Jim and Bobbie are in the camp host uniforms. We all had dinner with Charlie and Dawna, homemade beans and ham with cornbread. It was good!

Flash forward: Bobbie and Jim are full time RVers and wintered in Arizona this past winter. While there, Bobbie and Jim went into Old Mexico for several day trips. On one of those trips she picked up some Mexican Vanilla for me as during one of our discussions the previous summer I had mentioned that I had run out of my Mexican Vanilla and missed baking with it. You have to understand that Mexican Vanilla is much stronger than the regular vanilla that you purchase at the store so it gives a different flavor to what you are preparing. The question was, how to get it to me.

Fast forward some more: It turns out that Charlie and Dawna live not far from us and they were heading on vacation up to Yellowstone and coming back through South Fork to stay at Park Creek campground where Bobbie and Jim were camp hosts this year. So the Mexican Vanilla got handed off to Charlie and Dawna to bring back to us.

Last weekend we met up. Charlie and Dawna came down for the OU - Air Force football game and passed off the Mexican Vanilla. They parked at our house where I ran them up to the stadium so they could attend the game. Afterwards I picked them up and we all went to dinner at Goldie's Patio Grill and had a wonderful time discussing RVing.

On our way to dinner I spied a man’s wallet in the road. I gave it to Dawna and she went through it trying to find some identification and we came up with a AAA card. She called and left her number and the young man who lost it called and came to Goldie's to pick it up. As it turns out it was our next door neighbor’s wallet. He was very thankful that it was us who found it and returned it intact.

It's amazing how friendships develop and come full circle.

Happy Trails.....