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Bellvue Watson Fish Hatchery
Hello everyone, Jodi and I have been here in Bellvue, Colorado for a little over 2 months and working at Bellvue-Watson Fish Hatchery feeding the thousands of rainbow trout. We have four raceways about a thousand feet long full of fish. We feed them just about every day with about 800lbs of fish food, using a truck of course. It has been very interesting and very fun working here. We do other things like grounds maintenance, painting, and cleaning. The hatchery is open every day from 8am to 3pm and we even give tours of the hatchery. We enjoy hosting here so much that we are returning again next summer. We like the area a lot. It’s quiet and has a beautiful surroundings, plus Fort Collins is a fun town and full of entertainment. We go to live music events in town and Lory State Park to hike. We worked at Lory State Park two years ago. Some pictures of the area we live at and around us.
Hiking at Lory State Park
Some live music we went to while in Fort Collins
The nice thing is Fort Collins being a college town, has a lot of art & music fests going on all summer, so we try to go to them when we can. We get caught in the rain almost every time, but then it stops just in time for music.
Wildfires of Colorado
While here in Colorado, we have been worried about the wildfires that spark up here and there. Two years ago, when we were at Lory State Park, we had lightning start a wild fire just 4 to 5 miles away, but they got that one under control quickly. Well just a week ago, there have been 5 wildfires start up around us and they all happen within a week. The largest one, the Alexander Mountain fire was the first one to start and it is 16 miles away. About 25 people have lost their homes, and it’s growing. About 10,000 acres has burned and only 35% is contained, and all 5 wildfires are still going. This is scary for sure. That is really the only thing that does concern us when we are out west. We don’t have to worry about the hurricanes and the hundreds of tornadoes out east. Just hail and wildfires.
We are here at the hatchery till September. After that we head to Florence, Arizona for our winter hosting job at Desert Gardens RV Resort. We will be there for 6 months and then head back to the Bellvue Watson Hatchery for the last hosting job. We will then winter from then on at Sierra Vista, Arizona at the Vista View RV Resort that we found last winter. We fell in love with that resort and we have a real nice RV site with a storage shed and great view of the mountains. There are some awesome people that stay there for the winter or all year-round and they have lots of games, fun events and dinners. We plan on staying at that RV resort for winters, about 9 months, and head north to the upper United States to site see areas like Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Washington, Utah for about 3 months during the hot summers of Arizona. We will be pretty much done with the traveling all over the United States for hosting jobs and just head to Arizona for winters, and up to the northwestern states for summer visits. We are happy we finally found a permanent winter location in Arizona. We will continue to travel and site see a few places up north each summer. We can’t give up this lifestyle of traveling and seeing the many beautiful places we have still not yet seen. Many more adventures ahead of us. The pictures below is the Vista View RV Resort in Sierra Vista, AZ that we will be spending our winters at. Great place.
We hope all is well with everyone, and you are staying cool and safe. We will do the same!! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them on here. I will answer you as soon as I can. Keep following us on our travels and see where we BOBBLE TO NEXT!!!!!!
THE BOBBLE HEAD TRAVELERS JODI AND MARK
Byron Hibshman August 4, 2024
So glad that you and Jodie are enjoying your travels and adventures!
admin August 8, 2024
We are enjoying ourselves very much, and still want to come to Carson City to stay for maybe a few weeks, to visit with you two and site see some of the Area again. We do miss that area a lot. We asked Steve if we could host at Spooner Lake and he said not really because of Mike taking it over. So we are not going to host up there again. We miss you guys too, so we want to come out to visit. How are you two doing?? Traveling too? Doing any volunteering?
Byron Hibshman August 8, 2024
That would be great if you can make it out this way. We still volunteer when we want to at Spooner. I also volunteer at the old Nevada State Prison and The Thunderbird Lodge.
We are departing tomorrow for Idaho, Glacier National Park, Banff, and the Tetons and will return Sept 12th. We are keeping our fingers crossed that no fires or smoke will mess us up.
admin August 9, 2024
Sounds like you guys are going to some real nice places… We will and want to see Glacier NP and the Tetons… Have fun and send us some pictures, we have not been in touch as much, and still want to keep in touch. Would still love to run into you guys in the future… So you see Steve once in a while, he does not want to let Mike go for just one more season for us to come back. Whats up? We just want to do it one more time, but now it doesn’t look like we will be hosting there again. We are done hosting after we come back to Fort Collins next summer. Hanging it up. Going full Retirement October 2025…
Byron Hibshman August 9, 2024
Full retirement will be great! You always can host now and then if you ever wanted to.
Mike is the tech now and will probably be for sometime.
admin October 10, 2024
Hey Byron, Sorry it took me a while to respond to this comment, but I am supposed to get them in my email to let me know someone has commented and I did not get that email… Anywho, I won’t be hosting anymore after next summer when we head back up to Fort Collins Fish Hatchery for the last summer hosing job. We then will be spending our winters in Sierra Vista, AZ. Near Fort Huachuca..Near Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ. We will be spending about 9 months winter to about mid or late May, then head up to the Northern States we have not seen for the next few years. Wyoming, Montana, N. Dakota and S. Dakota, Colorado again and again, We like Colorado. Then we head back to Sierra Vista, for our winter stay for another 9 months. That is our plan for now. Staying down in Sierra Vista for many winters to come. We do want to come back to Carson City or somewhere near you guys to visit and see Spooner, and Sand Harbor and the area. What do you think?? We visit you guys it will be during the months of June, July and or August, maybe September.. But it may be a few year before that happens. We just want to be out of the Arizona Heat.. BTW, its been 100+ for us in Florence, AZ for the past few weeks… We hate the heat. We are working at Desert Gardens RV Resort in Florence, AZ. We are here till April 19th, 2025. Then up to Colorado.
Susan August 6, 2024
So happy for you and the life style you have created for yourselves. Thanks for sharing all the beautiful pictures and stories.
I hope you stay safe from the wildfires. The stories we here are pretty terrifying.
Brief news from Woodcroft, 7 Oaks
After several years of a bunch of us old and getting older folks, houses are being sold and young folks moving in. As is around the US, our prices are spiking. I plan on selling, getting this money out, going to a nice apartment and setting up the next step of retirement. Keep your fingers crossed. Living a cat free lifestyle. Was very sad to lose my last cats but I think the time has come.
Take care.
Susan Rohde Durham
Barbara D Narby September 8, 2024
Hi, Guys. I’m glad that I read your Bobble Head views/reviews, because…I’ve been locked out of Facebook. I did a review on “what’s the worse case…” and no long connecting with y’all was high on the list of folks I can’t connect with. Please email me.