Focht Family Blog

Thursday we decided to go to Denver for the day and try to take the tour at the US Mint. They told us if you wanted to get into the walk-in tour that you needed to sign up early so we were there by 8:00 and I was able to get us signed up on the 12:00 tour.

While we were waiting we drove to Hammond’s Candies. They are one of the few places that still makes candy canes by hand. They specialize in candy canes, lollipops, and hard candies but the also make some chocolates and caramels. Here is a picture of the outside of their store. On one side of the building they have a Santa Claus that is climbing the wall.

While waiting for the first tour of the day to start we walked around and looked at their displays. The 5 lb. candy cane was one of my favorites.

They first show you a quick 5 minute movie showing the process of how they make the candies. Here is the family watching the process through the windows.

Here is the table where they are pulling the candy through a machine, twisting it to make the swirl and then the women are hand rolling the candy pieces into lollipops and placing the sticks in them. In another room they hand bag each lollipop and put a twisty tie and bow on each one.

At another table they put together slabs of colored sugar to form the base for the candies. The table has flames at the back that keeps the table at 220 degrees so the sugar stays soft. On this day they took a slab of red, white, and blue and formed it into a layered brick that they then stretch out and put through a ribbon machine that makes ribbon candies. This batch was for Fourth of July and was strawberry flavored.

Joshua was enjoying watching the candy being made but he was enjoying being a ham for the camera a little bit more.

While we were driving back to the US Mint for our tour we spotted a sculpture that I couldn’t resist getting a picture of.

The tour of the US Mint was very interesting. We were not allowed to bring in cameras or cell phones that had cameras on them. All you were allowed to bring in was a small folding wallet that could hold ID. You couldn’t even have a wallet big enough for a checkbook. I went in with my license and credit card in my back pocket. :)

Everyone has to go through a metal detector to get in. Mom had to take her shoes off because the detector went off when she went through. She had forgotten that her shoes have springs in the soles and apparently it was enough to set off the detector. The first part is a room that has displays of different forms of money that has been used over the years. It was very interesting. They even had displays of money from biblical times.

Next they hand out a souvenir before taking you into the main building where you see the coins being made. The souvenir is a penny and a penny slug in a plastic bag. Our pennies were all 2008D’s. The slug is a penny that doesn’t have anything printed on either side. The Denver mint produces all of the coins for west of the Mississippi. The day we were there they were running pennies. Samantha asked and she was told that they produce 15 million pennies a day.

Towards the end they showed a display of their new program which is one dollar coins with each president on it. They start with George Washington and will go through each president. The catch is the presidents have to be dead for at least two years and they can’t skip a president. So although Reagan is dead they have to wait until Carter is dead for at least two years before they can continue. Right now they will continue through until 2016.

They then show you where they package the uncirculated coins. Apparently Philadelphia sends Denver their sets and Denver boxes the full sets together. The last part of the tour takes you through the original building with the original wiring and fixtures. You get to see the original guard box that hangs between the staircase pointing towards the original doors. It is a very small box that has two small windows and two small holes under the windows for the gun barrels to stick out. You get to exit out of the original doors that weigh 2000 lbs each and still have the original hinges in them.

It was a very informative tour. I think everyone enjoyed it, except maybe Josh. We had to keep telling him to be quiet and then halfway through the tour he fell asleep. :) Timmy was also worn out by the end of the morning so he decided to take a nap on grandma’s lap on the way home.

Unfortunately we woke up this morning and the eggs were gone. There isn’t any evidence around that they hatched. We found out the birds are killdeer plovers. We think that a snake may have gotten to them. Josh took this bit of information and has been trying to get Timmy’s toy plastic snake to spit out the eggs. :)

The other fun development this week is that Nathan decided to buy himself a Wii. He also bought Mario Kart, Playground games and Olympic games as well as the sport pack that comes with it. I had to buy another controller today so that all three of the kids could play Mario Kart without fighting over whose turn it is. I am still looking for another wheel for the controller. It seems that everyone around here has sold out.

The only bad part of this development is that I was planning on making a Wii the kid’s big present for Christmas so I will have to rethink what they will be getting this year.

We arrived in Longmont on Tuesday night. Since we weren’t supposed to check in until Wednesday we stayed the first night at a local Walmart. We called in the morning and they said it was fine for us to check in early so by 9:00 or so we were settled into our sites. We took mom’s camper off of the truck and lowered the camper down. I was amazed at how quickly it comes off. Nathan had it off while I was hooking the RV up to electric and water. The weather couldn’t have been better. All day it was clear and high 70’s with a light breeze.

We took it as an opportunity to open up all the windows and do some major cleaning. I drove mom into town and dropped her off with 4 blankets and 4 bags of laundry. Needless to say we didn’t see her for many hours. We decided to wash the comforter on the bed because we started putting two and two together and realized that two days before my rash started was when we put the new comforter on the bed. We washed the sheets but hadn’t washed the comforter. The biopsies came back that the rash is allergic contact dermatitis and they said until I figured out what caused it, if I was still in contact with it, it won’t go away.

The first laundromat we went to was very small and the person who was using the large washers was washing horse blankets in them. I am severely allergic to horses. Cats send me to the hospital with asthma attacks and I am more allergic to horses, so we decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to wash my comforter in that washer. We found a bigger laundromat and mom was talking to the man who was using their big washers. He was a nurse who used to be in textiles. He said that they often put formaldehyde on comforters to keep things from growing on them while they are sitting. He was washing his whites in lots of bleach in the washer mom used for my comforter. :)

While I was cleaning the RV, Nathan was catching up with work and phone calls. While outside on one of his calls he was getting yelled at by a bird… I am trying to get a better picture of her but this is what I have so far.

Nathan started looking around to see what she was mad about. He found this on the ground not too far from the RV…

I am not sure why she has chosen to build her nest on the ground where her eggs could easily be stepped on but we have been keeping an eye on her since the first day. We also had a chance to update our state stickers since the weather was so nice. Here is what are map looks like now…

Wednesday night the wind howled and was shaking both us and mom. We were having gusts that were getting up to 60mph. Apparently it brought a change in the weather because Thursday morning we woke up and it was snowing! Crazy weather here. Nathan had to work on Thursday, so we dropped him off at Paladin Press in Boulder and we headed to Colorado Springs to see Andrea’s sister, Melissa. We wanted to see her while we were here anyways but we had to go and see her May 1st because our bank has merged with another one and our bank cards are no longer good. Our new ones had been mailed overnight to Melissa’s house so I needed to go and pick them up.

On our way to Colorado Springs traffic was slow, I am guessing because of the snow. We finally started to make some good time and then traffic STOPPED. I ended up putting the truck in park and turning it off. All we could see from our vantage point was a double trailer FedEx truck off the side of the road. While we were sitting there three fire rescue trucks, four police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance all went by. Then two large tow trucks came. According to some of the truck drivers that were walking around a truck wrecked with a car. We never did see the car. I don’t think the FedEx truck was directly involved. I think he may have driven off the side to avoid the accident. What I could see as we went by looked like two semis wrecked. Here is what I managed to get a picture of once we started moving…

We called Melissa to let her now why we were so late. We had called her when we were 10 miles from her exit to give her time to get home and the accident was 5 miles from her exit. After traffic finally started moving (only one lane) we managed to get there without any mishaps. Melissa is 35 weeks pregnant with her second child and while we were visiting with her she was having a lot of contractions. She is having a boy. Who knows… maybe we will get to see him before we leave. :) The kids had fun playing with her daughter, Abigail and after playing for awhile we went out to lunch with them. Here is a picture of Melissa, Abigail, and Samantha as we were leaving for lunch.

Friday the weather started clearing up again although it was very windy all day. We were still getting 60mph winds. Saturday it has been much clearer so I could finally get a picture of our view of the mountains. This is the view directly behind the RV…

I am hoping we will be able to get some sight seeing done next week. I went to a dermatologist here on Friday. She gave me a stronger cream for my rash and it is finally going away. It will remain to be seen if the comforter was the culprit. The doctor here also put patches on my back to test for the most common irritants and I know I am reacting to something because my back is itching like crazy under the patches. I go back on Monday to check to see what I am reacting to and therefore I will know what to avoid.

We are trying to get a reservation to tour the Denver Mint but it is showing as full all next week. I am also planning on taking the kids to Hammond’s candies where they still make candy canes and hard candies by hand.

Tonight we will be able to add a couple of new states to our map. Last night was spent in the truck yard at the Mc Cormick center in Chicago, IL. Not a bad deal. They let you stay overnight for $20 with the containers and car parking and they patrol the lot all night. After leaving Chicago this morning in heavy traffic Nathan has decided that for the part of the next trip that he has to be at Mc Cormick we will just stay there. It is close to downtown so next trip we will disconnect the truck so we can go exploring.

I have promised Samantha that the next trip will include a day out for her and me where I will take her to lunch and a show at the American Girl store with her Samantha doll if I can get reservations and if she is done with 3rd grade! :) I think we can get the school work done. I just need to check the dates and see if I can get reservations for the show and lunch. I have also found a restaurant that delivers your food by train that is right outside of Chicago that I have promised them we will go to the next trip.

This trip was spent doing schoolwork in the parking lot while Nathan walked the show site. I tried to Photoshop the “new” picture of our RV and truck being towed on Nathan’s computer but when I went to save it, it crashed. I will see if I can get Nathan to work on it tonight. Today we have been driving in snow (just for a bit) and very heavy winds. We are almost to Des Moines, IA where we will be stopping to get a valve for our water (we are leaking) and fill up on water so we can do dishes and shower before everything starts smelling. :)

We went past a Speedco when we were just coming into Iowa and it reminded us that we still need to get an oil change on the generator. We had one scheduled at the Rally but they were over run and never got back to us to do the work. I called a Cummins shop in Des Moines but the couldn’t get us in until tomorrow so I called another Cummins in Omaha, which is one of the big hubs in the area. I asked if they could do an oil change on the generator first thing in the morning and they said no problem and they even have hookups so now I don’t have to look for a Walmart in Omaha. :) Tonight will be spent at the Cummins shop hooked into power and tomorrow morning we will get the oil changed on the generator at 7:00am and get on the road heading towards Colorado.

I think we will end up reaching Colorado before we were planning so I will have to see if I can add some days to our reservation. We will have time to do some sight seeing in Colorado so hopefully I will have lots of pictures to post in the next couple of weeks.

Okay… Here are the pictures of mom’s new home. The truck is a 2004 Ford F250 diesel. The camper is a 2008 Arctic Fox 805. It has thermal windows so if we put mom in the snow again she will do better. The only problem it had was that they were supposed to add a microwave and an electric water heater to it before it was shipped. They shipped it from Oregon in such a rush to get it to her in time that they forgot to add both. They were able to add a microwave from a different Arctic Fox they had on the lot but we will have to return later for the electric water heater. It does have a propane heater so she still has hot water. One of the things mom likes most about it is that it has a generator so now if we stop at a Walmart she has air conditioning and power as well.

Here is the side view.

Here is the door in the back.

Here is Joshua sitting on mom’s bed showing off the flat screen TV that I insalled for her. I am proud that I managed to do it correctly with only making the two holes that were needed to attach the arm. She can watch it in bed or swing it out so she can watch it from the dinette.

Here is a shot that shows the dinette off to the right.

Here is the kitchen to the left.

I tried to get a long shot that shows the whole camper from the door…

I tried to get a picture of the bathroom. It is on the right past the dinette. Josh was standing in the way but it basically is a wet bath like a boat bathroom. The shower, the toilet and the sink are all in the same room so that when you shower you are getting the toilet wet.

And with that I am as caught up as I am going to get… :)

Today we are driving to Chicago. I am not sure if we will make it all of the way but knowing Nathan we will. Nathan has to attend a show of some sort for a day and then we will be driving to Boulder, CO. We are supposed to check in at Boulder on April 30.