3. Meeting Mom Manford in Estes Park, CO... June 1964...

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With her name and address, hope in our hearts and the need for a bed for the night, we headed off in the direction of her home on the south east edge of town.
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I was very grateful for a sister with whom to share my experiences in the summer of 1964.  We were both focused on the same need so there was no argument concerning what we needed to do next.  

Somehow we learned what direction to head in order to find Mom Manford's home.  It seemed people in that community knew who she was.  Fortunately it was a beautiful day so being on foot did not present a problem.

View from Park St. in August as I started the climb to Bascom Hall.

It was probably about 2 miles from the Employment office to Mom Manford's home.  Both my sister and I were used to physical exertion - farm girls?  Plenty of physical labor in our background. And the University of Wisconsin is built on rolling hills (see photos) so I had tramped many miles in going to classes over the past year.  Hiking around Estes Park was not daunting. 

Closer view of Bascom Hall - August 2013 vacation visit - still looks the same as in 1963

It was on our way to Mom Manford's home that we passed the little Baptist Church I mentioned earlier.  The sign out front informed us that there were services on Sunday morning and evening and a Thursday evening service.  We made mental note.  We were not Baptists but we knew they were as evangelical as the church in which we had grown up.  I had also attended a Baptist Church part of the time during my year in Madison, WI at the University.

We found Mom Manford's home, knocked on her door and she welcomed us in when we introduced ourselves and let her know how we had been given her name and address.  Her home was humble as was this 89 year old woman.  Getting to know her could wait.  We just needed a place to stay so that was our greatest concern.

With great relief, we were told we were welcome to stay in the bunk house that night.  Someone else was staying in the cottage which had a kitchen area.  The bunk house had just beds and a bath.  But since the Inter-Varsity group from Bear Trap Ranch would be arriving on the 4th of July, we would have to find other housing arrangements by then.  

We had 2 weeks of housing!  That was wonderful!!!  

Since we had left our suitcases at the bus station, we needed to return there to pick those up.  So back to the street for the walk to retrieve our bags.  

As we walked through town, we were noticing all the shops, restaurants and businesses which had employees. We began to formulate a game plan for finding jobs for ourselves.  We knew Estes Park was a vacation destination for many so great numbers of college kids were hired for summer employment.  Hopefully we would soon be amongst the employed.  We felt we could earn the most money if we were hired as waitresses so we would seek jobs in a restaurant first.

All was safe with our things back at the bus station!  But since we had packed almost everything we owned, we decided to use taxi service for transport back to Mom Manford's bunk house.  It had already been a long day and we didn't think we could carry our heavy bags back across town.  

We must have gotten something to eat along the way but I have no recollection of where or what we ate that day.

The bunk house was a bit rustic but we didn't mind.  We had a bed and a safe place for the night so we were content.  The cost for our room was $.50 per night.

Life in the mountains was new to us.  We did not realize that nighttime temperatures could be much different from daytime temperatures.  

As we awakened in the morning, we discovered that "winter" had blown in.  The outside temperature was 36 degrees and so was the inside temperature because we discovered a broken window beside our beds and no heat in the bunk house!  Cold wind was blowing across our beds.

But a new day meant that job search must begin.  Somehow we got dressed and headed back toward town with plans to find a job.  

Our hopes were high...