June 19-23 - visiting CO friends

Our friends Jack & Amy did a lot of work on their driveway so we could park at their home in Bailey, CO. We compacted just about every inch of gravel finding the perfect place. We can't imagine what we'd have to pay for an RV site with such amazing views. As always, our visit was full of laughter, great food & lots of liquor! We went to a Rockies game the first night. Jack's business associate gave us great tickets. It was drizzling when we got there so we took a pedicab. The poor guy agreed to take all four of us in one cab. He'll probably never do that again! The next day we took a scenic drive over the mountains, had a great lunch in Idaho Springs & did some shopping. Then, back to the ranch for cocktails & dinner. We took the commuter train into downtown Denver (LoDo) the next day for a pub crawl. We had drinks & appetizers at several locations & ended up at a Brazilian steakhouse. Too bad we weren't terribly hungry. The bartender ordered us a sampler plate of all their meats & they were all delicious. A return trip is definitely in order! We waddled back to the train & headed home to rest up for dinner. Trying to break the cycle, we started the next day with a hike around Jack & Amy's mountain. Dogs Bailey & Brandy covered about 5 times the ground we did. Our sightseeing tour that day took us out for a great lunch & then a stop at the Buck Snort saloon in Sphinx Park. Crazy little place with houses built right on top of boulders. We had a drink & played a game of pool. Then it was back to the house for some bocce ball. It was finally time for Jack & Amy to get back to work so we headed north to St Vrain State Park in Longmont. We were able to have a quick visit with our friend Barbara in Boulder before picking up Nick & Danielle at the airport. Barbara prepared some great snacks & we enjoyed seeing her beautiful home & visiting on the patio overlooking the greenbelt. Her dogs Bo & JJ spent some time visiting with us & some time looking for squirrels. Barbara also came to visit us at our campsite a few nights later where we had dinner & the kids entertained her with singing & dancing, but that's in future news!

June 12-18 - Buena Vista, CO

We arrived in Buena Vista on a cold day & loved the snowy mountains all around our RV park. The cold didn't last long & the rest of the week was warm & sunny. We drove over Independence Pass, which had just been opened a week earlier. Lots of snow still at the top. The ghost town of Independence was nearby & we enjoyed talking to the resident ranger. He recently graduated from college in Alaska & had just been there a few days but knew a lot about the history. Snowy Peaks RV Park had a Friday night campfire. We took our chairs & our cocktails & enjoyed listing to the owner sing, play guitar & tell jokes. We attended the Hooligan Race at the FIBark festival in Salida on Saturday. Hysterical! Untrained non-professionals put together whatever they thought might float & ran it down the river & over a ledge. Anything that remained sea-worthy was entered in the final race. The races weren't timed or measured in any way, so it seems the winner would just be the crowd favorite. Fair enough & lots of fun. We enjoyed hiking from the town park most days. There were several trails & each seemed to take us around 2 miles. With the hills & the elevation, it was plenty of exercise! One of the trails took us up to an old railroad grade. We were able to drive along another portion of it & found tunnels blasted in the granite, similar to those in Canon City. We are heading off to visit our friends Jack & Amy, then we'll pick up Nick & Danielle at the Denver airport on Monday. So, we'll be BUSY having lots of fun the next couple weeks but will try to update at some point.

June 5-11 - Canon City, CO

We picked up a hitchhiker as we left Colorado Springs. Our RV park neighbors packed in a bit of hurry. Turns out they mistook a pillow for their black cat! He was hiding under our motorhome but came shooting out once Dennis fired up the engine. The park manager called our former neighbor & we agreed to meet at the highway. Dennis was a little nervous Shadow Jr might become a permanent fixture. Our new RV park wasn't fancy but had great views of Royal Gorge & the snow-covered mountains. Canon City offered more sightseeing than we expected. Skyline Drive is a one-lane road that runs across a ridge overlooking town. It was built by prison inmates in the 1920's for no apparent reason. We saw dinosaur tracks on the ridge. They are imprints of where dinosaurs once walked & are viewed from below. Prisons seem to be the main industry in Canon City. There are 9 prisons in the area! We toured the prison museum, which was really interesting. Next, we drove Shelf Rd to Cripple Creek. Shelf Rd is mostly dirt & named for the shelf on the side of the mountain that it follows. The Jeep seems to give us a false sense of security driving on these crazy roads but we also saw passenger cars, so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds. There was a lot of pretty scenery from grassland to forest. Cripple Creek was lots of fun. All the historic buildings downtown are now casinos. Lots of fairly generous nickel poker machines, so Barb had fun. We stopped by Royal Gorge on the way home but didn't spend much time, as it was late & we'd been there on a previous motorcycle trip. We decided to be a little more wholesome the following day & hiked the Tunnel Dr trail in town. It passes thru 3 granite tunnels & then continues on for 2 miles up the river. We saw the Royal Gorge train & lots of whitewater rafters. Dennis had no interest in the whitewater adventure. The lure of Cripple Creek pulled Barb back the following day & Dennis had a relaxing day in the RV. We went to the Farmers Market on our final day in town & bought all sorts of yummy expensive food. We also hiked the riverwalk - or atleast the portion of it that wasn't under water. We enjoyed watching 2 crazy kids who jumped in & floated past us on the fast-running river. Barb was tempted but it was cold & sanity got the best of her.

May 25-June 4 - Oklahoma to Colorado Springs

We stayed in Elk City, OK & Dodge City, KS on our way to Colorado. Toured Dodge City, but found no signs of Matt Dillon or Festus. Turns out they may just be fictional characters! The winds left Barb wondering how our vinyl-covered styrofoam box would fare. Luckily, they were never strong enough to really worry about. Although we did see a storm chaser on our drive into Kansas.
We found a great campground in Colorado Springs. Mountaindale RV park had a Saturday bingo special. Dennis won 2 out of 5 games for an $11 profit! Bingo was followed up with a $1 ice cream social. Woo wee - big day! We hiked up the hill behind the park everyday, so that should atone for some of the ice cream. We saw deer on the hill some days & virtually every night in the campground. They're pretty tame. When we weren't enjoying the campground, we discovered there are so many things to do in the area. We drove up Pikes Peak with its 14,110 ft elevation! We saw snow & frozen lakes near the top. We also visited the US Olympic training center. The film & tour were quite interesting. There seemed to be a lot of athletes in residence, which makes sense with Beijing just 2 months away. Garden of the Gods was an unexpected treat. We had pretty much decided not to go, but reconsidered on the recommendation of our friend Barb. Boy, we're glad we listened to her. The landscape is incredible & our weather was interesting. We had everything from warm & sunny to cool & slushy hail. Fun for desert dwellers! Driving tours took us through Manitou Springs, by the Broadmoor hotel (wish our golf course looked so pretty!) & up a dirt road that would have taken us all the way to Cripple Creek. We got as close as we could to NORAD on Cheyenne Mountain without getting arrested. Our final day in Colorado Springs was a busy one. Our daily hike up the hill was followed by an afternoon trip to the movies to see "Sex and the City" - poor Dennis. But his day improved when we went to Seven Falls. We climbed the 224 steps to the top of the falls & then took a short hike up the creek to see another small waterfall. We stuck around until after dark to see the falls all lit up. Really pretty. We really enjoyed Colorado Springs & look forward to a return trip.