Mom, I'm bored!

As I sit outside the camper just now, typing this, I can hear the girls racing around inside playing.  Sounds like a thundering herd! There is a lot of pent up energy here as we spent most of the day in the truck. 

Gracie alternated between sleeping and looking at me with sad eyes. 

And Gabi alternated between sleeping, looking at me with sad eyes, and tearing up a toy. :)

We left the cooler, fall weather of Colorado today and headed back to Kansas. At one point the temp topped out at 90 degrees. Ugh!  I'm seeing that hot temps are the forecast for Wichita for the entire coming week. Sigh. 

At out lunch stop today, we were very entertained. As you might expect, when we park somewhere (like at Wendy's today), we have to park with the big rigs because of our size.  While we were parked, a semi pulled in and parked. Not unusual. A husband and wife team got out. Again, not unusual. They let the dog out for a break. Again, not unusual. But they didn't stop there. By the time they were done letting the dogs out, there were 8 dogs wandering around!  After everyone did their business, the parents called out and everyone of the dogs trotted back to the cab of the truck and waited patiently to be put in. It was hilarious!

At any rate, we made it to Dodge City today. 

Yes, Dodge City, home of Boot Hill and all things western.  I don't know if you can make out the sign but we are staying at Gunsmoke RV Park. Shaking head. Seriously. :)

And tomorrow, it is back home to Wichita   And so another adventure comes to a close. 

A little bit of water.

Brrrrrr!  A cold front moved through the area last nite so it was chilly and overcast to start our day.  But we fortified ourselves with a yummy chorizo and scrambled eggs (with tortillas, of course) made by my wonderful hubby.  Food just seems to taste better when cooked and eaten outdoors in just a bit of a chill.  :)

Then we set off south just a bit to Seven Falls.  It is actually part of the Broadmoor Hotel and Resort properties, I guess.  They don't let you drive up the box canyon to the Falls anymore, so the Broadmoor runs shuttles from their property.  And what a property it is.....  good grief, it seems to go on forever!

Anyway, this was one of the views on the walk up to the Falls after the shuttle dropped us off.  They have two labels for this big ol' hunk of granite.  Can you guess?

It is known as Twin Pines (see the two pine trees at the top?) and also as George Washington.  If you look very close at the top, you can see his profile.

The falls themselves are absolutely gorgeous.  And they light them up at nite with LEDs.  I'll bet that is breathtaking!

Look closely at the pic above and you will see the steps.  There are 244 of them -- straight up to get to the top of the falls.

They actually have two sets of steps.  The pic of us above and below are on the shorter steps.  There are only 180-some on this set.  We cheated and took the elevator.  Grin.  We were saving ourselves for the "big climb".

And as it turned out, we didn't all make the climb.  Judy has a bum knee so it was completely out for her.  I started up and made it about 3/4 of the way up the first flight.  Too high for me so I went back down.  

Max made it to the first landing and took the pic above.  Look closely in the center of the pic.  See that dot of orange?  That's me!  Judy and I were sittting in some marvelous wooden rockers that they have at the foot of the falls. Only Ron made it all the way to the top!

The afternoon was spent around the camper for us.  For the Os..... well they had to go buy a new toilet for their camper.  As you might imagine, this is a critical part of camper living so when it goes whackadoodle, replacement is a high priority!  :)

We went into Old Historic Colorado Springs late this afternoon.  After some sightseeing, we decided to eat at a local Italian restaurant in the district.  It had been highly recommended to us by a couple of people  Sadly, by the time we got there, the wait was 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  I'm just NOT that patient for any restaurant!  So we piled back in the truck and headed back to Manitou Springs.  We ended up eating at the same Mexican restaurant that we visited earlier in the week.  It was THAT good!  Grin.

Golf at 8500 feet above sea level.

Today was our day to play golf...  at 8500 feet above sea level.  Ack!!!

We found Shining Mountain Golf Club in Woodland Park.... a little north and west of here.  It is a beautiful public mountain course.

As you might imagine, it was pretty darned hilly.  Thank goodness for gas-powered golf carts!  But even with that my handy, dandy watch tells me that I've walked just over 4 1/2 miles today.  When you play like I do, it is a LOT of exercise!  :)  Given the altitude both here in Manitou Springs and up on the course, you can be sure that I won't be running any races.

One of the best parts of playing a mountain course?  Why the views, of course!  This is the back side of Pike's Peak.  Pretty amazing, eh?  

Choo choo!

What an adventure today!  We had reservations for the Pike's Peak Cog Railway.  This is a look at our train.  See that second window from the right?  That's where we were all sitting.  What a steep ride!

Manitou Springs is somewhere around 6000 feet above sea level.  By the time we reached the top, we were over 14000 feet above sea level!  They have 3 or 4 different 25% grade climbs to get us up there.  That means that over the length of two rail cars, there is about 2 1/2 stories difference.  Eeek!  Some of the views out the window were pretty terrifying on that climb.  It took us just over an hour to reach the top.

When we left Manitou Springs, it was in the low 80s.... and the temp on the top was about 38 degrees with a windchill down to about 35 degrees.  Of course, by the time we reached the top, I think the guy said the temp had climbed to about 40 degrees.  Thankfully there wasn't much wind!

Our conductor told us that the lady who wrote America the Beautiful did so after she saw the views from the top of Pike's Peak.  I can see why.....

Well, no, it wasn't because of the World Famous Donuts (although they were very good).  :)

It was because of views like this......

Every direction we turned had stunning views.  Of course, I have loads more pics of them, but wi-fi in an rv park isn't the best for uploading photos.  

I could definitely feel the altitude as we walked around.  Between that and the uneven ground, I'm pretty sure I looked like a drunken sailor at times.  Grin.  But it was well worth it!!

The tourists attack!

Oh my geez..... WHAT a day for sightseeing!  We were VERY touristy today!  

We originally planned to do the Pike's Peak Cog Railway today, but when I called for reservations they were all booked up.  But that's okay, there happened to be loads of other sightseeing and shopping to do.  :)

We started at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and Pueblo....  These cliff dwellings were built and used somewhere between 1100 AD and 1300 AD.

Not only could you walk across the front of these dwellings as shown along the fences, you could also go THRU the dwellings.  It was amazing.  The things the People could do with none of the tools that you and I know and love for everyday use.....  For example, the women used to chew the ground corn to turn the starches into sugar before making their bread.  We also discovered that they were a very short people.  Either that or they were pretty darned stooped since the dwellings all had very low ceilings.  It made me thankful that I live in this day and age.

Our next stop was the Garden of the Gods.  It is aptly named, imho.

This city park is free as has been in operationg since 1909.  It has 1350 acres.  It is believed that many of the the red sandstone rock formations are over 300 million years old!

My pics will never do it justice...... particularly how beautiful the red sand stone looked against the brilliant blue sky and the fluffy white clouds.  

We probably hiked a couple of miles around the park.  Although it is hard to call it hiking when the paths we were on are all paved.  :)  

This next one is a pic of Balancing Rock.  You can see that the road runs right alongside it.  Seems to me that one small earthquake would send it tumbling!  Altho, Max did notice that at the bottom there appears to be some concrete to stablize it.  Thank goodness!

And, because I get questions.....  yes, I do get my pic taken occassionally.  :)  This was about halfway through the hike so I was still smiling.  But I gotta tell ya that the last bit of the hike was all uphill to the parking lot.  Since this area is about 6000 feet above the sea level, I was hurting a bit by the end.  :)

After touring the park, we went to the Garden of the Gods Trading Post.  Wow!  This place puts every other gift shop I've ever seen to shame.  A couple of sweatshirts later, we were ready for lunch.  They actually have a cafe in the trading post and the food was really good.  The eating area is a beautiful garden with a stream running through it.  It was a wonderful place to take a break.

After a quick trip back to the campers, we were ready for another stop.  This time was the Miramount Castle.  The building itself is stunning.  It was built by a catholic priest in 1895.  It is a four story castle built right up against a mountain..... designed so that the back of each floor looks like it is ground level from the back.  I've got a beautiful postcard of the castle, but sadly didn't get a pic. 

I did manage to remember to get a pic of this stained glass window in the castle. As well as a look at the pretty fountain in the terraced gardens of the castle.

Sadly, the inside of the castle was a bit of a disappointment.  Most of the displays really had nothing to do with the castle itself.  Seems to me that they missed a real opportunity.

After all the sightseeing, we made the obligatory RVer stop at Walmart.  Ask any Rver..... a trip isn't complete without at least one trip to Walmart.  :)

Dinner tonite was a wonderful Mexican place about a block from our park.  The food was amazing!

Moving day and more

Today we headed south out of Golden/Denver.  Along the way we passed Castle Rock.....  

Guess we now know why the town is called Castle Rock!  :)  Sorry for the quality of the photo.... we were moving down the highway at about 65mph.

We also came to a scenic overlook.  With the clouds and the mountains, I just couldn't resist a pic.  This is looking out over the Air Force Academy air field.  

We arrived in Manitou Springs..... really now just a suburb of Colorado Springs.  But what a funky place.  We caught the tail end of an art/craft fair.  It was setup just along this beautiful stream.

See all the cairns in the stream?  Someone had spent a lot of time erecting them.  I wonder how they survived the flooding last month.  

We wondered around the historic downtown of Manitou Springs..... lots of cute shops and loads of tourist shops.  But interesting to see.  And of course, loads of great restaurants.  And yes, we found one!  :)

Here we are.... all setup and ready for the evening.  This park is an older park which is just fine since it has a lot of huge trees to shade us.  There is a stream and biking/walking path that runs along the side of the park (we can hear the water from outside).  All in all, a pretty nice place to stay.

Chore day. Ugh!

Every trip of any length has to have a day for chores.  Sigh.  Today was our day.  While I was cleaning inside and doing laundry, Max was cleaning up some of the road grime both outside and inside the truck.  The park we are at is pretty nice, so I though I would include a pic of our site.  

Really the only bad thing that I've found about this park is the laundry.  The room itself is very nice.  But the dryers..... oy!  It was 25 cents for either 3 or 4 minutes, depending on the dryer.  Think about that for a minute, I'll wait.......  Okay, now that you've done the math, you will realize that for some loads I was spending upwards of 3 bucks just to dry it.  In fact, I finally gave up on the throw rugs and brought them back to the camper to hang in the sun to dry.  Oh well.

This evening we met my brother, Mark, and our niece, Haleigh, for dinner in the neighborhood where they live.  This neighborhood used to be the Ilitch Gardens.  When they moved it, this planned neighborhood was built.  There are still some reminders of the old Ilitch, like the theather and this domed rotunda.  At the center of the rotunda is a labryinth.  It is quite lovely......  as is the whole neighborhood!

They have red rocks here!

Just south of Golden is the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater.  So like any good tourist, we made the journey there.  And it is amazing!  This is the view from the parking lot.  See that ramp?  Yep, we climbed that and more to get to the theater.  I guess i shouldn't be worrying about not making it to the gym 'cause I got plenty of exercize today!

Along the way, we paused for the view.  Okay, maybe we paused once or twice because we were all out of breath and our legs had turned to jelly.  :)  This was one of the views as we paused.  

That particular climb dumped us out at just above stage level.  Think very, very big!

And this view is looking up one of the sides of the theater.  The theater is completely surrounded by those huge red sandstone cliffs/rocks.  While we were there, they were setting up for some kind of show.  It looked like a one-man type of show.  I looked up to see who is going to be there next..... Tim McGraw, for two shows..... already sold out.  

While we were there, they played a couple of recorded songs -- probably to test the sound system.  The acoustics are absolutely awesome!  Going to a concert there should be on everyone's bucket list.

Max hiked almost to the top of the theater and took this shot.

Waaaaay off in the distance is downtown Denver.  What an awesome view!

After red rocks, we wandered down to Morrison.  It is a tiny little town in the red rocks area.  We found some lunch and then headed home.  We actually started the day by going to the Golden farmer's market so everyone was ready for a break.......

Especially the girls!  Gabi is never happier than when she has a new toy to destroy.  And she was working hard on this one!  It was a beautiful afternoon/evening to soak up some fresh air.  :)

From heat to cool to heat again!

The weather the last few days has been pretty warm/hot. But we discovered last nite that it can get pretty darned chilly. When we woke up this morning it was 59  degrees!  After being used to 80s and 90s well, just brrrrrr!

Max even turned on the furnace for a while this morning so that we wouldn't freeze when getting cleaned up. 

However, by the time we got around and had breakfast, the a/c was already running in the camper. It actually turned out to be a beautiful day..... In the mid 80s and a bit cloudy. With a few passing showers this evening. 

We started the day in Boulder. Our main reason for going.......

We toured the Celestial Seasonings tea factory!  It is one of the few tours I've been on as a tourist where you actually go into a working factory. This was our second time to tour the facility and it doesn't disappoint. 

And of course after the tour, you get to shop. This place is a tea drinkers' paradise. :)

And then we wandered down to the Pearl Street pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder. 

Boulder seems to be very Berkeley-esque, with loads of free spirits. :)

We ended our day back in downtown Golden. 

This place was recommended by our tour guide at the Coors site. All you can eat pizza buffet. Not sure it gets any better than that!  Altho right now, as we wait for a table, we are listening to a street band play some Van Morrison.  They are pretty damn good!

On with the sightseeing......

They told us that the Coors brewery here in Golden has the largest brewhouse in the world. They have 50 HUGE copper kettles for the various stages of the brewing process.  This is a minor sampling of what we saw.  This brewery has been in operation since 1873.  Wow.  Even during the Prohibition, when they made malted milk.

The tour is very interesting -- we definitely recommend it.  And of course, there is the free beer at the end of the tour.  And we aren't talking small sample size drinks of beer.  You can get up to 3 full size glasses of their different beers.  Did you know that they also make Miller, Killian Red, and Blue Moon beers?  Nope, we didn't know that!

After the tour, we wandered around downtown Golden for a while.  They have quite a few bronze sculptures around town and this one made me think of my brother-in-law, who is a bicycling enthusiast extrodinaire!

And you might have noticed in these pics, it was cloudy, overcast, and rainy today.  The storms finally moved completely through in the late afternoon and we were blessed with a lovely rainbow over the foothills.

This evening we got to have dinner with my brother, Mark, and our lovely niece, Haleigh.  She just graduated from college and we couldn't be prouder of her.  Now she begins the difficult task of selecting the college for her masters work.  Can't wait to see what adventures she has!  :)

Did someone say free beer?!?!

Did someone say free beer?  

The lines are long for the Coors brewery tour. 

But when free beer is involved, we are first in line!  :D

As you might guess, we are now in Golden with the Os. And now it is time for a sightseeing frenzy!  

Golf at 5280 feet

We played golf with my brother today at a beautiful Denver area course named Indian Tree.  I missed getting a pic of the teepee that was on the course, but did manage to get some of the wildlife.

Note the hawk on the top of the fence just above my brother.  We heard and saw that hawk all over the course.  Must be good eatin' in the area.

They had lots of very cool tree trunk sculptures around the course.  All native American, of course!

And my brother told us that there had been bear sightings as far down the mountains as the Denver city limits.  But I never expected to see one!!  Grin.

We finished off the evening at our favorite Italian place in Denver.  The only way to visualize Cinzzetti's is to think of a giant Chinese buffet.... only with Italian food.  Best. Food. Ever.

We make it a point to go there every time we come to Denver.  It's just too bad that we don't have one of these wonderful places in Wichita!

Aaand the weather changes

Yesterday a cold front moved thru and by the end of our shopping trip, it was raining pretty good. We had planned to grill burgers for dinner but that is tough to do in the rain. So my awesome bonus mom, Lena, volunteered to make empanadas. 

The filling was pork, green chilies, and beans. O.M.G they were good!!!!!

This morning feels like a fall day in the mountains..... It is 57 degrees here this morning. But, like in Kansas, you only have to wait a bit for it to change since the high today will be around 90. Ah well.  

Shopping in Denver

Of course, we didn't do it justice, but we did get a little shopping done in Denver today. We started at the IKEA store. Oh lord, what a place. I've seen them but had never been in one. If I were furnishing a place right now, I would definitely start there. In fact, I found a couple of things for the camper. :)

And then we moved on.....

We don't have an Apple Store in Wichita. (Apple, do you hear me??? We NEED one!). Anyway, I'm contemplating a new laptop, so wanted to learn about my options. They are soooooo helpful there!  

And then we braved the awful Denver freeway traffic coming home. Thankfully, Dad and Lena were able to get us off the freeway and guide us along the surface streets without too much fuss. It's good to have natives as guides. :)