Colorado is a beautiful place to spend the weekend. We were staying at the TA in Commerce City, right outside Denver. Friday evening was spent relaxing and catching up on sleep and NCIS. Jim had called the car rental service so that we could go to Estes Park on Saturday. They shared that we would have to call at 9:00 on Saturday to arrange for the car and for them to come and pick us up. On Saturday, we called as we were instructed and arranged for them to pick us up. We had originally hoped that we would be able to leave pretty close to 9:00 (after all, our bodies are on Eastern time and 9:00 was really 11:00 for us and the day is half over already). We wound up leaving about 11:30 (mountain time) by the time all of the paperwork was done. On the plus side, they rented to us a big red truck (their description:) which was a Chevy Silverado, still small in comparison to our big red, Kenworth truck, but still really nice.
We were both excited to get to see the mountains up close and personal. Jim had been to Estes Park with the kids, but I had not been able to go with them, so he wanted me to experience it, so off we went. Well, we didn't get too far down the road when we ran into stopped traffic. Neither of us even thought of traffic, on a Saturday at 12:30. According to our time, it was already 2:30. We really don't get too up tight when we get into traffic driving for FedEx but this was our time the traffic was wasting. After we figured out what the traffic was all about, we made a note to ourselves...next time we decide to take a mini vacation for a day, we really should check into the local college football schedule. It turned out that the University of Colorado had a home game and we were right in the midst of the traffic.
Once we were passed the football traffic, the traffic seemed to lighten up and once again, we were on our way. We found the rest of our drive interesting. Jim and I like to ride bikes, we actually carry a couple in the truck in case we have time to ride. We noticed how biker friendly the area was around Boulder all the way to Estes Park. They even allow bicycles on the interstates, there are signs everywhere about sharing the road and bicycles have lanes in the city. After the traffic we went through for the football game, we decided that a bike may have been faster. We were impressed by the amount of people who rode, from a family of bikers to the single bikers with their biking gear on. What impressed me was how these cyclists took to the mountain hills. Now if I would have been the one peddling, I would have stopped and walked but not these cyclists. Although I did think, if you did stop peddling and start to walk, it would have been one long, long, long walk but the ride down would have been amazing. We came to a town, Lyons that has a fork in the middle of it, one sending you in the direction of Estes and the other off to another park. As we were coming into town (after fighting traffic since Denver), we found ourselves in the middle of a herd of bikers (not cyclists, but bikers). It was as if we were caught in the middle of one of the poker runs they do at home, the sole truck in the midst of a 100 bikes (may be exaggerating just a bit). Thank goodness they decided to take the other fork in the road or we may have been surrounded by Harleys all the way up the mountain and with those curves, that would have been interesting. The drive up the mountain was just beautiful.
Warnings all over about the wildlife and be aware. There were signs for deer, elk and big horn sheep.It seemed to take forever to get to Estes Park, lots of curves and of course ascending which slows you down. Still traffic and we thought it was due to a slow driver heading up, but then we got to town and back to back traffic. All we wanted to do was head downtown so we could find a place to park. Jim got on our handy xoom and found a side street to take us away from traffic. As we turned down the street, we had to slow down yet again. This time it had nothing to do with cars. Just ahead of us on the road stood a fabulous specimen of a male elk, right smack dab in the middle of the residential street that we were on. He finally decided to mosey on over to the side of the road where there was a fence so all he could do was walk along side the road. I posted the picture Jim took outside of the truck. He decided not to reach out and touch him but we were close enough that he probably could have.
After our encounter with the elk, we decided to find a place to eat. Since all of the traffic was downtown, we decided to eat at a place that was away from the traffic. We went to Smokin Dave's which specialized in bbq food and was equipped with a bar. The bar didn't interest us so much except for the fact that there were TVs and of course they just happened to be showing college football. One of the tough parts of this job for Jim is missing watching college football at my mom and dad's. We've been doing that for years. So, here we are in Estes Park eating lunch and one of the games they have on is none other than the Ohio State Buckeyes. Since we had to wait about 20 minutes for a seat, that was just enough time so that once we were seated, we were able to watch the beginning of the game. Although the game was not good, the food was great and the service was nice. I was fortunate enough to catch a glance of a female elk on the other side of the road from the restaurant. She almost seemed like she enjoyed the attention the cars were giving her.
As we were eating, I found it interesting that they put a jar with a slotted lid on the table. The label on it asked you to round your bill up to the next dollar and put the change in the jar. Proceeds went to the local food bank. I thought that this was a unique way to raise money and was something simple and easy to do and went to a good cause. When we left, we left with our bellies full and satisfied, but our buckeyes were losing 10-0, bummer. We wanted to find some parking, so we could go downtown to the shops. Again, traffic was crazy and parking was even crazier. We found a spot right off the road but down from the shops. That was ok, since we could always use the exercise.
We spent the rest of our day in the shops, looking at all of the local artistry and of course had to get some ice cream, considering it seemed like there was an ice cream shop about every 5th store. Jim shared that there were a lot more people now compare to when he and the kids came out. We found out what the traffic and people were doing, there was an elk festival going on downtown at the park. The elk had not been invited or they chose to be snobs and not come, we'll never know. The festival included some local businesses and local history. They had an elk tour but they had sold out for the day. One of the best parts of our visit to the festival was a woman walking her dog. Everyone wanted pictures of it, let's just say it was bigger than most dogs we've seen. Picture of it is posted along with others from our trip. After visiting the festival, we walked up the other side of the street, stopping by shops and looking in. Our favorite shops included the shops with T-shirts with all of the fun sayings on them. There were shirts that thanked people for supporting fire and rescue by saying thank you for all the stupid things you do to cause someone from fire and rescue to get involved. We also had to stop by the pubs and check the TV for the game. By end of day, we had our laughs and then lost them when Ohio State lost, bummer. The loss was soon forgotten as we headed back to the truck to end our day.
On our way out of town, someone in front of us stopped abruptly and I thought, great, another traffic jam. Well, as we came to a stop, there were about 6 elk having their fill of grass on the other side of the street. People had abruptly stopped so that they could take pictures. We took one as we were moving, which we didn't post because it didn't turn out very well. I guess we should have stopped traffic so we could have gotten a good one. Our trip back down the mountain invited us to stop and take pictures of the wonderful beauty and uniqueness of the area we travelled. God gave us such a picturesque view and provided us with spaces to pull over. As you go down the mountain, there are many spots that invite you off the road, especially if you are a slower driver and have a ton of people behind you. We just chose to use these pulloffs to take pictures. The road followed a river and we had the opportunity to see people along it flyfishing. Jim and I both enjoy fishing but have never been flyfishing, so the fishermen entertained us as we travelled down the road. We didn't see them catch anything but we just liked watching them and how different it is from still fishing. The temperature and day was beautiful. It was a little cloudy and threatened to rain for just a little while, but then vanished into the mountains. Jim and I couldn't decide if it wound up snowing or raining in the upper part of the mountains. All we could see was that they were getting some sort of precipitation.
When we look at the beauty of our surroundings, the uniqueness of the area and the many different types of weather, it is hard to believe that there are people who do not believe there is a God. We are just totally amazed by His creation. As I conclude this post, I want to write about the weather that is in the forecast for Este Park today. They are actually under a winter weather advisory tomorrow. Some of the front range mountains are expecting around 6 inches of snow. Today...I thank God that we were in Colorado last weekend and that we are NOT there this weekend. He knows what we can handle and I believe that he probably thought, "I don't think they are ready for mountain snow in their big red truck quite yet, I'll save that for another time!" Thank God and that He knows what is best for us:) I will share the rest of our weekend and this week's load in the next post. Peace and God's blessings, Judy
We were both excited to get to see the mountains up close and personal. Jim had been to Estes Park with the kids, but I had not been able to go with them, so he wanted me to experience it, so off we went. Well, we didn't get too far down the road when we ran into stopped traffic. Neither of us even thought of traffic, on a Saturday at 12:30. According to our time, it was already 2:30. We really don't get too up tight when we get into traffic driving for FedEx but this was our time the traffic was wasting. After we figured out what the traffic was all about, we made a note to ourselves...next time we decide to take a mini vacation for a day, we really should check into the local college football schedule. It turned out that the University of Colorado had a home game and we were right in the midst of the traffic.
Once we were passed the football traffic, the traffic seemed to lighten up and once again, we were on our way. We found the rest of our drive interesting. Jim and I like to ride bikes, we actually carry a couple in the truck in case we have time to ride. We noticed how biker friendly the area was around Boulder all the way to Estes Park. They even allow bicycles on the interstates, there are signs everywhere about sharing the road and bicycles have lanes in the city. After the traffic we went through for the football game, we decided that a bike may have been faster. We were impressed by the amount of people who rode, from a family of bikers to the single bikers with their biking gear on. What impressed me was how these cyclists took to the mountain hills. Now if I would have been the one peddling, I would have stopped and walked but not these cyclists. Although I did think, if you did stop peddling and start to walk, it would have been one long, long, long walk but the ride down would have been amazing. We came to a town, Lyons that has a fork in the middle of it, one sending you in the direction of Estes and the other off to another park. As we were coming into town (after fighting traffic since Denver), we found ourselves in the middle of a herd of bikers (not cyclists, but bikers). It was as if we were caught in the middle of one of the poker runs they do at home, the sole truck in the midst of a 100 bikes (may be exaggerating just a bit). Thank goodness they decided to take the other fork in the road or we may have been surrounded by Harleys all the way up the mountain and with those curves, that would have been interesting. The drive up the mountain was just beautiful.
Warnings all over about the wildlife and be aware. There were signs for deer, elk and big horn sheep.It seemed to take forever to get to Estes Park, lots of curves and of course ascending which slows you down. Still traffic and we thought it was due to a slow driver heading up, but then we got to town and back to back traffic. All we wanted to do was head downtown so we could find a place to park. Jim got on our handy xoom and found a side street to take us away from traffic. As we turned down the street, we had to slow down yet again. This time it had nothing to do with cars. Just ahead of us on the road stood a fabulous specimen of a male elk, right smack dab in the middle of the residential street that we were on. He finally decided to mosey on over to the side of the road where there was a fence so all he could do was walk along side the road. I posted the picture Jim took outside of the truck. He decided not to reach out and touch him but we were close enough that he probably could have.
After our encounter with the elk, we decided to find a place to eat. Since all of the traffic was downtown, we decided to eat at a place that was away from the traffic. We went to Smokin Dave's which specialized in bbq food and was equipped with a bar. The bar didn't interest us so much except for the fact that there were TVs and of course they just happened to be showing college football. One of the tough parts of this job for Jim is missing watching college football at my mom and dad's. We've been doing that for years. So, here we are in Estes Park eating lunch and one of the games they have on is none other than the Ohio State Buckeyes. Since we had to wait about 20 minutes for a seat, that was just enough time so that once we were seated, we were able to watch the beginning of the game. Although the game was not good, the food was great and the service was nice. I was fortunate enough to catch a glance of a female elk on the other side of the road from the restaurant. She almost seemed like she enjoyed the attention the cars were giving her.
As we were eating, I found it interesting that they put a jar with a slotted lid on the table. The label on it asked you to round your bill up to the next dollar and put the change in the jar. Proceeds went to the local food bank. I thought that this was a unique way to raise money and was something simple and easy to do and went to a good cause. When we left, we left with our bellies full and satisfied, but our buckeyes were losing 10-0, bummer. We wanted to find some parking, so we could go downtown to the shops. Again, traffic was crazy and parking was even crazier. We found a spot right off the road but down from the shops. That was ok, since we could always use the exercise.
We spent the rest of our day in the shops, looking at all of the local artistry and of course had to get some ice cream, considering it seemed like there was an ice cream shop about every 5th store. Jim shared that there were a lot more people now compare to when he and the kids came out. We found out what the traffic and people were doing, there was an elk festival going on downtown at the park. The elk had not been invited or they chose to be snobs and not come, we'll never know. The festival included some local businesses and local history. They had an elk tour but they had sold out for the day. One of the best parts of our visit to the festival was a woman walking her dog. Everyone wanted pictures of it, let's just say it was bigger than most dogs we've seen. Picture of it is posted along with others from our trip. After visiting the festival, we walked up the other side of the street, stopping by shops and looking in. Our favorite shops included the shops with T-shirts with all of the fun sayings on them. There were shirts that thanked people for supporting fire and rescue by saying thank you for all the stupid things you do to cause someone from fire and rescue to get involved. We also had to stop by the pubs and check the TV for the game. By end of day, we had our laughs and then lost them when Ohio State lost, bummer. The loss was soon forgotten as we headed back to the truck to end our day.
On our way out of town, someone in front of us stopped abruptly and I thought, great, another traffic jam. Well, as we came to a stop, there were about 6 elk having their fill of grass on the other side of the street. People had abruptly stopped so that they could take pictures. We took one as we were moving, which we didn't post because it didn't turn out very well. I guess we should have stopped traffic so we could have gotten a good one. Our trip back down the mountain invited us to stop and take pictures of the wonderful beauty and uniqueness of the area we travelled. God gave us such a picturesque view and provided us with spaces to pull over. As you go down the mountain, there are many spots that invite you off the road, especially if you are a slower driver and have a ton of people behind you. We just chose to use these pulloffs to take pictures. The road followed a river and we had the opportunity to see people along it flyfishing. Jim and I both enjoy fishing but have never been flyfishing, so the fishermen entertained us as we travelled down the road. We didn't see them catch anything but we just liked watching them and how different it is from still fishing. The temperature and day was beautiful. It was a little cloudy and threatened to rain for just a little while, but then vanished into the mountains. Jim and I couldn't decide if it wound up snowing or raining in the upper part of the mountains. All we could see was that they were getting some sort of precipitation.
When we look at the beauty of our surroundings, the uniqueness of the area and the many different types of weather, it is hard to believe that there are people who do not believe there is a God. We are just totally amazed by His creation. As I conclude this post, I want to write about the weather that is in the forecast for Este Park today. They are actually under a winter weather advisory tomorrow. Some of the front range mountains are expecting around 6 inches of snow. Today...I thank God that we were in Colorado last weekend and that we are NOT there this weekend. He knows what we can handle and I believe that he probably thought, "I don't think they are ready for mountain snow in their big red truck quite yet, I'll save that for another time!" Thank God and that He knows what is best for us:) I will share the rest of our weekend and this week's load in the next post. Peace and God's blessings, Judy
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