Going Down The Road With The Leu's

This morning we packed up and moved on, waving goodbye to Trinidad and Trinidad Lake State Park.  We were on our way south to the town of Bernalillo, New Mexico which is just about 15 miles north of Albuquerque.  Located there is the Coronado Campground.  It is a city campground located on a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande River.

The drive was very easy with Mary Margaret and I sharing the 275 mile, 4.5 hour drive (with stops to change drivers a few times).  It was freeway (I-25) all the way.  Shortly after starting we drove down the Raton Pass and were on the grassy great plains that abut the Rocky Mountains from the east.  As we drove, we spied another heard of antelope feeding on the grasses next to the freeway.  Mary Margaret asked if I thought that our deer whistles we have installed on both our bus and car were working.  It appeared to me that they were as some of the antelope raised their heads and turned to look toward us.  The whistles give out an ultra-sonic whistle that humans cannot hear but many animals included deer and antelope can.  They are supposed to scare them away so they will not bound in front of you.  After our “up close and personal” encounter with the mule deer last month, we ordered and installed two whistles to each vehicle.  I cannot really attest to how well they work but at least so far, we have not had any more “close encounters”.

Our new campground is pretty nice with a clever layout of the various sites.  We have a screen of trees in front of us that blocks the view of the main road which is about 1000 feet away.  We have a nice casita which houses a picnic table and with the large tree on our site, our view of the next camper is more or less blocked also.  Our view to the back of the site is of the open grasslands and then Sangre Del Cristo mountain range in the distance.  We have 50 Amp service and water at our site and a sump dump that is located near the park entrance.  With a nice BBQ grill and a campfire ring our site is complete!

Views Of Our Campsite

We plan on spending the next few days here which should give us time to explore historic Albuquerque, catchup on some chores and relax a bit.  Life is good.

One of the few things we missed during our 10 years of sailing was being able to watch college football games during the fall season.  We did not have a TV on our sailboat and it was very difficult to impossible to pick up live football games overseas on our computer.  Also, the cost of Internet access was cost prohibitive for streaming football games.  It was the rare occasion where we had high speed Internet access in a marina that would allow us to use YouTube to catch a football game a day or two after it was played.

Now that we are back in the States, it is a bit easier but currently is still a struggle.  This is because of our use of DirecTV instead of Dish satellite service.  We have discovered that DirecTV is very restrictive in its use of “local” networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.  These networks are available only if: 1) you are within 50 or so miles of your home address, or 2) you call DirecTV and tell them where you are currently located so they can hook your receiver up to these networks at your new locations (see the limitation below), or 3) you pay an extra $15 a month to be permanently hooked up to these networks broadcasting out of either the east coast or west coast, or 4) you buy a separate antenna that can capture local network signals if you are within 50 or so miles of one of their land-based broadcasting antennas.

It should be noted that we did try to be hooked up to these networks (see option 2 above) when we were in Tucson.  However, we were told by the DirecTV technician that we could not be connected since Tucson was not within the coverage area of the satellite that sends the signal.  Also, we cannot yet sign up for the permanent coverage (see option 3, above) since one needs to send to DirecTV a copy of your RV’s registration (we are still waiting to get that from the state of South Dakota) and once you do that, it will still take up to 3 months for DirecTV to process your request!).  Grrrrr!

Our current way of dealing with this BS is to use our computer to get access to ESPN3 through the Internet.   Apparently, ESPN3 simultaneously broadcasts the games that are on ABC.  For us, this is important because the last two Michigan football games have been on ABC/ESPN3.  Thus, despite all of the big bucks we are paying to have DirecTV, we have had to resort to our computer and the Internet to watch Michigan play football.  How frustrating is that!

In fairness to DirecTV, we can watch college football games on those DirecTV channels they do provide such as FS1, BTN, SEC, and ESPN, ESPN1 and ESPN2.  However, Michigan has not been on those channels these last couple of weeks.

Tomorrow, we head south with the goal to be near Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We plan of staying there for a few days to explore that city.

After a leisurely morning we hopped in the car and drove into the lovely little town of Trinidad. Our plan was to check out its museum. Once inside the town, we travelled over its red brick roads. Trinidad is famous for its clay and has a long history of making red bricks. Each brick is stamped with the word “Trinidad” in the middle, so you’ll never doubt where is was made!

Trinidad Red Brick Road

The Trinidad History Museum consists of an entire block on Main Street which is part of the original famous Santa Fe Trail. The block is composed of three 1800’s original homes and a garden.  These include the original Baca family house built in 1867 when Trinidad was just a struggling settlement isolated in the middle of Indian territory, the adobe structure behind the Baca house which was the servant quarters and now houses the Santa Fe Trail Museum, the Bloom House which is a beautiful Second Empire house and the Bloom House gardens is the third home on the block.

We first entered the Santa Fe Trail Museum and were greeted by the young docent. She informed us that the museum was free and that there would be a tour of the two houses in 45 minutes which cost five dollars. We spent that time totally mesmerized by the various displays in the museum. For such a small town (it only has a population of about 9000) it was a remarkable museum.

Here Are A few Of The Wonderful Displays That We Saw

 

We learned that the site of present-day Trinidad provided a good spot for traders and wagon trains using the Santa Fe Trail to set up camp next to the Purgatoire River. Around 1860 Hispano settlement began to push north from New Mexico to this area east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Looking to expand their sheep business, the Gutiérrez family built the first permanent cabins at the site of Trinidad in 1859. Several more families, including that of Felipe Baca, followed in 1860–61; the town may have been named after one of Baca’s daughters. The new settlement developed around the intersection of two different segments of the Santa Fe Trail, which became the town’s two major streets, Main and Commercial. By 1861 the settlers had built irrigation ditches and were starting to raise wheat, corn, and sheep for sale in Pueblo to the north. The town quickly became the main population center in the Purgatoire Valley and served as a vital connection to northern New Mexico and Santa Fe.

Numerous wild west famous or infamous characters traveled to or through Trinidad.  The town back in the mid to late 1800s was a proto-typical wild west town with more than its fair share of saloons, prostitutes, gunslingers, hangings and shootouts. Such characters included Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Jessie James.

Through this period, five of the town’s law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty.  Trinidad had one deputy sheriff who ended up being the role model for a number of latter day western movies. George Titworth, whose career spanned over 30 years of being a law enforcement officer. His nickname was Alkali Bill due to his relentless tracking prowess. Some of the infamous outlaws he tracked down included Kid Curry of Wild Bunch fame, Black Jack Ketchum with his Ketchum Gang (who were notorious for bank robbing) and the Hole-In -the-Wall gang. Titworth once loaded his posse and their horses onto a train and used it to deliver themselves from Trinidad to Cimarron.  There, he rediscovered the Ketchum Gang trail, cornered them in the Cimarron Canyon where a shootout entailed that resulted in the killing of some of the gang members and capture of the rest. No doubt about it, Trinidad is rich with wild west lore!

Black Jack Ketchum Getting A Shave

All too soon it was time for the tour. Joined by just two other ladies, we had what was essentially a private tour. We learned that in 1873, Felipe and Dolores Baca traded 22,000 pounds of wool for an unusual adobe house built for John Hough, a Trail entrepreneur. The Baca House boasts two stories, a widow’s walk, and Greek architectural details. Colorful Rio Grande textiles, Victorian furniture, and other period furnishings evoke the lifestyle of this prominent family.

Baca House Photos

 

Cattle baron and banker Frank Bloom and his wife Sarah, pioneers from Pennsylvania, had their hillside home moved into their new home in 1882. It was a bit ironic to us that they sited their house right next to the Baca House. The Baca’s were sheep barons and now the region’s cattle barons would be living side by side. The history between sheep and cattle ranching during the late 1800’s is pretty ugly. Generally, the cattlemen saw the sheepherders as invaders, who destroyed the public grazing lands, which they had to share on a first-come, first-served basis.

Between 1870 and 1920, approximately 120 engagements occurred in eight different states or territories. At least 54 men were killed and some 50,000 to over 100,000 sheep were slaughtered. And yet, here in Trinidad, with its long history of bad guys, gunfights, lynchings and all the rest, had the two factions living within 50 feet of each other. Go figure!

With its tower and iron cresting, the Bloom Mansion is an excellent example of Second Empire architecture.

Bloom Mansion Photos

We returned to our campsite where Mary Margaret made a delicious Hungarian dinner of lecho and then we retired to the campfire and finished this fun day enjoying a mesmerizing campfire.

 

It is all just a day in the lives of Rv’ers.  Today started out innocently enough.  Mary Margaret threw in a load of clothes into our washer while I got our haircutting equipment out.  It had been awhile since my last haircut and I was now looking more like a shagging dog than a grandpa.

As the washing machine did its thing, Mary Margaret beautifully sheared my hair.  After she finished and I was putting away the haircutting stuff, Mary Margaret spied a wasp in our bathroom.  Using our electric mosquito swatter, I bzzzzzzzt the wasp.  It actually took two zaps of the swatter but the wasp was history.  However, before too long, Mary Margaret spied a second wasp, this one up front near the driver’s seat.  Another zap, another dead wasp.

By now we were scratching our heads, trying to figure out how the two wasps got into our bus.  Before we solved that mystery, Mary Margaret spied a third wasp inside our bus.  Once again, with a double zap of the electric swatter, another wasp was dispatched to wasp heaven.

With this third wasp, I was now thinking that maybe we had a nest that had established itself in the storage lockers under the floor of our RV.  Thus, I hustled to our little Fiat and drove off to Trinidad in search of an insect bomb that I could set off in the massive storage area we have.  Within an hour I had returned armed with a box of these cannisters.

Since you have to stay away from the fumigated area for two hours, we decided to head off to Trinidad for an early lunch while the bomb did its work.  I set it off, closed the locker doors, locked up the bus and off we went.

We discovered the Wonderful World Of China and had the most wonderful meal.  We ordered the house special for 2 which included soup, a hot platter of appetizers including spare ribs, beef, wantons, shrimp, and wrapped chicken.  Then came the main course of beef with vegetables, crispy walnut shrimp and fried rice with BBQ pork.  What a feast!  We had so much left over we had an entire meal for tomorrow!  Plus, each dish was delicious!  Thus, if you ever visit Trinidad, be sure to try this place out.  You will not be disappointed.

After our lunch, we drove around Trinidad to discover where things are that we wish to explore tomorrow and then returned to LeuC.  By now the fumes had dissipated and it appears that we are now wasp free.

Just another day in the lives…

We left our lovely campsite at the St. Vrain State Park, north of Denver, this morning.  As we headed out to our next adventure.  This time our objective is Southern California, specifically, the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park near San Juan Capistrano.  Along the way, we plan on revisiting two of the campgrounds that we stayed at during our trip from Tucson to Denver.  These are the Trinidad Lake State Park in Colorado and the Pancho Villa State Park in New Mexico.  We feel that we did not have a chance to explore the environs of these parks adequately on our first respective visits plus they are very conveniently located along our planned route.

Thus, after driving a bit over 5 hours, we arrived in the mid-afternoon at Trinidad Lake State Park.  Along the way, Mary Margaret expanded her driving experience by driving in city freeway traffic (going through Pueblo) and through construction zone traffic.  She did not like either experience as it was a bit stressful at times, especially with the very aggressive Colorado drivers, but she now knows that she can handle it just fine.

Here Is Mary Margaret Navigating LeuC Down The Road.

After Clearing In At The Ranger’s Station, We Pulled Into Another Beautiful Campsite. 

We plan on staying here for a few days, allowing time to rest a bit and also to explore the area.  Trinidad has a most interesting old west history with Bat Masterson once being a Sheriff, Jessie James and his gang coming through, as well as Wyatt Earp and his family.

Here Is A Photo Of Bat Masterson

In fact, while Bat Masterson was Sheriff, the Earps and Doc Holliday came into Trinidad, straight from the shootout at the OK Corral. They all holed up with Masterson for a couple of days and sorted out what they needed to do with themselves. The Earps were on their way soon after arriving but Doc had a problem: Arizona wanted to extradite him for murder and try him in Tombstone.  To help out, Bat arrested him on a trumped-up charge and made a deal with the local judge to never let it come to trial.  Arizona couldn’t extradite him while this charge was hanging in the air so Doc lived a free life trying the “Colorado Cure” until his tuberculosis killed him five years later in Glenwood Springs.

Here Is A Photo Of The Wanted Poster For The Earps And Doc Holliday

In the next couple of days, we will venture into the town of Trinidad and check out the various museums and areas of interest.

The View In Front Of Us At Our Beautiful St Vrain State Park Site

 

After spending 4 days and 5 nights here at St Vrain State Park, near Denver, Colorado we will be leaving tomorrow to start our return trip to California.  We left San Francisco last September 6^th, striking out in our overloaded little Fiat, for Mesa, Arizona to pick up LeuC.  During these last 5 weeks, we have had the most wonderful adventure which has included: seeing family and friends, meeting a number of very nice people, learning to live in and drive a RV bus, seeing a vast panorama of beautiful lands and vistas, and staying at and exploring around very enjoyable places.  This trip far exceeded our expectations.  Wow! It was just our very first trip!  Based on this experience, we are looking forward to a number of new adventures as time marches on.

Today, we drove over to the college town of Boulder, home of the University of Colorado.  The closest Bank of America is located there and we needed to get a cashier’s check to send to South Dakota to pay for the registration of LeuC.  While we really did not explore Boulder, what we saw was very impressive.  The area we were in was well laid out with beautiful wide boulevards that were tree lined, well landscaped shopping plazas, with new and very attractive buildings, and residential area with very nice houses.  The only disappointment was the very aggressive drivers.  However, that is not unique to Boulder as we have found the drivers in Colorado in general, are the most reckless and aggressive drivers we have seen so far.  They have the Chinese mentality of always trying to be the first in line and will not hesitate to cut you off even if the rules of the road dictate that they yield as they merge into your lane or are turning into your lane.

The snow we had yesterday is all gone as the afternoon temperatures rose into the high 50s.  The skies were blue and sunny.  In short, it was a beautiful day and should remain so for the next week.

Our destination for tomorrow is to return to Trinidad Lake State Park, just north of the New Mexico border.  It is just one of the two places during our trip to California that we are revisiting. It will be about a 4 hour drive.

Our Planned Route Back To California

 

It is not even mid-October and we are sitting in our bus of a home surrounded by snow and cold weather.  Man, you gotta be tough to live in Colorado!  After living in the tropics for the last 10 years, this is a very big adjustment for us.  I must admit, I am a wuss when it comes to freezing weather!

Last night and through this morning we were dumped on with 5 inches of wet snow.  The temperatures hovered around freezing, make for a wet, heavy snow.  In fact, so many powerlines went down in the Denver area that 98,000 people were without electricity.

We actually were very lucky as we had continuous power and the snow amount at our state park was much less than where our friends, Shalene and David, live in Brighton, just to the north of Denver.  This picture shows Mary Margaret in front of their house this morning so you can see the amount of wet snow they had.

We were surprised that the snow suck to the ground so well since we were having warm sunny weather yesterday and were expecting that it would melt the snow as it fell.

Mary Margaret spent the morning with Shalene while I ran around and did some errands.  When I returned, the four of us drove over to the Famous Dave’s BBQ and had a long, leisurely and delicious meal of BBQ ribs and burgers.  Yumm!  As dinner time approached and a new wave of hungry customers came in, it was time for us to leave and say our sad farewells.  We really enjoyed our time with Shalene and David and hope to see them again in the not-too-distant future.

Tomorrow, Mary Margaret and I have to take our little Fiat over to Boulder to go to a Bank of America (BOA).  We bank with BOA and need to get a cashier’s check that we have to send to South Dakota to register LeuC and order her license plates.  While South Dakota’s tax on new vehicles is only 4% compared to other states where it can go as high as 8% or more (i.e., we had to pay 8.25% for our little Fiat in California).  Nevertheless, it still is a big bite and it smarts a little bit…ouch!

We are expecting the roads to be clear and dry by late morning and the snow to be gone by the end of the day as temperatures rebound into the mid-50s by the afternoon.  Yay!  With the snowfall over and the roads clear and dry, we will be starting our return trip to California on Wednesday.  Our destination on that day will be to return to Trinidad Lake State Park.  We will have more time to return to California than we did to get to Denver so we are looking for a more relaxing and leisurely trip, staying at our various stops for up to four days.

 

 

Yikes! That is what I thought yesterday when we were driving back to LeuC at the end of our wonderful tour of Rocky Mountain National Park and the two mining towns of Central City and Black Hawk.  We were driving north on I-25 and an electronic warning sign mounted over the freeway was flashing: “Warning, Major Snow Storm This Monday”.  Holy Moly! This is not what we wanted.  But weather is weather and it rules over this world and especially over us in our bus of a home.

Fortunately, we are plugged in and have three heat pumps, an electric fireplace that pumps out heat and a heated floor.  I don’t think we will freeze.  We will just have to hunker down and sit things out for a day or two until the predicted warm weather returns and melts the expected 3 to 5 inches of snow.

This morning, Mary Margaret and I talked and agreed that we would stay an extra day here in this lovely state park, letting the snow and expected icy roads to melt and dry up.  Thus, we are now planning to leave for Trinidad Lake State Park near the Colorado/New Mexico border on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday.

Late this morning our friend Dave and his friend Royce came over.  They are both electronics experts and had offered to set up our new DirecTV receiver/DVR.  I had bought this receiver to complement our existing receiver so we could have two of our TVs run by one receiver and the other two TVs run by the other.  This would let each of us to watch different shows if that situation ever occurred.

They soon had the receiver hooked up and the DirecTV tech support guy on the phone had our receiver authorized.  There is still a slight glitch as it is only getting non-HD channels but I will try to solve that issue tomorrow.  We will see…

We then hopped into our little Fiat and followed Dave and Royce over to Dave and Shalene’s house in Brighton.  There we enjoyed getting together.  Mary Margaret and Shalene went over to an Italian take out to get dinner while Dave and Royce used Dave’s SSB radio to call and talk with an old college chum who lives up in Fairbanks, Alaska.  Pretty cool!

By now, Shalene and Dave’s two daughters and their respective 3 kids came over to join us for dinner.  It was great meeting the 6 kids and the two daughters.  Since it was getting late and the fore runner to the snow storm was approaching, Mary Margaret and I said our rushed goodbyes and drove back to LeuC.  Rain and high winds are predicted for tonight as the temperatures start to drop.  We obviously arrived at LeuC just fine but the rain was just starting to pour when we arrived and the winds were howling.  It was time for bed and to snuggle down under the blankets for a good night sleep as Winter Storm Aiden blankets our area.

 

PS: We received this email from our son-in-law’s parents, Peggy and Jim.  Their analysis of why LeuC’s electronic lock failed makes a lot of sense to us!

“You probably do not have a grounding strap on LeuC. This is a rubber strap that just hangs from your chassis touching the ground. It’s like most vehicles, no need or never used. However, I find that LeuC has so many electrical systems on board that a common ground strap may be needed to eliminate any stray electrical charges that keep some systems energized however small.

Okay, the theory.  Peggy has been reading something called earthing. Since we are more isolated from the Earth by non-conductive materials such as rubber and plastic (our shoes), wood, plastic, laminate, and asphalt (flooring surfaces), this method allows our bodies to lessen our internal electromagnetic signature. We make direct contact with the surface of the Earth our bodies receive a charge of energy that makes us feel better, fast.

This, she thinks, may have had an impact on your electric lock. The stray current always present in the RV prevented you from opening the door since you may have had your Crocs on to exit the vehicle and now you were “isolated” from the “ground”. Even touching the metal frame of the door did not help since you could not complete the “ground”. In fact, Mary Margaret probably had Crocs on too and they also prevented “grounding”.  The individual helping you, we believe, probably had leather shoes on…a natural material that allows “grounding”.   He was able to open the lock because he “grounded” LeuC naturally and the key worked.

However you take this as a factor in opening the door, it is worth wondering….why he?”

Thanks for this theory, Peggy and Jim.  This explains away a mystery!

 

Shalene And David picked us up this morning at our campsite to give us an a long day tour of the beautiful area they live next to. Immediately to the west of us, the imposing Rocky Mountains jut high into the sky, covered with the season’s first snow.

Since the photos I took give a far better view of what we saw and did today, this blog will be a photo essay.  So, just sit back, scrolling away, and enjoy the tour that we had today!

The Views From Our St Vrain State Park Campsite, Firestone, CO

View Of Rockies From Our Campsite

Our Front WIndow Views

Our Exploration Of The Rocky Mountain National Park

Approaching The Town Of Estes Park, Gateway To The Park

Views From Within The Rocky Mountains National Park

Leaving The Park, On Our Way To The Mining Towns Of Central City And Black Hawk

 

Today was a rather trying day.  It started out just fine as we bundled up LeuC for our drive up to the Denver area and the St. Vrain State Park.  Mary Margaret followed me out of our Trinidad Lake State Park site to the sewer dump station just past the park entrance so we could empty our grey and black water tanks.  I then tried to open LeuC’s door to set up the sewer hose.  However, when I pulled on the door handle, it would not open.  The door has two locks: one is a simple dead bolt that you mechanically pull to lock and the second is an electric lock which locks when you push a button.  It was the electrical lock that would not budge.  Gulp!  I was locked inside our bus and could not get out!

I tried everything I could think of to unlock the door.  We have a number of buttons located around the bus that locks and unlocks the door.  I went to each location and pushed the button.  I could hear the “click” inside the door each time I pushed one of the unlock buttons but still the door was locked tighter than a drum.  Double gulp!

By now, Mary Margaret arrived from parking the car and was curious as to why I was still inside LeuC.  When I explained my predicament, she suggested that I pass her the key that would unlock the door from the outside.  Brilliant!

Unfortunately, the key would not turn the locking mechanism and the door remained lock.  Next, she tried inputting the door unlock code using the code buttons that are on the door handle.  Once again, I heard the lock mechanism “click” but the door still would not open.  Panic was now starting to set in.  I felt locked up in a jail cell with long term sentence starring me in the face.  Triple Gulp!

By now another RVer had pulled up behind us to use the sump.  Since we were not able to readily drain our tanks as we struggled to free me from my prison, I pulled LeuC up and then backed her into a slot on the other side of the sump, letting the other RV pull in to drain his tanks.  The driver then came over and offered his assistance.  Alas, he too could not free me from my jail cell using the key, the fob, or the door handle unlock code.

In desperation, I next decided to call our technical assistance number to get instructions from an expert.  In time, he came on the line and had me try all of the procedures which had failed to work already.  I suggested to him that Mary Margaret could pass me the tools I would need to remove the door handle plate from the inside.  He suggested that I do not attempt that because I would not readily be able to refit the plate back on when I had sprung the locking mechanism and thus, would not be able to close the door.  He said it takes someone who knows the system to do this properly.  Instead, I should just call for a mobile service to come and free me.  Damn!

Mary Margaret then came up with her second brilliant idea.  She suggested that we just drive both of our vehicles to the local truck stop to see if they had a mobile service.  I jumped at that suggestion and off we went.  The truck stop was just a few miles away, at the freeway on/off ramp to the town of Trinidad.

As I pulled into a truck parking space, a mobile service truck was pulling away from the gas pumps.  Mary Margaret spotted the truck leaving and ran after it frantically yelling and waving her arms.  Unfortunately, the driver did not see her and off he went, back onto the freeway.  Double damn!

However, a rather seedy looking fellow in a pickup, packed with a couple of dogs in the back seat, pulled up and asked Mary Margaret if she needed help.  He gave me the evil eye as if I was threatening her from the inside my prison.

After Mary Margaret explained our situation, he came over and suggested that he tried the key on the lock.  With little hope, since we had already tried the key a couple of times, she passed him the key.  He slipped the key in and…bingo!  The lock turned, I opened the door and was freed from my temporary prison cell.  Yay!

Now we cannot explain why the key worked for this scruffy looking fellow but we really did not care.  I also tried the locking buttons and they now all worked!  Go figure!

After tipping the scruffy looking fellow (his name was Cliff), we hooked up our little car to the back of the bus and off we went.  Yea!

While we originally left our campsite this morning at 0900, we did not arrive at our campsite at the St. Vrain State Park until after 1630.  This is because during our travels we had to stop once to shoo out a wasp that had snuck into our bus at the truck stop, we stopped and enjoyed lunch at George’s Drive-In near Walsenburg (at the recommendation of our cruiser friends, Bill and Tracy of S/V Zephyr), fought through very bad traffic going through Colorado Springs, fought through very bad Friday afternoon rush hour traffic as we went through Denver and finally, stopped at a truck stop in the middle of Denver to fill up our diesel tank and DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) tank.

Once we had unbundled LeuC in her new camping site, we each heaved a big sigh of relief.  Now was time to play!

Our good friends, Shalene and David, who live in Brighton, just a few miles away, were coming over so we could all go out together for dinner.  When they arrived, we gave them a brief tour of LeuC and then off we went, heading out for the Echo Brewery which was about 10 miles away.

The brewery served delicious beers which we quaffed down, wiping the suds off our faces.  We also enjoyed the brewery’s artisan pizzas.  It was wonderful to be enjoying a fun evening with such good and old friends.

By the time we returned to LeuC, we were exhausted from such a long, long day.  However, tomorrow we will be up bright and early as Shalene and David will be taking us on an all day tour of the Rocky Mountain National Park and then driving down to the old mining towns of Central City and Black Hawk for a dinner.

Photo Of Our Route Up To Denver After Breaking Me Out Of My Prison Cell

 

View Of Pike’s Peak As We Approached Colorado Springs

View Of Famous Castle Rock As We Approached Denver