So this post is a complete and total re-write. When I first started it on Monday, I was highlighting the fact that I am a super-duper planner. Put that up against the fact that our trip to Colorado last week went almost completely NOT as planned. For some odd reason, I had even compiled a bulleted list of things that went wrong with the trip. Ya know what? It was pretty depressing. I stopped where I was and decided I just needed to scrap that post and start over. This is a long post... so beware. So, here we go!
FINALLY, we set off for our Colorado adventure (that had been planned for TWO other attempts!) Wednesday after Megan got off from work. I had gotten off a few hours before, and had completely packed up Maxine. Megan took the first leg of the trip and drove us to Amarillo, with a quick pit-stop in Elk City for some gourmet Sonic Drive-in for dinner. We topped off the tank in Amarillo and switched spots and I drove us the rest of the way to our first pit-stop in Trinidad, CO. The hotel wasn't the best, but at least it had a pretty comfy bed and that is ALL that mattered. We both wanted to get an early start the next morning, but our bodies woke us both up before we had originally intended to... so we got an even EARLIER start for the first full day of our journey.
I thought it was adorable, the further north we went and as the mountains began to appear, Megan immediately started taking pics and "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing" a lot. I would tell her those weren't even the real mountains yet! She didn't care. Instead of driving straight up 25 into Denver, I took a left at Pueblo and drove us through Canon City, with the intention of spending some time at the Royal Gorge Bridge. I had memories of stopping there as a child and remembered how awesome it was and thought Megan would really enjoy it. When we arrived, the surroundings had lots of picture-worthy scenery. We made the trek through the parking lot to the entry and found out that they charged... $30 PER PERSON!? I was totally bummed and prayed that was not a sign of things to come, but Megan still enjoyed it and took everything in stride. We decided to continue on to the next stop of our journey.
The closer we got to Breckenridge, the scenery truly got more and more beautiful. We had planned to hike this 2-mile trail that led to a waterfall, but decided to seek out lunch first. We drove the whole way into Breckenridge and saw that this WINTER ski-town was absolutely packed. Like, way more than it should've been. Apparently, everyone else and their dog had the same idea about vacationing up in the mountains. I began to get frustrated with the amount of people and the traffic. The Breckenridge Subway was impossible to get to, so we went ahead and drove into Silverthorne. After we ate, we decided that we were tired and basically just wanted to get to the hotel... but it was too soon for check-in. So, we decided to mark off one of the things on our "to do" list and hike to Sapphire Point Overlook. We accomplished the hike... but I swear I almost died on the way there. I truly realized how absolutely out of shape I was. I COULD blame it on the altitude or the smoke in the air from the fires out west, but I knew that the main reason was all this extra weight I'm carrying around my gut. But, we got there. The overlook was absolutely beautiful. Lots of pics, including a selfie, were taken and I Facetimed Mom to share the experience with her. We huffed and puffed our way back to the car and drove back down the mountain. We stopped at the lake and stuck our feet in the COOOOOOOLD water for a bit, then made it to the hotel.
The hotel. It had one working lamp. The hallway smelled like weed. The front desk people liked to play "hide and seek." But it was in a nice location and it had a comfy bed. So 2/5 ain't half bad. We crashed. Hard. Relaxed in the hotel for the rest of the night. Picked up Chipotle for dinner. Watched Big Brother and went night-night. The next morning, we had originally planned to hike a few more trails and spend most of the day in Silverthorne/Dillon/Breckenridge. We woke up to a super hazy atmosphere that made it to where you could barely see the mountains (and you're smack dab in the middle of them!) or breathe. We decided it was safer to make our way out of the mountains and down into Denver. We'd have to miss out on the trails and "Isak Heartstone," but made a promise to each other that we would get into shape and come back and try again.
My favorite thing in the whole world is the drive between Silverthorne and Denver. The mountains, the Clear Creek that runs next to the highway. It's windy and beautiful and just about as close to perfect as possible. It was cold... and smokey... I just wasn't happy with it. But, just like before, Megan seemed to enjoy it and was totally happy with the experience. We got down from the mountains and had PLENTY of time to kill before we were able to check in. I took her to experience the wonderful world of TATTERED COVER bookstore (we had to wait an hour until they opened)... we walked up and down (a little bit anyway) the 16th Street Mall. I took her for a ride on her first public transit bus. I drove her by the capitol building and the Denver Civic Center. Then, we literally drove around for like 6 hours. Luckily, the hotel let us check in like an hour early. The hotel was SO NICE. The staff was awesome, the hotel public spaces were so nice and our room was basically perfect. Such a comfy bed. So a big A+ from me! We went and crashed for a couple of hours.
For dinner, we got up and around and we went to the super delicious Gunther Toody's. Then we just kinda relaxed around until it was time to finally crash. Speaking of crashing... the next morning we decided to wake up early and go to VOODOO DOUGHNUTS for breakfast. What a fun place! We got a nice wide variety of interesting shaped donuts (lol). On the way there, I had an interesting ...experience... with a Denver native riding an electric scooter. But it all turned out okay. :-) After gorging ourselves on explicitly-shaped baked goods, we spent a good portion of Saturday relaxing in the hotel room. We eventually did venture back out to indulge in one of the best burgers I think I've ever had, at CROWN BURGER. Initially, I thought Crown Burger was just a small chain that could be found in the Salt Lake City area, but I was (thankfully mistaken). We had accidentally found a lone Denver location while taking the long way back to the hotel from Voodoo earlier in the day. We picked up the burgs and drove up to the street to the pretty campus of Denver University. We came back to the hotel and started the depressing process of packing our bags to get ready to hit the road for home.
We got up pretty early and started packing up the car. We had leftover donuts for breakfast and got on the road. We didn't have to go far before we made a small detour to go through the "Garden of the Gods" in Colorado Springs to see some beautiful rock formations. We hit up their gift shop and then started the journey back home. Other than an A/C unit that was getting kinda wonky on us near the end and having to dodge some storms as we drove through Texas, the trip back home was just as safe and uneventful. We pulled into our garage on fumes. We were super tired, kinda glad to be back home, but kinda sad that this adventure we had been waiting on for YEARS was over. We are going back again. Soon, if I have any say! What adventure shall we plan for next?
So, it was far from the perfect trip, like I had previously mentioned. Lots of stuff got kinda sideways. But it was still a LOT of fun and Megan and I will be able to share these memories with each other for years to come. I'm grateful for the time that we got to spend together. She's a good little copilot, both in life AND in road trips. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment