Travel with Sue and Ted

Category: Western-US

  • We’re Halfway, and We’re Golden!

    We had a short 90-minute drive on Monday and we set up camp in Golden, CO, which is on Highway 40, just west of Denver.

    One of the great opportunities while traveling is to see friends who live far away.  Our purpose for stopping here in Golden was not to see the Coors Brewing Company tour, but more importantly, to see Timothy and Chelsea who work in the mountain resort of Devil’s Thumb. We thoroughly enjoyed dinner with Timothy Fisher, a friend from church, and his fiancé, Chelse McClelland, in Lakewood, at a rather new, and nice, restaurant, Tstreet Roadhouse.

    This morning, we are enjoying some fast speed internet at Starbucks, along with the mandatory pumpkin spice latte.  It is so windy here that Trump would never go outside without a hat!  Winds are clocked at a steady WNW 28 mph, but it’s the gusts that are blowing metal chairs off the tables on the sidewalk.

    The website for the city of Golden states

    It is rumored that Golden has the highest number of museums per capita in the State. Whether or not that’s accurate, we do have an impressive collection

    Sue yelped a great lunch for us:  Bob’s Atomic Burgers.  Wow.  Great hand-made burgers and sweet potato fries.

    So we were trying to figure out what to do on this very relaxing day – see the Train Museum? American Mountaineering Museum? Buffalo Bill museum?  Astor House?  Per the suggestion of our server at Bob’s Atomic Burgers, we took a drive up the Clear Creek canyon – highway 6 and 119.  Shear cliffs, beautiful creek, six tunnels, and the changing colors of the fall leaves made it a wonderful drive.

    clear-creek-boulder

    Back to Golden for a late afternoon visit to the Mountain Toad winery with fine reviews about their Butternut Brown, but Ted took a liking to their Dunkelweizen as well.  But it was the Butternut Brown that came home with us in a glass growler – why? – there is a VP debate tonight! 

  • Fort Collins and the Nielsen Family

    We stayed with good friends Dave and Kathy in Ft. Collins, CO. during the weekend of  Sept. 30-Oct. 2.  Arriving on Thursday, we parked the trailer on their side yard and enjoyed a few days of living in a house, talking of life, and catching up on family.

    ted-sue-kathy-dave

    Dave and Ted took a 20 mile bicycle ride on the beautiful Poudre River trail while Sue photographed an event, Laps for Laurel, at the school where Kathy teaches.  Then on Saturday, Sue and Kathy enjoyed a pedicure while Dave and Ted visited the microbrewery, Zwei.  We had a nice meal in downtown at Salsa Brava one night, and had a great pizza at Grimaldi’s another evening.  But the best part of our time together was spending a lot of time on their front yard patio… mornings with coffee… and evenings with wine.

    We worshiped together at the Faith E-Free Church on Sunday morning.  Dave played bass on this Sunday.  The sermon was about belonging to church, and was one of the best on that subject that I’ve heard.

    This is the half-way point in our trip! On Monday we leave for Golden, CO, to have dinner with Timothy and Chelsea.

  • Rocky Mountain National Park

    Big Thompson River

    Three days at Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park provided us with gorgeous weather with 70 degree days and lows in the 40s.  The aspen and cottonwood trees are sunshine yellow and a joy to look at on the mountains are around the creeks.  The above picture is the Big Thompson River about 15 steps away from our camping site!  We can see the trout swimming in the river, and elk are said to come through here but we haven’t seen them here yet.

    rmnp-bikes-big-thompson-riverWe rode bicycles from our camp into downtown Estes Park a couple of times and enjoyed some nice Mexican food that earned its way onto Sue’s “best of” (right side) lists.  We also saw the movie Scully last night in Estes Park.

    RMNP Elk

    One of the highlights in late September and October is the “rutting of the elk” which means the males are actively seeking mates, bugle calling, and gathering/protecting their females in herds.  On Wednesday late afternoon we went on Bear Lake Road to the Mill Creek area to see and hear the elk.  What a show!

    We drove up to Sprague Lake on Tuesday, which we have visited several times in past years, and enjoyed the walk around the lake with many photography stops, including the one below.

    More Pics!   Click here to see more pictures of
    Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park    .

    Sprague Lake

  • Colorado Springs

    Ted, Sue, Charlotte, and Tom from the balcony at their home

    The weekend of September 24-25 belonged to Colorado Springs.  Our hearts and minds were quickly taken with this beautiful part of the world.

    We pulled in around 1:30 in the afternoon, and after setting up camp we immediately went to the Garden of the Gods, which has deservedly been voted the best city park in the US.  We snapped pictures and drove the loops.  When we found out Segway rentals were available as part of a group tour, we signed up to be there again at 2 pm on Sunday.

    Our good friends from Cupertino, Tom and Charlotte Saponas, moved back to Colorado over a decade ago.  We have kept in contact and arranged to have dinner at their home on Saturday afternoon.  It was a delightful evening remembering shared experiences and filling each other in on family updates and the goings-ons these past 13 years.  

    On Sunday morning we attended the contemporary worship with Tom and Charlotte at their church.  Sharing the experience together brought back great memories of years past.  

    Following worship we went to Manitou Springs.  It’s a fun, funky, tourist town at the bottom of The mountain and there is a cog railroad that takes travelers to Pike’s Peak. 

     

    Then we went back to Garden of the Gods for our ninety minute Segway tour.  It was such fun to Segway along the bike/walk lane of the roadway.  Our guide, Zack, was a docent at this park last year, so he was able to share quite a bit about the geology, culture, and history of this amazing place.  It’s incredible how these stones were lifted up by geological movement over the years. Most are red due to the iron ore in the rock, and stand tall and proud.  This also (like the Black Hills) was the land of Native Americans, and there was a pow-wow happening while we were here.  

    We caught up with shopping while in Colorado Springs, and visited Costco and Trader Joe.  Note that in Colorado there are laws on where and how wine and beer are sold, so one can only buy wine in Denver at only one Costco or TJ’s locations.  

    The day trip was completed with a stop to the Broadmore Hotel for some dinner at the Golden Bee pub and a walk around the beautiful Broadmore grounds.  

    On the way to our next stop, Estes Park, we were able to stop by a town near Denver to enjoy a visit with a Fremont alum of the Class of 2006.  We are now one-third the way through our two month vacation.  Travel has gone very well, and Ted is mastering the art of pulling a longer trailer through construction zones and downtown freeways.  

  • Travel Day Through Nebraska

    Today we drove for nine hours in 35-40 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 50.  Most of the time we were driving straight into it.  For 50 miles we had them as cross winds and it was very difficult at times, and slow going all the time.  We feel lucky and blessed to be safe.  Picked a hotel for the night on highway 70.

    We are driving in to Colorado Springs on Saturday to see our friends Tom & Charlotte.