Travel with Sue and Ted

Tag: bicycling

  • 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

  • Friday in Jackson

    gayle-injacksonWe enjoyed meeting up with Ted’s sister, Gayle, in Jackson Hole, WY for lunch today, along with Nancy Elam, Sue (Hess) Damsen, Gayle’s daughter Heather and Heather’s friend Kaylee.

    When Sue was 10, she took a trip to Yellowstone National Park with her grandparents and the main thing she remembers about Jackson Hole from that trip was this arch made of antlers.  We both remember having a family photo taken here with our sons when they were young during one of our tent-trailer camping trips.

    (Editors comment:  On all new pics I post to this blog, if you click on them, they will open in a larger size format, thanks to the suggestion of one of our most active followers!  Also, we’ve begun updating Sue’s “best of” series on the right side of the blog, so enjoy that also.)

    ts-biking-gt-2Grand Teton National Park is a glorious place to ride a bike, and Sue and I enjoyed another bicycle ride on Friday near Moose, and loved the site of this ranch meadow with the Teton mountains in the background.

    The Teton range of mountains is part of the Rockies in Wyoming within the Grand Teton National Park.  We understand the  Shoshone people once called the whole range Teewinot, meaning “many pinnacles” while the early French voyageurs used the name les trois tétons, meaning the three nipples.  The highest peaks are part of the Cathedral group and the tallest, Grand Teton, measures in at 13,775 feet.

    Click here to enjoy these additional pics of Grand Teton.

  • Grand Teton National Park

    Grand Teton BicyclingWe were assigned spot L75 at Colter Bay Campground, at the end of the loop overlooking the meadow and trees at the edge of the lake.  No one camped between us and the lake, so the view from our camping chairs was a wide-open expanse, broken only by the seldom used road between us.  “M” is the last loop, so being in “L” meant only L&M traffic passed by in front of us, maybe one truck every 30 minutes.  The blue of the water is visible between trees.  This spot is like being in the “D Loop at Pinecrest”, facing the water.  Nice.

    We road bicycles near Jenny Lake on Thursday and enjoyed a picnic lunch by the river while sitting on rocks.  There is no cellular connectivity in the campground, so we must wander over to the laundry and store to get public wifi and check up on things elsewhere in the world.  We also sat at the Jackson Lake Lodge to view sunset and enjoy a drink and snack.  I wish I had a kayak with all this open water.

    Click here to enjoy these additional pics of Grand Teton.

  • Cycling in Boise

     

    We had a relaxing day in Boise today, staying two nights at a KOA, which gave us a full day to relax from driving.  Before the trip, we got new bicycles, and today was the first time we used them!  

    There are 25 miles of bikes trails along the river in the middle of Boise.  We started at the zoo, and went north a few miles to a bridge where surfers and kayakers rode the one wave spilling over a small channel leaving the three-foot dam.  The bike trail took us to Boise State University and we really enjoyed visiting the campus and seeing their bookstore.  There is such positive energy on a college campus that reminds Sue of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Fremont High School in Sunnyvale.  We rounded up our time in downtown Boise by having a late lunch at The Boise Fry Company whose motto is ‘Have a side of burger with your fries.”  There were eight different types of Idaho potatoes from which to choose which came with the option of nine different sauces and ten different kinds of salt.  Delish!

    We are big-time fans of Costco and we had fun checking out their store in Boise. It looks like all the rest!  We were pleasantly surprised to see a Costco car wash ($7.95) next to the Costco gas dispensers. 

    KOA parks are a unique slice of America. At this KOA, every Tuesday evening a group of men play music here in a kind of group therapy or group hug session.  They may not all know the notes, but they play with enthusiasm and joy and play a variety of musical genres: Bluegrass, country, American, and John Denver!  I left smiling when they played one I knew: That Good ‘Ol Mountain Dew.  “I’ll hush up my mug if you fill up my jug…”

    Our travels are going really well.  The car and trailer are perfect for us (although we are rather small compared to the other rigs here) and the trip is relaxing.  All is good.  

    T & S