Breckenridge, CO

Summer 2009

Map


Cindy and I arrived in Breckenridge on May 22nd after spending several weeks driving through a half-dozen national parks.  We got into the furnished apartment where I had previously stayed in 2007 and made ourselves at home for the next three months.

Much to our surprise, it snowed on each of the first three days we were in town.  Mountain weather is fickle and although it was usually nice in the mornings, it would often rain, snow or hail in the afternoons.  We joined the Breckenridge Recreation Center and started going there everyday.  I added my name to the bottom of the racquetball ladder and we signed up for tennis lessons each Wednesday.  We also bought two used mountain bikes, which I had overhauled downstairs at Carvers Sports, that we started using as often as possible to get around town.

I searched the VRBO listings to find a 3BR unit that I could rent for a couple weeks in July when family will come to visit.  After investigating several possibilities, I decided on a townhouse at Kingdom Park, which is right next door to the Recreation Center.  We’ll move there on July 3rd and then move back to our studio on Main Street on July 18th.

I’ve called a half-dozen people from the racquetball ladder and all are either injured or have moved out of town.  It seems the seventeen people on the list may be less than half that number.  Our first tennis lesson went well.  We are in a beginner’s class with seven other people and the instructor, Tim is very good.  Cindy signed up for some rock climbing on the indoor wall and did well on her first three climbs.

Most of the restaurants in town have a 2 for 1 special during the ‘mud season’.  We ate at Hearthstone the first week and Modis the second.  On our way up to Modis on June 3rd, there was some commotion on Main Street and we discovered there was a large black bear sitting in a tree in the middle of town.  Police were keeping people at a safe distance and Animal Control personnel were getting ready to dart the bear so it could be safely removed back to the woods.  An hour and a half later after we had eaten, the bear was still there, but had changed trees.  The bear was the lead story on the local nightly news.

We also have a family of foxes, which live in the vacant lot next to our apartment.  It is not unusual to see three or four small foxes playing in the area.  The lot is on Main Street so there are occasional traffic jams as tourists stop to get photographs.

On June 6th, we drove over to Keystone where there was a fishing derby and trout tasting.  The trout tasting turned out to be individual booths sponsored by area restaurants where chefs cooked various appetizer size trout dishes, which were available for $3-4 each.  All were very delicious and we spent $35 sampling everything.  In the evening, we attended the premiere showing of “Peaks on the Past”, a new movie about Breckenridge’s history.  The movie is partially narrated by Rick Hague, the president of the local historical society, who I hiked with several times when I stayed here two years ago.  The first showing was sold out, but we decided to stay for the second showing at 9:00 PM, and were very happy that we did.

I continue to make good progress on my ancestry project.  To date I have identified about 1800 relatives, some going back several hundred years.  I discovered that there is a Family History Center in Frisco where I am able to order microfilm from the LDS Church in Salt Lake City so hopefully I will be able to learn more than what is easily available online.

Summer activities in Summit County really heat up in mid-June.  We went to the Frisco Barbeque Challenge on June 19th and spent the day sampling food from some of fifty-plus vendors competing for cash prizes.  That same day we attended the first concert of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge where we have tickets for the season.

Breckenridge celebrated Kingdom Days on June 20th and 21st.  We took a tour of the Iowa Mine, the largest placer mine in Colorado, which was led by Rick Hague.  The two-hour tour slowly climbed the Iowa Gulch where the Heritage Alliance is restoring 150-year old equipment used in placer mining.  At the top of the hill is a restored bunkhouse where employees lived during the summer mining season.  There were other demonstrations in town including a blacksmithing operation, quilting activities, gold panning and shoot-out reenactments.

On Sunday the Third Annual Outhouse Races were held on Ridge Street.  Five hundred or so spectators were on hand to watch eleven teams compete for $500 first prize.  Pairs of teams raced each other up the block in a single elimination format.  There was a brief thundershower, but the sun came back out for the final race, which was won by Holy Crap 2, the same team as last year.  After the races, we walked over to Carver Park where the town was sponsoring a picnic with live music.

The infestation of Pine Beetles has continued to move south from Frisco and is having a devastating affect on Breckenridge and surrounding communities.  The small beetles bore into the bark of the lodge pole pines, which dominate the mountainsides and quickly kill the trees.  Vistas that used to be green in summer are now brown.  Homeowners can spray the trees in an attempt to keep the beetles away, but that doesn’t always work and it is impractical for the national forest.  Many people believe that all the pine trees will eventually die.

While at the DMV to see about getting Cindy a driver’s license, we met another couple, Ed and Naomi Nolan, who are also going through some of the same immigration issues which we are experiencing.  Naomi is from Singapore so Cindy was quick to strike up a conversation with her in Chinese.  They invited us to their home for dinner on Friday night, were we had a wonderful meal and played marbles, a board game similar to Sorry.  They were married one day before us on December 23rd and have already completed their final USCIS interview.

Our beginner’s tennis clinic was over on June 24th, and we felt sufficiently capable to join some of the tennis leagues.  There is a Senior League, which meets MWF from 10:30 to 12:30 PM, which I started playing in and there is also a mixed doubles group, which meets on Saturdays from 9:00 to 11:00 AM where we could both play.  I am the worse player in the senior league, but only the second-worse in the mixed doubles league.

On the last day of June, the parking lot next to our apartment was blocked-off and a large tent was erected.  I assumed it had something to do with the upcoming Fourth of July celebrations, but didn’t think too much of it until the next day when three huge tractor-trailers pulled up and unloaded the Budweiser Clydesdales.  Another tractor trailer carrying straw and feed was necessary to set up the stable in the tent which will be their home for the next few days until they appear in the parade this weekend.

On July 3rd, we moved from our studio apartment to a 3-bedroom condominium at Kingdom Park, near the Recreation Center.  We’ll stay here for two weeks while Rick and MaryAnn visit from California.  I’ve also rented a 4-bedroom house up at Vista Point where Mom, Dad, Lauraine, Paul and Carolyn will stay for a week.  Our move went smoothly and we were able to attend the July Arts Festival at Main Street Station in the afternoon.

The Fourth of July was full of activities, starting with a 10-kilometer trail race and the Firecracker 50, a 50-mile bike race through the mountains with 750 participants.  The bike race kicked off the parade up Main Street, which seemed to be attended by everyone in Colorado.   The requirements for a float were not too high, so there were many ‘home-made’ entrants, but the parade lasted over an hour and a half, with one of the highlights The Budweiser Clydesdales pulling a bright red beer wagon.

We watched the parade with Ed and Naomi Norton, and then went up to The Quandry Grill where Kate & Ben Brewer had invited us to their company barbeque.  We ate hot dogs and hamburgers, viewed the art show again, and then returned home to rest before the evening activities.  At 8:00 PM we drove up to the Riverwalk Center where we met Ed and Niomi again for the National Repertory Orchestra’s Fourth of July Concert.  Cindy had obtained free tickets for us by standing in line for almost three hours, and the crowd overflowed out onto the lawn.  The concert lasted about an hour, and then we went outside to watch Breckenridge’s fireworks display.  The fireworks were shot from the parking lot at the base of the gondola and we had a spectacular view from only about 100 meters away.

On Tuesday, July 7th, Cindy and I drove over to Ed & Naomi’s house at 7:00 AM where we met a fifth person, Dahniah, and we all drove to the trailhead of Gray’s Peak which we hoped to climb.  Cindy and Dahniah had seen each other at the Recreation Center on numerous occasions, but had never met.  She is from Singapore and has known Ed & Naomi for a while.  We left the trailhead at 8:18 AM and began the 6-7 hour hike to the summit of Gray’s Peak, which is about 14,200 feet above sea level.  We stuck together as a group for the first couple hours, but Dahniah took the lead and it was difficult for Cindy and I to keep up.  Ed stayed back with Naomi who had some difficulty with the altitude and they eventually turned around.  But Cindy and I finally caught up with Dahniah at the top and we enjoyed a beautiful view.   We had considered the possibility of continuing on to Torries Peak, which was probably another hour away, but we were all tired and decided to head back.  We returned to the car by 3:00 PM and were home an hour later.  Both Cindy and I had headaches and went to bed early.

Rick and MaryAnn arrived early Wednesday evening.  They will stay with us until next Wednesday, overlapping other family members who arrive this weekend for a week.  We drove up Boreas Pass on Thursday and let Rick and MaryAnn ride our bikes downhill to the skating rink where we picked them up.  Thursday was also Cindy’s birthday and she spent every available moment learning how to use the new camera I got for her.  Friday we went to the art show at Main Street Station, and then walked over to Mi Casa for lunch.

On Saturday, Cindy, Rick & MaryAnn drove to Vail and Leadville for the day.  I headed into Denver to pick up Mom, Dad & Paul who arrived around 2:00 PM.  We all met up at the new rental house at Vista Point at 4:30 PM where Dad cooked dinner for everyone.  Lauraine also flew in on Saturday, but elected to stay in Denver Saturday night with Barbara & her boyfriend Paul.  They brought Lauraine out to Breckenridge on Sunday and spent the day with us before returning to the city at 7:00 PM.


Carolyn arrived on Monday afternoon.  Cindy, Lauraine, MaryAnn and Carolyn would take one or two classes at the recreation center each day while Paul, Rick and I played tennis.  Dad continued to cook three meals a day for us and work on his computer projects.  To help celebrate Cindy’s birthday, he carved her image on a watermelon, which became our centerpiece for the remainder of the week.  Paul got a fishing license, and would often bike down to the Blue River or Dillon Reservoir to fish.  Whenever he caught something, he would clean and cook the fish and share it with all of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday we drove up to the Peak Eight Fun Park where Cindy, Rick and Lauraine rode the Superslide.  Rick and MaryAnn left Tuesday afternoon.  At 5:00 PM, Mom, Dad, Cindy and Lauraine went down to Ready, Paint, Fire to start ceramics projects, which they would finish on Wednesday and pick up Friday.  Wednesday afternoon, Mom, Carolyn, Paul, Cindy and I all went over to the Country Boy Gold Mine where we took a tour into the mountain and learned about the hardships of hard rock mining.   We gave our NRO tickets to Mom & Lauraine who enjoyed the concert Wednesday evening.

 

 

 

 

 


 

Early on Thursday, Cindy, Carolyn and I drove back up Peak Eight, parked at the Peaks Trailhead and hiked ten miles north to Frisco.  The trail was very nice, but I would not want to ride a bike on the trail as it is covered with roots and rocks.  Although the trail climbs a bit in the beginning, it is basically a downhill hike for the last seven miles.  We finished at the Frisco Marina where we met Lauraine and Mom.  Carolyn and Lauraine rented kayaks and spend two hours paddling around Lake Dillon where they saw Paul fishing from the shoreline.  Cindy and Mom waited at the marina while I took the opportunity to view my latest microfilms at the LDS Family History Center just down the street.

Friday I played in the tennis league while Cindy, Carolyn & Lauraine went to a couple group classes at the recreation center.  After lunch, we drove to Frisco where we met Paul who had been fishing and went to the Frisco Antiques Show on Main Street.  After an hour in Frisco, we drove over to Dillon where another street fair featuring various art works was taking place.  Returning to Breckenridge, we played pool for an hour while Carolyn and Lauraine took a walking tour of the historical cemetery in Breckenridge.  We met at The Steak & Rib for our final farewell dinner where we enjoyed a wonderful meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very early Saturday morning, July 18th, I began moving our belongings from the condominium at Kingdom Park back to our studio on Main Street.  By 7:00 AM we had completed two trips, cleaned the condo, and returned the keys.  We drove over to Vista Point and said goodbye to Carolyn and Lauraine who were ready to leave for the airport.   After cleaning the house, we still had an hour before we had to leave for the airport so we had a final match of pool, which Mom & Paul won.  At 10:00 AM, we dropped Cindy off at our studio on Main Street and I took Mom, Dad & Paul to the airport in Denver.  They had a couple delays on the way and did not get home until after midnight.

We spent the next few days preparing for our own trip to San Francisco.  Cindy’s USCIS interview was scheduled for July 23rd, so we flew to San Francisco on the 22nd and stayed with my parents for a few days.  The interview itself went fine, however, the USCIS officer seemed inexperienced and he did not ask us for Cindy’s immunization record which I had to offer before we left.  After assuring us that everything was in order, he called us the next day and left a message that he did not have the biometric information and scheduled an appointment for us to get it done in Santa Rosa, four days after we had returned to Colorado.  In actuality, Cindy had completed the biometrics in April so apparently the information has been lost or misplaced. 

We had a nice visit with Mom & Dad while we were in California.    I completed a number of projects around the house, and we had dinner with two couples that live at Bel Marin Keys on Thursday night.  Carolyn brought Ayden down for a visit on Friday and we all took a bike ride out to the bay.    Saturday before leaving we all drove up to Paul’s house to drop off some mail and see his garden, which is doing very well. 

We had a 6:45 PM Southwest flight back to Denver Saturday night.  Arriving at 9:30 PM, we decided not to drive back to Breckenridge and got a hotel room at the airport for the night.  Sunday morning, we checked out and rushed back just in time to meet Ed & Naomi in Frisco where we had agreed to meet them at their church for the 11:00 AM service.  They are very active in the Rocky Mountain Bible Church.  After the mass, we all went to Eric’s for lunch before walking over to the Riverwalk Center for a 2:00 PM NRO concert. 

On July 28th, we packed an overnight bag and drove south on Route 9.  We passed over the Continental Divide, through Alma and Fairplay.  Cindy had her camera out and took pictures of the landscape, including Mt. Lincoln which we plan to climb next week, as we drove.  There was a beautiful flat plain after Fairplay, which seemed to go on for miles.  The weather was cloudy with occasional showers. 

After several hours we arrived at Royal Gorge.  This is the site of the world’s highest suspension bridge, which crosses the gorge 1053 feet above the river below.  We took the incline which descends at a 45 degree angle down into the gorge where we watched a couple tourist trains pass.  We walked across the bridge and ate lunch at the barbeque on the opposite side.  There was a cable car, which crossed the gorge, but we decided to forego that experience and continue on towards Colorado Springs. 

The rain picked up as we drove.  The storm included thunder and lightening and I would later hear that hail and wind had caused $60 million in damage to cars and structures in Pueblo.  We passed the exit for Cheyenne Mountain, of NORAD fame, but it was enshrouded in clouds so we could not see much.  Shortly after 2:00 PM we arrived in Manitou Springs where we had a reservation at The Cliff House.  Our room is very nice with a fireplace and view of the mountains.  The rain abated for a while and we were able to get out and explore the famous little town before dinner.  

I had visited this area 45 years ago with my father while he was on a business trip.  We had planned to take the Cog Railway up Pike’s Peak, but it had just closed for the season when we arrived.  Instead, he took me to a vaudeville show at The Iron Springs Chateau, which became one of my most memorable childhood experiences.  What I remembered most about this show was not the acting, costumes or plot, but the fact that theatergoers could purchase eggs and tomatoes, which they would throw at the actors during the performance!  I had made reservations to see the show again tonight. 

We arrived at the dinner theater at 6:30 PM and were served twice-baked chicken.  We quickly learned that tomato and egg throwing during the show are now taboo.  We had to make several inquires before finding an employee who could even recall the practice.  As I had made these reservations several weeks ago, and people are apparently seated in the order the reservation is made, we had front-row seats in the theater.    The melodrama required four actors, a hero, a villain, a damsel and a dog.  The dog was the best.  The show was an hour, with another hour of singing after the intermission.  We did not stay for the second half. 

When we woke up Thursday morning, clouds continued to block our view of the mountains.  We had planned to go up to Pike’s Peak today, but there did not seem to be much sense in doing so on such a cloudy day.  After inquiring at the front desk, we decided to stay another day and hope that the weather would clear on Friday. 

After breakfast, we headed out to explore the surrounding area.  We drove over to see the 700-year old Manitou Cliff Dwellings, original home of the Anasazi Indians.  We explored the caves and spent another hour in the museum and gift shop.  In the afternoon we went to The Garden of the Gods, a city park full of unusual stone formations.  The park offers numerous hiking and horseback riding venues, however, the rain continued on and off so we simply drove through the area.    Thursday night we borrowed a couple DVD’s from the front desk and ate dinner in our room. 

Friday morning was beautiful.  We checked-out after breakfast and drove up to the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway Station where we had made reservations on the 10:40 AM train.  We were told that the trains usually sell-out and the three cars were packed.   The ride takes a little over an hour to ascend to the 14,115-foot summit where we had about 45 minutes to take pictures and visit the gift-shop before returning to the bottom.  On the way up, we could see the mining operations at Cripple Creek, which is the most productive gold mine in the US, producing $6 million in gold per week.

 

The weather was clear and we were told we could see five states from the summit; Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah.  After a trip up Pike’s Peak 115 years ago, English professor Katharine Lee Bates wrote a poem about her experience which became the words for ‘America the Beautiful’.  We returned to the base just before 2:00 PM and started the two-hour drive back to Breckenridge. 

Twenty minutes into our drive home, the skies clouded over and it started to rain.  Lightening flashed just ahead of us and the thunder echoed throughout the mountains.  The rain was so heavy at times that if there had been a place to pull over, I would have stopped.  The storm only lasted thirty minutes and as we left the front-range and descended the western slope towards Buena Vista the sky became clear again.  We arrived in Breckenridge shortly after 4:00 PM and stopped to buy groceries before going home. 

Cindy worked hard to carve a watermelon with my Dad’s image for his birthday on August 2nd.  Carolyn’s birthday was the same day, but there was not enough time to carve both images.  Carolyn & Lauraine invited Mom & Dad up to Colfax for the weekend and held a birthday party on Sunday afternoon.  Carolyn’s daughter Christine was moving back to California this weekend and was scheduled to bring her children to the party also.  Sunday night, Cindy and I joined Stace and June to have dinner at Nozawa, a Japanese restaurant in Dillon.  We ate at a Teppanyaki table and our chef put on a memorable show. 

On August 4th, Cindy and I had to drive to Denver for some immigration business.    We left early and stopped to ride the Georgetown Loop narrow gage railway at Silver Plume for the 7 mile round trip to Georgetown and back which took about an hour and a half.  The train only had a few passengers on the way down, but was full on the trip back.  Continuing on to Denver, we spent 15 minutes at the immigration office and then went to the Denver Botanical Gardens.  Cindy spent most of her time taking pictures of bees pollinating the flowers.  The gardens are very nice and include a Jurassic theme with dinosaurs roaming throughout the place.   

We had considered stopping at Red Rocks for a concert and movie Tuesday night on the way back to Breckenridge, but clouds were moving in and the outdoor venue would not have been fun in the rain.  We both seem to be coming down with the flu so we decided to skip the concert. 

I spent the next two days in bed with the flu.  Cindy also had symptoms but was still able to go out.  On Thursday afternoon I started to feel better, so we were able to make it to the first of four salsa dance lessons we had signed up to take.  The class is at the recreation center and has about twelve students.  We did pretty well for our first attempt and will go back each Thursday night for the rest of August. 

August 10th is Breckenridge’s official 150th birthday.  There were events happening all weekend, some of which we attended.  Saturday night, there was a great fireworks display, which we watched from the roof of our building.   The town had a party on Monday with the mayor, a couple state senators, and several people dressed in 1860’s costumes.  Cake was served to the 200 or so guests. 

Tuesday we drove down to Idaho Springs where we took the scenic drive up to the summit of Mt. Evans.  The 28-mile road is the highest paved road in the country and affords spectacular views of the Rockies.  The weather was great.  We parked at the summit and walked the final quarter-mile to the highest rocks.  On the way down, we stopped at the Echo Lake Lodge for lunch. 

We passed through the historic districts of Idaho Springs and Georgetown so Cindy could take some photographs.  Rather than return through the Eisenhower Tunnel, we took Route 6 over Loveland Pass, back past Keystone to Breckenridge.  This road had just reopened after a gasoline tanker overturned last week erupting in a fireball, which melted and closed the road for a couple days.  All hazardous shipments are required to take the pass so they do not travel through the tunnel…probably a good idea.

On August 15th, I drove down to Black Hawk and Central City to visit Colorado’s casinos.  The two small towns are nestled up in the mountains and are home to a dozen large casinos crammed into an area of less than a square kilometer.  A fortune must have been spent to build the Central City Expressway, a 20-mile four-lane highway, which necessitated deep cuts into the mountainsides to support traffic to the area.  I spent a few hours at The Isle of Capri before having dinner and then driving home.

A few days later, Cindy and I met some friends to climb Peak 8.  The Ten-Mile Range consists of ten mountains starting with Peak 1 in Frisco and running south to Peak 10 in Breckenridge.  The ski area covers Peaks 10, 9, 8 and 7, and will expand to Peak 6 in the future.  We started at 8:00 AM and hiked up established trails reaching the highest building, a ski-patrol hut, at about noon.  Cindy and I rested at this hut enjoying the spectacular views of Breckenridge, while the other four people continued the final 1000 feet to the summit.  We returned to the base by 3:00 PM.

On August 23rd, I convinced Cindy to participate in the second annual Race for the Mountains, a 10K trail race/walk up and down the ski trails.  The event had a small turnout, but the proceeds benefited Shannon Galpin’s Mountain-to-Mountain organization supporting education in Afghanistan.  I walked up the hills and ran down finishing in 1:33.  Cindy walked the course with a Scottish woman she met and finished about an hour later.

The next day we woke up very early and left for a two-day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  After driving a couple hours, we arrived at the Grand Lake entrance to the park at 7:30 AM.  The lower visitors center was closed so we drove into the park and stopped at Beaver Ponds.  Out of sight from the road, just below the parking area, was a large female moose eating breakfast.    We watched the moose from a distance of about 25 feet for fifteen minutes before returning to the car.

We continued up Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitors Center where we stopped.  There was still a half hour before the building opened at 9:00 AM so we climbed up to the top of the mountain at an elevation of 12,000 feet.  From the visitors center we could see a large herd of about 30 elk in the valley below.  The rangers told us we might be able to see Bighorn sheep at Sheep Lake so we continued on our trip.

There was road maintenance taking place at Sheep Lake and the commotion must have frightened away any animals so we did not see any sheep.  The Estes Park entrance was only an additional ten miles so we decided to leave the park and see if we could check into our hotel early.

I had made a reservation at The Stanley Hotel, built by the guy who made his fortune by inventing and building the Stanley Steamer, the first commercially available steam powered automobile.    The hotel sits high on a bluff overlooking Estes Park and this year marks their 100-year anniversary.  Our room was ready so we moved ourselves into room 315 with a great view of the mountains.

What I did not know about The Stanley Hotel, is that it is one of the most haunted hotels in the country, and served as the inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining.  Known in the book as The Overlook Hotel, ghost children wander the halls, and the most infamous room and center for paranormal activity is number 217, just one floor below and one room over from where we are staying.  Cindy is particularly afraid of ghosts and did not think any of this was amusing.

We had lunch at a local place in town where I ordered an elk burger, which was not too good.  Cindy wandered around the town in the afternoon while I returned to the hotel to investigate a new lead I had just obtained for my ancestry project.  We had a late dinner in the hotel’s restaurant.

We made it through the night without any disturbances and I awoke early and had coffee on the veranda overlooking town.  We checked-out at 10:00 AM and drove back through the park.  There were still no sheep at Sheep Lake, but we veered off the main road and took a one-way dirt road, which snaked up through the mountains for twelve miles before rejoining Trail Ridge Road at the Alpine Visitor’s Center.    We saw a group of three male elk with huge antlers sitting in the grass, which we stopped to photograph before exiting the park.

It was just after noon when we reached Grand Lake so we detoured into the town and ate lunch at The Sagebrush BBQ.  After lunch we walked around the town for an hour before heading back to Breckenridge.

Thursday, August 27th, Ed & Naomi Nolan picked us up in the morning for a hike up to Blue Lakes on the south side of Mt. Quandry.  We hiked up to a mountain valley, which contained the scattered remains of old mining huts.  After a three-hour hike, we returned for a picnic overlooking the reservoir.  Thursday night we completed our fourth and final dance class and are now qualified to Salsa at the best clubs in Miami.

On our last Sunday in Breckenridge, we took a daylong road trip past Copper Mountain over to Leadville where we had coffee at the Silver Dollar Saloon.  After walking through some gift shops, we continued over Independence Pass to Aspen.  Although there were scattered showers en route, the weather cleared by the time we got to Aspen and we were able to walk around the town without getting wet.  As we ate lunch at Boogies Diner, I thumbed through a local real estate publication and saw a new 7-bedroom home on the market for $43 million.  On our way out of town we passed the Aspen Airport and lost count of the number of private jets parked on the tarmac.  We swung through Glenwood Springs on our way home.  The hot springs were packed and it would be fun to spend a day here sometime in the future.

Tuesday, September 1st, we packed up our car and headed out early on the 1100-mile drive back to California.  We had decided to take our time and stop to visit a few places as we passed through.  At Steamboat Springs we walked through town and got some coffee before continuing on to Dinosaur National Monument.  Unfortunately, the visitor’s center was closed and we were unable to see the famous quarry where hundreds of skeletons have been found over the years.  We spent our first night in Orem just south of Salt Lake City.

We had debated taking Highway 50, billed as “the loneliest stretch of road in America” across Nevada, but decided on Route 80 instead.  Route 80 was pretty lonely itself with tens of miles of salt flats giving way to hundreds of miles of desert.  After about eight hours of driving we stopped at Winnemucca, Nevada for our second night.  The Comfort Inn we stayed in was terrible, but we did have a good meal at a local steakhouse.

Thursday morning we continued another three hours and arrived in Reno, Nevada before 11:00 AM.  We had made arrangements to stay at Harrah’s for two nights and were able to get into our room early.  I don’t recall being in Reno prior to this and the city seemed much seedier that I expected.  We gambled, ate, and had massages at the “health club”.  Friday night we walked across the street and saw “42nd Street” which was playing at the Eldorado Showroom.  The show is excellent and was the highlight of our stay in Reno.

Saturday we checked-out and drove two hours west to Colfax, California where we planned to visit my great-niece and nephews at Carolyn & Fred’s house.     Kaley, Tyler and Jason seem to double in size each time we see them, but Ayden seems to remain about the same.  We swam in the pool and then had a big family dinner.  Sunday, everyone had plans to go different ways so Cindy and I left after breakfast to drive back to Marin.  In Auburn we detoured down Dry Creek Road to see where fires had raced through the canyon a week earlier destroying several homes and businesses on Highway 49.  Halley had closed her Starbucks for a couple hours when the fire got to within a couple blocks, but no damage was done.

We arrived back in Novato in time for lunch.  We don’t have any other trips planned at this moment, and are considering looking for a home to purchase sometime in the next six months.

 

 

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