Day 13: Mountain Lion jazz hands
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Aspen; Leadville; St. Mary's; Granby; Estes Park
We started this morning in Hotel Aspen. We didn’t really like it any more in the morning than the previous evening. We got out of town, but had to go back for a random light that showed up on the dashboard. We took a scenic road out; in a couple weeks it will be closed until June, and we could see why. Some parts of the road were barely wider than 1 lane with places to pull-off for oncoming traffic. It was beautiful though!
We got a little lost taking Colorado 24 instead of US24 (they are .2 miles apart). We still got to our first stop; just a break to stretch our legs – in Leadville, CO. So let me set the scene . . .
Leadville is an old mining town. It’s rather small and has a historic district. I guess maybe it was a little like Plain City in size and appearance. We stopped at a convenience store to get gum and use the restroom. There was only one unisex restroom, and there was an overdressed woman waiting for it. While we were at least 12 hrs from Vegas, she would have looked much more appropriate there. Anyway, we got our gum and headed back over to the restroom. A different woman was now waiting, along with the woman who was previously in there. She seemed to be waiting for her friend and left the line area once she saw there were a few of us creating a line. Donnell wanted to leave, but I said it was like waiting at Olive Garden or something. By the time we drove someplace else we could’ve just waited. A moment or two later the woman we first saw waiting exited the restroom and with her a man. Where did he come from? He had obviously been in there with the first woman as well. And the second woman was intent on wiping her nose off as she left (I was just glad to see her had go to her nose). As the girls got their coffee (Coke isn’t enough? I know we’re jumping to conclusions but c’mon, and besides the other conclusions aren’t much better!) the man paid for it all and left. Hmmm.
After Leadville, we went directly to St. Mary’s and hiked to the glacier. It’s ¾ of a mile uphill – ah, yeah! Whoa! Tammie can attest to the “whoa.” It was gorgeous though and worth it. The drive up was nice too, though the turns were like those in St. John – crazy. There were a lot of homes for sale too.
Next was Granby for lunch and off to Rocky Mountain National Park. We LOVE the park. We're considering going back tomorrow morning too. The first wildlife we saw were of course deer, but then we saw 4 moose! We also saw a ton of elk. Apparently 'tis the season for males to challenge one another. We saw that up close (within 25 ft).
Now we are at the historic Stanley Inn. It is the inn that inspired Steven King to write The Shining. It's old, and still has the old feeling about it. It's not been updated that much, but not in a bad way. It has all modern necessities. The elevator is old though, and it took us awhile to find it behind the cage. I'm a bit nervous here - I won't say why until tomorrow. Google it if you're curious.
Highlights: Independence Pass drive out of Aspen; Coke-heads/Hookers? in Leadville; St. Mary's Glacier; Rocky Mountain NP; elk
posted by Shannon @ 14.9.06,
1 Comments:
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At September 15, 2006,
said...
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Look how much we want you to come home!
In case you forgot who we are, that's L-R: Erica, Patty, Steve.
PS- Don't run into any burning couches on your way into town!!! :)
