Ugly Truth Astrology - Aquarius Jan 20 - Feb 18
You are the George W. Bush of your colleagues. Hooray! No one wants to admit they know you, but they'll secretly vote for you, again.
and that was to good part - I am in love with this magazine and am going to get a subscription.
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It's Sunday night, raining for the last 6 hours with thunderstorms and showers and 48 degrees so why not write a blog OH - I'm not complaining at all. The forecast was right on and Plan A went into effect and all is perfect STILL.
Notice the sky. That was what it was for the last 3 days before today so . . not complaining about rain.
THAT NEVER HAPPENED - KIDDING, or did it!
Once again fantastic atmosphere and outstanding playlist on their music. I don't know what they have but every year it's right on. Millennial Alternative? I take some of their artists and make my own station. "Banks" is one from yesterday.
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It's Sunday night, raining for the last 6 hours with thunderstorms and showers and 48 degrees so why not write a blog OH - I'm not complaining at all. The forecast was right on and Plan A went into effect and all is perfect STILL.
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| View from the balcony most of Sunday |
No photos of the first 2 days driving through Iowa or Nebraska because, well, they are Iowa or Nebraska. We get to Kearny night #1 and Winter Park the next day. Not real bad but literally nothing to talk about.
HOWEVER - I believe Nebraska gets a bad rap. I have no issues driving across NE except for the length. The scenery is fine. It's "flat, Wisconsin". Still green and still fertile. Now Colorado is a different story. The butt hole of the trip, until you hit the mountains,
When you turn off 80 and head southwest on 76 it all of a sudden becomes The High Plains that are hot, desolate and boring until you reach the butt hole ugly side of Denver. But driving is pretty easy with wide and numerous lanes (unlike in town) so it's just a different kind of butt hole. And that is what you come to expect when you drive from Columbus to Winter Park CO. Make sure you have Pandora and NPR on the radio to stay sane and not shoot yourself out of boredom.
(Holy shit trying to spell "boredom" was such a pain)
ANYWAY - we make some stops in Denver and proceed to Winter Park. It's 92 degrees in Denver and it gets down to 57 on the way up the mountain. This is Saturday and I'm surprised at the lack of visitors but it's early in the season. Temp in Winter Park is a wonderful 65. Being this high up it feels warmer then we are used too. It feels more like 75.
Both of us feel excellent health-wise as altitude sickness is a real thing the first day or two being 3/4ers of a mile above Denver. Lots of water and take it easy that first day or two with aspirin (the "taking it easy" was a big FAIL but moron that later).
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| SafeWay Parking lot |
We arrive and move into the place huffing and puffing gasping for air (literally). First thing is to get some grocery's so we go to the amazing SafeWay, (sigh, I wish we had a Safeway in Columbus) and even the parking lot is beautiful.
Notice the sky. That was what it was for the last 3 days before today so . . not complaining about rain.
The odd thing is that the air is so thin everything balloons out. Chips and yogurt and soda is REALLY effervescent. I have no idea what science they need for brewing and bottling.
Dinner time and we go out to The Ditch on 40. A local-ish place that seem to put Hatch Chile's on everything and everything tastes GREAT. My favorite Philly Cheesesteak of all time (so far . . at level 64). Seriously - I thought about that sandwich for a year.
DJ has the quesadilla and yummy yummy. Great laid back place. Full of typical Winter Park people (as I have seen in 3 years). Fun, happy, youngish (compared to me). a good fun group.
Here is the deal with Winter Park as I know it, the highest incorporated town in the United States. First there was Fraser, a typical tiny mountain town. Then the huge Winter Park ski complex was built. NOW, Winter Park the town next to the complex is growing into a real vibrant fun town.
More and more and more and more mountain bikers are flocking here with the world class biking hills for all ages. It seems that the town first spent all the effort into winter operations and now they can work on the summer crowd. Not just the athletes but family's galore all biking the mountains. And ALL of them are in great shape. This has to be the most "in shape" place I have ever seen when it comes to all ages. Except for my side of the age mountain.
More and more and more and more mountain bikers are flocking here with the world class biking hills for all ages. It seems that the town first spent all the effort into winter operations and now they can work on the summer crowd. Not just the athletes but family's galore all biking the mountains. And ALL of them are in great shape. This has to be the most "in shape" place I have ever seen when it comes to all ages. Except for my side of the age mountain.
This is a huge young, ski, skate board, mountain bike, dog friendly and growing area.
So that is that.
Saturday is a beautiful day and we go for a small hike near our (the) condo, not far, just to get our legs and lungs accustomed. Been there before.
First we stopped at a dispensary and then 100 yards away I spot this tree, for 3 hours I stare at it trying to fathom the meaning. Is it just playing with me? Sending a message? What does it all mean. I just don't know.
Were walking along the trail and stop to take photos here and there.
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| tree |
All is going well, the sun is hot as we blindly go forth. Having been on this trail before it's pretty much a no brainer . . but there sure is a lot of new construction around.
The issue was that with so much building there were . . . detours . . . yea . . . here we go! We come to a crossroads, one way is the normal known trail, that leads around the lake, the other is this brand new bridge trail to the unknown.
We laughed and say this was a life test. The normal way? or adventure. What would I do on Survivor - It's the bridge to the unknown.
Looks good to me so we go forth. I started to take photos as reference . . just in case. HEY - a joke is that DJ and I would be the first to not make it out of the US on Amazing Race.
We're walking along and DJ sees a log over a ditch leading to some sweet little unbuilt cabins and complete cabins. We're looking and day dreaming and wandering around and DJ says go this way and I'm good I know how to get back to the river and yada yada yada.
We come to a road but . . . . I don't think this goes where we want. Let's head back, so we're walking back between buildings and . . . they all look the freaking same! same color same shape-ish. The little sidewalks just lead in circles. Wait . . where are we? This way? we know WHAT direction but every path is blocked by condos or a construction fence and water is running low because this was just suppose to be a three hour tour. We see a family with bikes go by but can't get there!
I spot a new path and we head towards it but then it forks into two directions . . . SERIOUSLY? We go left which is towards the condo, it goes for 1/2 a mile and then because of more construction sort of doubles back on itself . . and ends up ON the highway. ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM!
SO - what does a tired thirsty couple do in this situation? Head to the brewery, about another mile towards home.
The Peak Bistro and Brewery is the #1 Go To place we have found in the 3 years here. Have spent way too much time outside sucking down almost every beer style they have.
We get there and it's happy hour and we collapse, beer is served and then served again and then one more time and we had only been there 10 minutes.
Ordered some of there outstanding pizza. It's one of those gold star ones that stand out in your mind and you crave. In fact all food there is great.
We got baked . . no really, DJ gets a sun burn but not a hurty one. Again, not one cloud.
Once again fantastic atmosphere and outstanding playlist on their music. I don't know what they have but every year it's right on. Millennial Alternative? I take some of their artists and make my own station. "Banks" is one from yesterday.
We sit there for a long time soaking up the mountains and fresh air laughing about getting lost in a new cabin complex. Not lost, we knew where we wanted to go, just were blocked my the stupid maze.
Looking at a map today we see there IS no route that would have helped us. it truly is a maze with the road going 4 miles out of the way to the left and and a nightmare UP the other way.
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| The Peak Bistro and Brewery |
and that is it. A mile walk back and we totally collapse.
Yea - a "take it easy" day.
On to Golden CO tomorrow.
Yea - a "take it easy" day.
On to Golden CO tomorrow.
Cheers.
The adventure continues
The adventure continues
