Wrapping Colorado; Returning to Texas

Goodbye BV, we'll miss you.

 

Note the reflection on the water in the pothole in the middle of the road.

+13,000 feet!

We are back home in Texas now (and getting ready to leave for yet another trip) so I need to put a quick wrap on our final days in Colorado, which I am going to do with more photos and videos, and fewer words, than normal (Note: The much better internet connection here at the house greatly facilitates this change of pace).

Dave, you idiot, why did you make me do this?

The last half of September seemed a lot busier than the first half. I climbed Mt. Yale for the fifth time, and La Plata Peak and Mt. Massive for the second times raising my count of  lifetime 14er summits to 86 and my summer total of 14er summits to 21; 10 in California and 11 in Colorado. 

Meanwhile, Betsy played a few rounds of golf, hiked the Midland Trails, and biked around BV. Also, as the photo above attests, she hiked to more than 13,000 feet and, as the photo to the left also attests, had some second thoughts about the wisdom of doing so.

We drove over Cottonwood Pass to Crested Butte and spent a fabulous weekend with our Trinity University friend and fellow Texan Bill Strauss and his wife Jamie at their beautiful second home in this very upscale, weirdly cool town where everybody is white and most of them are stoned.

Above and below, the view from the back porch of the "Strauss Haus" overlooking downtown Crested Butte.

We had barely sobered up from that trip when my trumpet-playing cousin blasted through BV in his bike-laden mini-van, pausing long enough to picnic with us, his girlfriend Erin and her dog Oscar outside our trailer in the Snowy Peaks RV Park.

Man, sorry about those teeth Chaz.

You’ll “hear” more from Chaz the Jazzman when you read further in the blog. When he is not biking, skiing or kayaking the roads, mountains and rivers of Colorado, or saving lives as an interventional radiologist in a Boulder Hospital, Dr. Chaz is the front man singing and playing trumpet for the jazz band Summit Hot Seven. Chaz (formerly known as Charlie) and I were teammates on the Liberty Blue Jay basketball team and it took him about two minutes to remind me that I was responsible for chipping his two front teeth in a "collision" during a practice session more than 40 years ago.

Denny and Pat will never notice if we move into their basement, will they?

Later that week we headed off to the Aurora abode of yet another Trinity friend, Denny Post, and her husband Pat Collins. Denny is the CEO-in-waiting of the Red Robin restaurant chain and Red Robin (coincidentally) happens to be a major sponsor of the Great American Beer Festival. Guess where Denny took us out to eat? Guess how we were able to get tickets to GABF (where the 60,000 tickets sold out in 77 minutes)? Thanks Denny, thanks Red Robin? Yumm!

Prepping for the GABF.

It's all about product placement.

Thanks Denny! Thanks Red Robin!!

Product placement? Yumm!

However, before we even got to Aurora, we stopped for a long lunch in Centennial with yet another "old" friend from college days; Vernie Heeney, who was a fifth-year senior during my freshman year at Marymount College in Salina, Kansas.

Marymount graduation May, 1974

Other than the pants and Stan's absence, little has changed 41 years later, right?

While GABF had been on our “bucket list” for some time we think one night at this crazy, crowded drunkfest is plenty to satisfy this itch. 

After two nights at Denny's house in Aurora we headed north to Boulder where we enjoyed an evening of “Chaz Jazz”.

Even if you watch the videos and look at the photos none of them do justice to any of these fabulous, talented, individuals or to the general “awesomeness” of Colorado.

We exited the state via Trinidad State Park, Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico and Caprock Canyons State Park in the Texas Panhandle.

Great views of NE New Mexico from Capulin Volcano.

Aggghh, back in Texas (at the Dairy Queen in Dalhart).

There are also plenty of real buffalo roaming about at beautiful Caprock Canyons State Park.

From Caprock Betsy drove straight home and I took the trailer to a state park southeast of Dallas which we will use as a base for attending the Texas State Fair later this month.

We will be leaving Sunday (Oct.11) for two nights in Houston where we will attend the Astros playoff games against the KC Royals on Sunday and Monday. From Houston we will drive up to a state park near Dallas where the trailer is parked and use that as our base for attending the Texas State Fair on Wednesday. From there we will take the trailer to another state park near Austin which we will use as our base for attending the Texas Book Festival at the State Capitol Oct. 17 & 18. We'll get home Oct. 20 and, hopefully, stay put for awhile.

By October 20 we should be settled in at home for at least a few months.