Colorado Road Trip

I did the annual Colorado trip solo this year. Last winter I bought an aluminum canoe from a guy in Aspen. Since my friend Matt lives in Golden, I had him pick it up for me. So, this trip required a truck to pick up the canoe. The truck doesn't lend itself too well to three passengers - not to mention that Gavin probably wouldn't like riding for 14 hours each way. So, Miranda stayed home with Gavin and I drove to Colorado and back in just 3 1/2 days. This was a common view during the trip (this was actually West Texas on the way back...don't ever go there if you can help it - it's a wasteland). I headed out of DFW on Friday around 12:30 and finally got to Golden 13 hours later (875 miles) at 1:00am central time.

Axis and Tela welcomed me with open arms this time. I don't know if they remembered me, or if they were just holding onto their angst to use on Jay (Matt's cousin that was visiting).

We HAD to make a stop at the Golden City Brewing Company (the second largest brewery in Golden - haha). Their IPA is some of the best that I have ever had anywhere. I look forward to it every year....

The Avett Brothers concert and tailgating took up just about all day on Saturday. On Sunday I had hoped to do some flyfishing, but the huge amount of runoff from snowmelt combined with afternoon thunderstorms killed those plans. We all decided to take a hike instead. We were hiking the mountain/ridge that is just behind Red Rocks. It was a fun hike, and it was also just about all my knee was able to take.

Matt bikes this train fairly regularly. After seeing some of the things that you have to go up (and down), I am extremely impressed. It is much steeper in person than the pictures show. I would be dragging my bike up the hill instead of riding it.

This is the view that we got of Red Rocks at the top of the ridge. Awesome views were all around.

After our hike, we headed back to the house and Matt smoked some ribs and ABT's (Atomic Buffalo Turds) for dinner. The ABT's are jalapenos stuffed with a little smokie and cream cheese, then wrapped in bacon and smoked for a few hours. They were really really good.

But, all good things must come to an end. We loaded up the canoes on Sunday afternoon, and I headed out early on Monday morning. I was initially worried about the canoes moving during the drive, but they were on tight and I only had to battle a little wind and 18 wheelers off and on all day to keep them from moving around too much.

The old girls made it 1650 miles in just over three days. She did great, but I do have a new squeak (I think that it is the AC pulley) that I am going to have to get fixed. I replaced the serpentine belt last night and that didn't fix the squeak....grrr. This is a picture of me stopping for a picture just outside of Amarillo.