RMNP to Gunnison, CO

We spent most of yesterday driving through absolutely gorgeous mountain scenery. We drove across RMNP, which has what must be one of the highest roads in the U.S. We stopped with other tourists at each of the overlooks and made it up to the road's high point with a simple trail through the alpine tundra. We walked along the path taking in the breathtaking views and smelling the sweet high mountain air. We saw a couple of people doing unconscionable things up on the tundra, including a teenage boy marching all over the area marked "stay off of the alpine tundra" (when the Ranger asked him to walk on the path, he said "I'm stepping around the flowers") and a Texan man allowing his kids to feed the pikas and videotaping it near one of the many signs that said "do not feed the wildlife". When Ry kindly brought his attention to the signs the man said, "these aren't wildlife, they're pests". It was sad to see such things, knowing how many people visit the fragile National Parks. But I reminded each of us that at least those folks rarely venture off one of a few simple trails into the more remote park where they can do even worse damage.

There was a lot of construction on the high road in the park and a lot of construction on the high mountain roads in general as we were driving along our route, so what we anticipated might be six hours of driving turned into eight. We'd be stopped on one side of the road for a long while and then eventually ushered on while construction workers stopped the other side. It was alright though, because I imagine this is the only absolutely safe time they can work on these mountain roads.

We ate homemade vegan lunch at a campsite in the Arapaho National Recreation Area and then continued south through the Rockies over many, many mountain passes. We drove through several ski resort towns which didn't look the least bit exciting at this time of year including Winter Park, Breckenridge and Frisco. We eventually passed through Salida and made it into the Arkansas River Valley. This area of high desert valleys reminded me of certain parts of Idaho or New Mexico, but greener. We saw cattle ranches and big, big sky everywhere. It was probably my favorite part of the drive because it was such a dramatic change after all of the green and craggy peaks before it.

We rolled into Gunnison in the early evening - home of Western State College of Colorado and located at approximately 7,700 feet. It reminds me of Flag, but smaller and we instantly decided we loved it. Ry picked out a little side of the highway motel in town called Swiss Inn, which I thought to be a funny theme for the middle of high desert Colorado. We learned our lesson from a yucky stay in North Platte, NE, asked to see the room and inspected it carefully before signing on the dotted line. The last three places we've stayed have used these really old fashioned little carbon paper forms for check-in, the kind of things you'd only see at a mom and pop-type operation. It's all quite charming and I'm glad we haven't stayed at any corporate chain yet even if it did mean one really bad night. One out of four ain't bad.

We ran across Highway 50 and dined on veggie burritos at a little hippie Mexican place called the Blue Iguana where we sat next to a young lady with a huge wolf dog named Tuck and a tiny little beagle mix. She said they got along well and that they were playful, but then we saw Tuck take the little dog's head in his mouth in one big bite. He let go and there wasn't any blood, so I guess it was playful. Later he licked the little dog's snouth with his big slobbery tongue. We wanted to walk around the cute little town, but it started raining and we went back to our little hotel room.

This morning we are enjoying coffee and bagels at a great coffeehouse called The Bean. Then we'll check out main street, the university and get on the road to Durango.

Estes Park, CO

Many things have happened over the past few weeks. The most exciting for me is that I was offered a job at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater as an AODA Educator & Behavioral Intervention Case Manager. I won't go into the specifics of the job save to say that I will be helping students make healthy choices regarding drugs and alcohol and helping to manage mental health and safety issues. I will also likely be serving as a conduct administrator and will have the potential to gain some grant writing skills. Even though it's a 50 minute commute from our new little home, I don't mind at all. Everyone I met and interviewed with seemed great and I think the job is a spectacular fit with my interest in the field of student affairs.

Accepting the job was an exciting moment and also a big relief. We weren't planning on taking a vacation at all this summer, but once we knew I'd be employed and we had the time together we decided to take off on a road trip. This is our third annual summer road trip. Our first was to Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. Our second was to Idaho, Washington and Oregon. This trip will be to Arizona via Colorado. We set out with no real plan except to visit my alma mater Northern Arizona University and to see some old friends.

We're currently winding down our second day in Estes Park, CO where we've done some absolutely awesome hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We made no reservations but managed to snag a 1920's era studio cottage on the Big Thompson River. It's cute and clean and reminds us of a place where people might have honeymooned in simpler times. We have a back deck that we share with our neighbors overlooking in the river.

Yesterday we explored town a bit via the car and lunched at the Estes Park Brewery. The town is very touristy but still relatively tasteful with great peak views. Nonetheless, we decided to stay away from the masses as much as possible, so we didn't peruse any taffy, chocolate or t-shirt shops. That didn't last long when we visited the Stanley Hotel (built in 1909) which was said to be part of the inspiration for the movie The Shining. There were a million families with teenagers there running around with ghost fever. We finished our day with a short hike up a trail in RMNP to Nymph and Dream Lakes.

We rose early today to hike to Chasm Lake which lies below Long's Peak (a "fourteener" to use my beloved's speak). It was the most strenuous and spectacular physical feat I have ever accomplished. The trail starts at approximately 9,400 feet and ends at a lake in a huge cirque at 11,760 feet. A vertical gain of 2,360 at such an altitude and 8.4 miles total is nothing to sneeze at. It was freaking hard! Especially catching my breath at altitude and scrambling straight up rocks at the end to reach Chasm Lake. However, there were amazing views, alpine flora up-close-and-personal (columbine, indian paint brush and lupine), waterfalls, beautiful green melt pools and lots of marmots. It took us about six hours, which was a little slow toward the end because I twisted my ankle on the trail trying to dodge a teenager who was on her way up fast, fast, fast. One of the most impressive and sweet things we saw was a family with two young kids (3 and 4) doing the trail all the way up. The parents were patient, the kids were having fun and they were dedicated. I hope that we can provide such an awesome hiking experience for future little ones, showing them that exercise can be beautiful and fun.

We came back to our cabin and passed out for a while before heading out for some italian food. Doing the vegan thing on the road has been pretty impossible. We've stuck to our vegetarian guns and managed vegan when we're providing our own snackies, but not in restaurants. I'm alright with that, especially after such a work out. I felt no shame about seriously noshing on caesar salad and fettuccine alfredo. No surprise here, but the winning food of the trip has been my homemade almond, cherry and dark chocolate granola bars and homemade garlic hummus on pitas in the car. We are utterly spoiled by good food at home and restaurant food never seems to live up to our expectations. We've remedied this by lowering our expectations to something like, "hey, it's food". Today's physical activity proved that hunger is the best sauce! We were so famished by the time we got to eat dinner that everything tasted great.

An Adventurous Squirrel

Today is records day for Ry, which means it's his last partial day of school where he turns in his grades and keys. We had made a pact to get up very early (think 5:15 am), enjoy our coffee together and do some laundry. Needless to say, that did not happen. I set our alarm to NPR and Ry snoozed it for two hours. I can hardly fault him because I don't think I really even heard it at all until about 7am.

After we finally got up, we sat at our kitchen table looking out the picture window with our coffee. Our neighbors Dick and Dolores come home every day at about 7:45, which leads me to believe that they go to daily mass, probably at Blessed Sacrament, just around the corner on Oklahoma. They are super cute old people and every time we see them Ry makes a comment about how we'll be like that some day. We watched Dolores pick up sticks from the yard that must have come down in the litany of rainstorms we've endured over the past week.

She went inside and Ry pointed out a squirrel scaling the brick wall of the attached garage on our other neighbor's house across the street. They've got a little hexagon venting window high up above the garage door with a hole in the screen. Ry said, they better watch out or they're gonna end up with squirrels in their garage loft. Sure enough, we watched the agile thing do a straight vertical climb and head for the window like he had sonar. Pretty quickly he was in the rim of the window, they we saw him peak his head in the screen hole. Next thing we knew, he climbed right in until all we could see was the tip of his tail sticking out of the hole and the shadow of him behind the screen. He got stuck between the wooden slats and ultimately didn't get inside, but what a close call. We decided we'll have to let them know next time we see the occupants coming and going. What a great little piece of free entertainment for the morning!

Also, supposedly (according to our goofy dog-walking neighbor who repeatedly sings her dogs' names at top volume as she walks them up and down the street) there was a coyote in her backyard at 1pm in the afternoon yesterday. Our neighborhood is just teeming with wildlife.