Life After Cows...Part Five...

Well.  It must be Wednesday, my day off, because I'm finally sitting down at the computer to do another post about our trip!

Work has been good.  Busy, but good.  It's been a pretty big learning curve for me, and after working at home for 25 years, an adjustment.  It's not difficult work, but time management is probably the biggest thing right now.  I think I'm finally "over the hump", and if I can just keep caught up, it should only get easier.

Back to our trip...

After a hearty breakfast, we left my Aunt Alice's house on Sunday morning and headed south on Route 25 towards Colorado Springs.  The weather looked more promising that morning, and we could see the beautiful foothills as we headed towards Garden of the Gods, our destination for the day.  About half way between Denver and Colorado Springs, we saw this big rock to the east, just off the highway.

Castle Rock...

We had no tight schedule to follow, so we took the opportunity to stop and take a look.  We found a trail to the top, and enjoyed the hike and the view...
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We found this little painted stone along the pathway, and left it for the next person to find...

That felt good!  This is the kind of thing we had hoped to be able to do....see things along the way, and be able to stop and enjoy them with no real set schedule!

On to Garden of the Gods.

I was here once before, when I was about ten years old.  I still can't believe how rude (maybe that's a strong word, but still...) I was when I said to my Mom after being there for just a short time..."what's the big deal?  It's just a bunch of rocks!"  How things change as we get older and appreciate the creation that God has made, and how beautiful it is!

Sorry again, Mom!

The day became more overcast and a little bit cool as it went along, and we were a little disappointed to not see Pike's Peak, but it made for great walking weather!  We walked from one end of the park to the other, exploring, and couldn't get enough of looking at the beautiful scenery!  We definitely got our exercise today!

No descriptions necessary...

We headed back to our motel, which was just a few miles away, found a diner for supper, and called it a day.

On Monday morning when we woke up and headed out to pack up the car for our trip back east into Kansas, we saw beautiful blue sky!

Since we were literally only five minutes from Garden of the Gods, we drove back to the park, found a look out high above, and took a lot of pictures.  I won't bore you with them all, but here are a couple of my favorites...

It was so worth it!

We pointed our car eastward, and headed out.  Pikes Peak remained in our mirror for miles...

Next stop, Sharon Springs Ks

Life After Cows...Trip Part Four...

Finally, another post.  I'd better get this documented before I forget details!!

*Warning...lots of pictures ahead in these next couple of posts, as this was some of the most beautiful country that we encountered this time around!

Early Friday morning, we said good bye to Jenna and headed west on Route 70 through Kansas on our way to my Aunt Alice in Fort Collins CO.  The day started out rather dreary, and we drove through some rain, but by late afternoon some blue sky appeared.

I think desolately beautiful would be one way to describe eastern Colorado!

Grain bins in every town.  I might have to do a collage later, of all the grain bins I took pics of on this trip...

We arrived at my Aunt Alice's house around supper time on Friday.  It was so good to see her!  She is my Mom's younger sister, and has come to Pennsylvania many times to visit us.  (I was named after her and my great Aunt Alice, with whom I share a birthday!)   So many times we wished we could visit her, and finally it happened.  She had a yummy supper waiting for us along with a delicious apple pie for dessert...

She says that she has two cats...but I'm not sure that I believe her.  We only saw one cat the weekend we were there.  Here's Muffin...

Smokey didn't show his face even once.  The only sign I saw of him was a gray streak as something flew up the stairs when I opened the front door after one of our outings.  He apparently hid under her bed the whole time "strangers" were there!  Aunt Alice, you know I'm just giving you a hard time!  :)

On Saturday, Aunt Alice took us up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a cloudy day and we couldn't see the beautiful Colorado skies and the high mountain peaks, but it was still beautiful!

Here we are heading up into the foothills...

Devil's Backbone...

 About to enter Thompson's Canyon on our way to Estes Park...

At every turn (and there were lots of them) we were surrounded by beauty.  It's so different from what we see every day!  We kept our eyes out for mountain goats on the rocks, but our eyes weren't sharp enough to pick any out...

 As we entered Estes Park, we saw herds of Elk lounging around enjoying their weekend...

At the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park we were happy to hear that the road to Bear Lake was open.  I remember being there when I was ten years old.  Of course it looked quite different then because it was summer time.  I vaguely remember hiking around the lake.  This time however, the lake was frozen over and snow covered so we walked across it rather than around it...

Frozen water falls...

These baby pine cones caught my eye...

The photo-opps were many, and do you see that?  Blue sky peeping through those clouds!

We ended the day being hosted by my cousin Eric and his wife Xioma and family. I hadn't seen "big Eric" as we call him :) since "our Eric" was about two years old.  It was so nice to see him again and to meet his lovely wife and daughters!

This trip was about so much more than just seeing the beautiful sights across the country!  We were happy to spend time with family and friends along the way!

Next up...Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods.