Traveling the USA Part II

We pack up, have lunch with Jere's brother and wife, and then head out for our drive to Colorado Springs. We have an uneventful drive with some occasional showers and stop at a campground south of Colorado Springs, Mountaindale RV Park. Soon after we set up the skies open up and it pours. I try to use their wifi to try to get caught up with my travel blog, but the wifi is down -- very frustrating night. No cell phone, nothing on the one channnel we get on TV, no wifi, no campfires allowed. So I call it a day early, go to bed, and finish reading my book.

We're visiting with Jere's brother in Mead, Colorado. We spend the morning just hanging around the house and then go over to visit Jere's niece, Becky, and her son, Breckin. We have a nice visit there and then take Breckin with us to travel to Denver.

Our first stop in Denver is at their capitol building. We check out the one step in front of the capitol building that is exactly "One Mile High".

We walk around the area and check out the statues and artwork, including a giant broom and dustpan sculpture in front of the art museum.

We then drive over to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies play the Florida Marlins. Jere is still trying to visit all of the Major League baseball parks and we haven't been to this one yet.

We get there early enough to watch batting practice. The boys try to get a baseball during practice, but no luck tonight. Some came close but no baseball souvenirs tonight (I thought one very large man was going to knock Breckin over in his attempt to catch a ball -- I am always amazed at what some full-grown men will do to snatch a baseball during batting practice).

We buy tickets for the "cheap seats" and have a nice view of the game and the Rocky Mountains in the background. Before the game starts, we grab some dinner. I try the Rocky Dog -- it is a disappointment. The peanuts are good though -- even baseball concessioners can't ruin peanuts :-)

The game is good for the most part. It's Matt Holliday bobblehead night, so we each get a free bobblehead. I like free things; even though I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with a Matt Holliday bobblehead. There are a couple homeruns tonight (including one by Matt Holiday the bobblehead guy) and the Rockies win, so that helps make the game fun.

Beautiful blue skies this morning. We start to pack up and realize that our bike rack is broken (again) and Jere needs to fix that before we can leave so we get kindof a late start.

We drive around 40 miles to Mead, Colorado to visit Jere's brother family. We park our 5ver in his large driveway and will spend the next two nights "camped" in his driveway.

We spend the rest of the day getting caught up with each other's activities and end the day sitting on their back patio and watching fireworks from different communities in the area. The prairie is flat here so we can see a long distance and see many different firework displays. Joe loves watching the multiple firework shows. He also enjoys watching some illegal fireworks at private residences near us. Coloradans certainly love their fireworks!

After last night's gloomy/stormy weather we're happy to see blue skies this morning. We get ready and leave by 8am to tour Rocky Mountain National Park. We stop at the visitors center and then take off on the Trail Ridge Road. Beautiful scenery and blue skies.

We stop at Rock Cut and hike the tundra trail. Incredible scenery and wildflowers and even some elk on the trail.

We stop at the Alpine Visitors Center for lunch and then hike the "huffing" trail up the hill. Again, incredible scenery and wildflowers and elk.

We continue our drive over to Grand Lake. The Grand Lake area has many dead pine trees from beetle damage. I guess this area was a beautiful area at one time, but the dead trees make this area somewhat "ugly".

We see more elk and some big horn sheep and more beautiful wildflowers on our return trip to Estes Park.

We also see a tourist illegally feeding the birds at one of the overlooks along Trail Ridge Road. One of the movies that we watched at the Visitor Center specifically told visitors to not feed the birds.

We get back to the campground, relax a little, have dinner, do some laundry and I try to get caught up on my travel blog while the wifi is working.

We pack up and drive over 200 miles to Estes Park, Colorado. We stop near Cheyenne, Wyoming at the roadside rest for lunch and also at the "Welcome to Colorado" Visitor Center. Most of the drive is somewhat boring prairie scenery til we reach Loveland, Colorado where the Rockies foothills begin. Very scenic drive between Loveland and Estes Park, Colorado.

We set up at the Spruce Lake RV Park and spend the rest of the day relaxing. We were hoping to sit outside and enjoy the scenery, but the sky turns very dark and stormy as we're setting up and the remainder of the day is cloudy/rainy. So no pool time, no miniature golf, no enjoying the view of the Rockies :-( We stay inside the 5ver and watch TV, read and use their on again/off again wifi.