Denver Week

July 22, 2012

This week was spent in Englewood, Colorado, just outside of Denver.  We stayed in a mobile home park that also rented RV spaces....kinda quirky.  It is a 55+ community, NO DOGS.  They were very clear about that! They had a lovely community clubhouse with pool tables, free bread from the local market 2 days a week, a really nice swimming pool....none of which we took advantage.  This entire week consisted of 95+ degree days, not conducive to spending much time outside at all.

Jim worked on his software for the first 4 days we were here.  The second night we were here, we had dinner with a friend of mine, Peggy, that I worked with at Topform.  She and her husband, Frank, moved here two years ago when Frank took a job up here.  I did some grocery shopping and found a Costco to stock up my wine cabinet.....among other things!  Mostly, I stayed indoors with Jim, in air conditioned splendor.  The last few days of our visit we did do a little sightseeing.

Hornbek Homestead

Pantry

Friday, the 20th, we drove to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  That area is interesting.  We saw 35 million year old petrified redwood tree stumps.  That area used to have a huge petrified forest until tourists started going there in the 1800's and early 1900's.  The logs and stumps were carried away by the people who visited. That didn't stop until the area became protected by the U.S. Government.  Now, there are a few remaining massive stumps.  Really awe inspiring to see.  There is also a preserved "Homestead" called the Hornbek Homestead. The house is still standing and partially furnished (it was fully furnished but all of the original furniture was stolen!  What kind of jerks do that?). Jim and I spent quite a bit of time there. The house was unlocked so we were able to walk around inside and grab some photos.  I love that stuff!

The line

Saturday, we went to Golden, Colorado, to go on the Coors Brewery tour.  Waited in line for 45 minutes, then got on a small shuttle bus that traveled around the blocks surrounding the brewery and the driver regaled us with local color.

The Brew Kettle

Then we were dropped off at the entrance to the brewery where we embarked upon a "self-guided" tour, which included the use of an audio "tour guide in a box", which we hung around our necks.  I have to say, I was disappointed with this tour.  Not having an actual, live tour guide made the tour pretty boring.  Got to the lounge, drank 2 out of 3 free sample beers, and left. On our way home, we stopped at "Listen Up", an audio store, to listen to some book shelf speakers.  We are talking about replacing 3 of the speakers in the trailer surround system with ones that actually sound good!  We'll see.

In the Lounge-Free Beer!

Sunday we headed to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  What gorgeous rock formations.  It was way too hot to do any hiking, so we just drove through the park and plotted our return trip sometime some other season!  We would love to hike in and around these formations and do some early morning photography.  They are so beautiful.  This picture was taken off the balcony of the visitor center there.

Garden of the Gods

We are leaving tomorrow for Glenco, Wyoming, to stay a few nights and try to get in a visit to our friend, Laurie, in Casper.  From there, we move on to Custer, South Dakota for at least a week to do some sightseeing.