Colorful Colorado

After leaving the Rapid City area, we headed straight south through the panhandle of Nebraska. This is fairly bleak country – we saw some cows and a few windmills, but little else, not even houses. We wondered who owned the cows and where they lived.

We spent one night in Cheyenne, WY, and then arrived in the Denver area on Thursday, 9/20. We parked the RV in the driveway next door, a vacant house in foreclosure. Then we moved into Neil’s for a few days. It was a little weird to move out of the coach temporarily.

On Friday, I went to Loveland to see my BFF Judy. We don’t get to see each other often, so we really enjoyed this time together. She took me to the Sculpture Gardens, which I really enjoyed. These are all done by local artists, mostly in bronze, but some in stone. Here’s Judy with one of them.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to ride an alligator (or is this a crocodile?).


As you can see, we get a little bit silly when we are out together. This is the same woman who once convinced me to go up the down escalator in a prominent Denver department store one evening. I think we had a couple too many glasses of wine that night, but we always have a great time together!

We spent three nights in Cripple Creek. The drive up there was both sad and fabulous. The first part of the drive through the mountains took us through areas that had been hit pretty hard by forest fires. Having driven those roads often, it was especially sad to see what had happened. The last half of the mountain drive was spectacular. The aspen trees were turning and the greens and golds were so beautiful.



We had a Jr. suite at the Double Eagle, one of our favorite casinos. We were on the fifth floor, in a corner room. This is the view out one window.


The train that runs between Cripple Creek and Victor was just leaving the station when I got that photo. This photo is out the other window on the following morning. The fog was so cool, I thought.


One of the days we drove to Victor in search of lunch. We didn’t find any restaurants, so we just took pictures on the way back and had lunch at one of the casinos.


This looks to the south and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. It was far prettier than the picture shows, but you get the idea.

We spent a lot of time gambling. (Duh!) But we left town with more money than we had when we came in. Julian hit four aces three or four time in one morning and that helped a bunch.

Small World Department: We needed to pick something up at a grocery store on the first day in Cripple Creek. We got directions, but they didn’t make sense and we wound up at the store in an RV park in town. When we walked in, I overheard a gentleman saying something to the clerk about living in Nebraska. A few seconds later I heard “David City” in the conversation. Well, I couldn’t let that pass. So I jumped in and said that I had grown up there. He asked my name and I told him. Then I said Ray & Gwen were my parents. Get this: he said he had bought lots of fuel from my dad! His name was Mel Vrbka and I can’t say I remember him or is name, but I know there were plenty of Vrbkas in the area. How do two people from the same small town run into each other in another small town 500 miles away in which neither of them currently resides!?!? It’s definitely a small world we live in.

After Cripple Creek, we stayed with Julian’s sister. Joyce and Ron have a new home in Cherry Creek and it was really fun staying with them. We walked everywhere and it was fun. One evening we saw an acapella group who did mostly oldies. They were VERY good. You’d have sworn there was a drummer on stage, but it was all the “beat boxing” of one of their guys. He even did a drum solo which was amazing.

Julian had lunches with old friends from his Rocky Mountain News days. We both had dinner with another friend from the News and his new lady. I spent some time at Tri-State and got to see many of my old buddies, too. We really had a great time over the 10 days in Colorado.

We managed to snag a few photos of the Cole Clan before we left. Here’s one with everybody.

Left to right are Louise and Neil (Julian’s brother), Joyce (his sister) and Ron, Julian, Heidi and Donna. This was taken after the Broncos got soundly beaten by Indianapolis. Oh, well, we’re still in a tie for first place in our division. (Yeah, I’m an optimist.)

Next stop will be New Mexico. We won’t have internet during the Balloon Fiesta, so you’ll all have to be patient for the next installment.

Until then, Happy Trails!