We left our apartment Saturday night after I got off of work. The night before I70 was shut down due to snow from Golden to the Eisenhower Tunnel. Jos and I kept an eye on the conditions all day prior to leaving and it seamed to be getting better as the day wore on. WE WERE WRONG!!! As soon as we hit Loveland, a snow storm erupted. It was white knuckle driving all the way to Vail. I’m not a big fan of wind, snow, pitch black, and mountain roads at the same time. Luckily after Vail it was dry and clear skies to Grand Junction.
The next morning came early! We drove the last 25 miles to Fruita, CO to be checked in by 7am. When my race started, the course was planned for 8 mi and 45 degrees at the start. Last minute changes made it 17.5 mi and it turned to 70 degrees during the race. I was not ready for that! The start was good and I was in 2nd place going into 4 mi……that’s when it happened. I broke my chain and watched everybody in my class pass me. After an half hour walking to find somebody to help, I was able to piece the chain together to finish the race. It was such a beautiful day! We stayed for a little while to watch the other classes race.
Being so close to Utah, we decided to hit the border for a photo op. We then took are time driving back the 230 or so miles back home. What a difference a day makes!
Another week of warm temperatures in Colorado made us want to do some more exploring. I had looked up interesting things to do in Colorado Springs, mentioned it to J, and we jumped in the car this morning to head south. Our first stop was the Garden of the Gods, which I am still unsure why they call it that. It is a national natural landmark with very interesting red rock structures with names like: kissing camels, balanced rock, and three graces.
We love the show on Food Network called Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives so we wanted to find one in Colorado Springs to eat lunch at. Al Rocker had actually done a special on the diner called King’s Chef Diner so we decided to try it out. J got something called a “grumpy” which was a heaping pile of hashbrowns, sausage, eggs, and cheese. He said he knew why they called it “grumpy” was because his stomach was grumpy all afternoon.
Our final stop for the day was a drive up Pikes Peak which is 14, 110. It ranks 31st out of Colorado’s 54 fourteeners. We hope to hike it one day but for a warm, clear day in February the drive was just fine. We even ran into the North Pole we were so high up. The road was not paved for a few miles, had plenty of s-curves, and made me have two hands on the wheel with white knuckles for the drive up. They don’t even have guardrails except on the sharp curves, crazy. From what I saw of it the drive up was gorgeous but I didn’t want to look away from the road long so I asked J to drive down the mountain so I could enjoy the views. The day was a perfect clear day so we could see for miles. The summit was actually over 30 degrees colder than the bottom and not to mention windy so we didn’t stay long.
We made it!!!! 22 hours of drive time from Nashville, TN to Broomfield, CO and we can now call Colorado home!!! We were blessed to have Joscelyn’s parents help us pack everything up and to have my dad fly in from Italy to go along for the drive and unloading. We were making good time considering I was driving a U Haul and pulling my car behind it until we hit the Colorado border. That is where we encountered snow, ice, and winds. While moving in, the wind gusts reached the 60’s as you can tell in the pictures, it was a struggle to keep standing up right. We ended up having to hire two guys to help us move in and they told us to call them “hippie and giant,” it was then you could tell that we were living right out side of Boulder. We mentioned not being able to breathe well because of the altitude and ” hippie” told us to literally go hug a tree because right beside the trunk is where all the oxygen comes out……I am not sure I believe that and you can bet we didn’t give it a try.
Three hours in the car and driving through miles of pasture we found ourselves in Lexington, Kentucky. One of Joscelyn’s bridesmaids, April and her husband Ed had just moved to Lexington to start work full time in the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. Winter in Nashville was becoming some what boring so we talked them into entertaining us for a weekend. We toured the University of Kentucky and horse farms but the most important thing of the weekend was that I got to play Guitar Hero while April and Joscelyn got to catch up on some much needed girl time. We found out how talented April is at scrapbooking as she had made us a scrapbook of our wedding..thanks April!! Well, til next time……..
