So, we left in the afternoon, running a couple errands before really getting on the road. I needed a new battery for my film camera so the light meter would function properly and I grabbed some film while I was at it. My brother made a run to Old Navy for some khakis since his new job starts tomorrow afternoon. After getting gas and unfortunately purchasing two hot dogs for the road (I know they're bad... lips and assholes... and convenient store hot dogs are even worse, but I hadn't eaten at that point). As soon as I set the cash down for these two sticks of artificial flavoring, I felt the regret set in. Too late. Moving on.
We decided to take the back way which meant considerably more time, but it also meant a drive through the mountains, which I felt I hadn't properly done in my time here yet. The drive was so beautiful. Again and again, I found myself wanting to stop to get out and look. And we did quite a bit. I kept telling myself I didn't want to miss taking a picture of something great in case the beautiful scenery suddenly stopped. It didn't.
We drove through what I would say was all of Roosevelt National Forest. There was such a variety of things to see. For some reason, I didn't think I would encounter a cactus this early in my trip.
One of our longest stops was one of the first. I pulled off on the side of the road into what looked like a small gravel parking lot. Luckily, I slammed on the brakes just in time before bottoming out when the "parking lot" suddenly dropped almost a foot into what can only be described as a long and wide series of serious potholes. After parking, I grabbed cameras and we headed down to a stream that was gently sweeping past on the side of the highway. Jumping from rock to rock and hoping I didn't fall in, I took a little while to snap a few pictures - mostly with my film camera. I grabbed a few with the digital. This one kind of looks like a car ad... for a really crappy car. I took this one standing straight up in the pothole. Or not.
After this we headed further up into the mountains. The next stop was amazing. There was a small area to pull over on the side of the road for a "Scenic Overlook," although the overlook didn't offer as nice a view as just looking straight up the road. The wind was howling through at this point and it was a little tough to get the door open. Suddenly, snow was coming down around us. Not that it was actually snowing, but the winds were sweeping the snow down from the mountain peaks. Initially, we thought we were looking at Long's Peak, but it turned out to be Meeker's Point, a mountain not quite as high. My brother hit me with my first snowball of the season, although it was much more like a refrozen slab of ice than a snowball, if you want to get technical. The wind chill was probably about 20-25 degrees. I tried to act kind of tough while standing still for a photo, failing admirably. I immediately ran yelling back to the car. A proud display. I've never said I liked winter.
We drove on and headed up into Long's Peak. The road ended a couple thousand feet from the top at a ranger station... we maxed out at about 9,500 feet. My brother hiked to Chasm Lake earlier this year, which isn't quite the top of Long's Peak. He said it was great. I really wanted a good picture of the peak, but the sun and snow clouds weren't cooperating. We headed back down to the main road and pulled over at one point again so I could take as good a picture as possible.
Approaching Estes Park was hard to describe. As we wound through the mountains, they suddenly opened up to this valley below. While trying to take some pictures, I felt like I was going to get blown off the side and fall the thousand feet or so. This picture doesn't quite do it justice.
While down in Estes Park, we pulled over to look like tourists like all the other folks parked on the side of the road to admire some elk that seemed to be cruising through town. I had the chance to see a moose the other day and elk today. Cool.
My brother told me he heard that Estes Park was the site of the hotel used in "The Shining." After some bad "Shinning" jokes between us (yes, two n's - for those not on the in for this joke), we hit the visitors' center in town to inquire about this. Turns out, the informer was not the best source. It's not the hotel used in the frightening film Stanley Kubrick put together, but rather the made-for-TV version starring the dude from "Wings." Well, crap. And I had already planned out a picture of me standing in front of it doing my best "Tony" impression, making the "Redrum" finger. Oh well. Here's a picture of it anyway.
For an added bonus, here's a picture of the guy in the field behind us (across the street from the hotel) who, the entire time I was trying to change film and take pictures, was screaming at his girlfriend on the phone. After snapping a couple hotel pictures, my brother and I just stood and watched for a moment, like viewing some performance art piece, as this guy carried on and on. I don't know exactly what the seemingly one-sided argument was about, but I got the gist. He was pretty loud.
We decided that after Estes Park, it was time to buckle down (well, time for me to buckle down) and really start moving on to Ft. Collins so we could meet family for dinner. We actually ended up getting there pretty early and after making some arrangements over the phone, everyone decided it would be best to meet early for dinner. We still ended up getting there too early (what can I say, I'm a quick driver) so we cruised around pointlessly (very pointlessly) before deciding to just go to the restaurant to wait. Darrell and Brodie showed up first and we all said hi. It was nice seeing my uncle again after all these years. And I hadn't even seen Brodie since he was five weeks old. He's 7 now. Way too long. Soon after this, Lori showed up with Nolan and her mother.
We were eating at Carrerra's (or something like that) and had a great time. Some funny family stories. I provided the required explanation/rationalization for this trip of mine and we talked for a little while about that. It was a lot of fun. Lori had some questions about her mp3 player and we got into a discussion about downloading music, so my brother and I were invited back to their house so I could help her out with this. They have a nice house and some massive great danes. I guess Eric played some video games with the kids while I set up Lori's mp3 player and showed her some great ways to download music. (Totally legal ways, of course. I don't now, nor have I ever known, any other way to download music. That would be wrong. Plus, my uncle is a cop. So, whatever I did in that house was okay. Okay?)
We grabbed a few pictures before leaving and they sent us out the door with some pop to keep us awake on the the trek home (yeah, it's called pop... I don't actually have to still be in the Midwest to talk like I'm there).
They invited me to go to downtown tomorrow to see a museum since they'll be in the neighborhood, and I'll probably be doing that. Then it's really one of the last nights I'll be able to hang out with my brother before I get moving on to the next destination: Seattle. Since it's one of the last nights here, there's something very important I need to do while still in Denver. We'll be doing that tomorrow. What is it? I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone reading.
Have a great night.
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