Been There, Bought the T-Shirt

Rocky Mountain National Park

Adventure #2 After Cuchara/Bear Lake, we headed north to RMNP. This is the view from the top of Trail Ridge Road. ...And do you see the sign Paul is standing next to? 

Yes, my friends, he is standing at 12,005 feet above sea level. No wonder there are T-shirts in the gift shop that read, "Got Oxygen?" Oh my goodness. I had to breath aerobically and pause a lot but I too made it and so I bought a T-shirt that said, "I made it to top." 

LeeAnn got one too, exactly like mine, but she didn't earn it. About one-third of the way up this stack of stairs and asphalt walk, she just sat down. Paul, my RN husband, said she's not gonna make it! I thought if we took our time, she could, but when she sat down. I thought, Yeah, maybe not. So I walked her back down and Paul went on up to the picturesque position and some kind woman took his picture.

What she did get to see was this magnificent Elk. He was just lazying a few feet from the path/stairs we were struggling to climb. 

I couldn't help but think of my oldest son. He lives at 300 feet above sea level in Austin, TX. How hard would this trek have been on him? Of course, he's twenty-three years younger than me but still...

Ah, I digress. We stopped at most of the scenic overlooks and walked around, snapping pictures of the cute chipmunk, the unique birds, the amazing flora and the striations in the granite rock fascinated me so much I took pictures of it too. Downed trees created amazing artistic photos of which I cannot wait to frame. I'll be quiet now and just let you look at the pictures.

It was beautiful. We had never been here in Rocky Mountain National Park before, but we will definitely be back. Although it rained every day between two and four, it still was an unbelievable vacation. We all three had a wonderful time and at least two of us hated to leave. LeeAnn is always ready to go home. She likes her own routine and doesn't have "need" of a vacation like we do. However, she really enjoyed this trip. We stopped in Littleton, CO to see a dear friend on our way up there. (Hi Pam!)  

Monday, we left the park to go see our Aunt and Uncle in Wheatridge, CO (Hey, Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Fred, thanks for lunch!) and on our way home, we stopped to see our cousins in Boulder, CO (Howdy, Bryan, Anne, Carolyn, thanks for the coffee and cantaloupe.)

I have to admit, home looked good when we pulled in at ten-thirty that night, and our bed welcomed us with open arms! I love our memory foam mattress! Our cat was thrilled to see us and promptly and properly chewed us out, although she wasn't alone, exactly. Our son had held down the fort nicely while we were gone. I praised him for keeping the kitchen clean. 

I'm not sure where our next adventure will be, but we have taken a map of the USA and put green map pins on the places we want to go, and two red pins on the places we have been (that is--where we have been together, in this White Water Retro Trailer). It's all a simple matter of time and money. Oh well.  We've got time between Paul's off days and vacation days, we'll be heading out again, and I'll be writing about our...

Blind and Deaf Adventures with LeeAnn

You can count on it.