Bob went over and chatted with our nice Father and Son neighbors that had let us stay in their reserved spot. He offered our fire and told them we would soon be on our way. As Bob walked away, he yelled out, "Hey, for a camp stealer, you're not a bad guy!"
We stopped a few times as we drove down the mountains. The air was wonderful with the fresh scent of pine. It was Heaven!
We went through a burned out area and the lack of ground cover prompted warnings to watch for falling rocks and flash floods and ended with the command to climb to safety. You bet!
All of a sudden, our dash light came on again with a warning bong that our trailer brakes weren't connected. Bob checked and all seemed well, but the warning kept coming on. He decided we'd better stop in Fort Collins were he could get stuff to clean the connections and hopefully fix it. Fort Collins is a very nice college town but it was sad to be back in crowded traffic, flat land, and 84 degree temperatures.
Meanwhile, while Bob worked on the trailer, I happened to think Matt Goodrich and his wife, Anne lived in the area. He grew up with Chad and was his best man in his wedding. I texted Chad and he gave me Matt's number. We didn't want to intrude on such short notice, but Matt seemed happy to hear from us and gave us directions to his house. Much to my happiness, we headed back into the mountains on Highway 34 just south of Fort Collins. It was a fabulous drive along a boiling river with tall Rocky walls up each side.
We went as far as the four corner village called Drake to meet up with Matt. We left our trailer in a small dirt commuter lot at the base of the mountain. The dirt road up to his house was to steep for us to take the trailer up.
After a 15 minute winding very steep climb, we reached the top and came out in a small community of cabins on large rolling lots. It was so peaceful and beautiful with a lovely breeze and bird songs. Matt and Anne's house is rustic in style with lots of wood and fabulous views. We sat on his deck and relaxed in the air just catching up with lives.
It was grand. Matt had work to do, both he and Anne work out of their home, and we had to decide where we were going next. So after goodbyes, back down the mountain we went.
We had no real plan and we just weren't done with the Rockys yet. We looked at the map and saw that Estes Park was not that far. It was on the recommended list from the kids and we had always wanted to see it.
It was a great drive with more wondrous beauty and we checked in at the Estes Park KOA at the edge of town we were so impressed with our nice, end site under a pink with our picnic table on our own little deck.
Right away we met friendly people and everyone had suggestions for things to do. We decided to stay two nights and go into the Rocky Mountain National Park. We also were long over due to do laundry and we did not feel like hurrying for anything. There would be plenty of time to go home if we left Wednesday.
We texted with Matt to thank him and asked him for recommendations for restaurants as we felt like celebrating. We chose a delicious Mexican restaurant called Ed's Cantina right on the end of main street. It was a perfect find, and, as we sat enjoying our meal, elk came right down the street and crossed by our restaurant and went in to the park. We took turns running out to take pictures of the two cows and two calves and then there was the bull. It was so awesome and I was a happy girl!
When we got back to the trailer we got another text from Matt saying to check out the sunset.
It was so cool that we were looking at the same mountain. What a great end to a great day. We are thankful!
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