On our first full day in the Denver area we moved the trailer to Clear Creek RV Park in Golden. It is a tiny city owned park and we were packed in like sardines, but it is located right on Clear Creek Whitewater Park a short walk from downtown. This is not the kind of water park people from DFW would think of, it is a creek where you can tube or kayak the fairly tame rapids. The creek is surrounded by paved pathways, a typical playground and picnic area; some sports fields, a historical area with a log cabin and even a chicken coop. We were only ten minutes walk from downtown Golden, a very cute little town. Coors has a brewery there, but we had done the tour when Bill lived in Denver a few years ago, so we didn't revisit it.

We were so glad to be home after all the traveling and making the rounds of family, we spent a couple of days just being lazy and catching up on movies. On my birthday we spent the day doing everything I wanted to do. We went to Kohl’s to spend my $10 birthday reward. My goal was to get $100 worth of clothes and only spend $10 cash. I left the store with $126 worth and only paid $15, so we did pretty well. Then we went to see Southpaw (it was excellent), then to Chipotle for dinner. It was nice and simple, a good day.

Taste of Colorado was happening, so we went downtown to see Morris Day and The Time perform, only to discover that once again I didn’t know what day it was so we were there on Joan Jett day. Oh well, I like her too. We parked in a lot and walked about ½ mile to get to the event, only to have the rent a cop at the gates tell us we could not enter with my selfie pole "weapon". After walking our weapon back to the truck, we were allowed in with barely a glance in our backpack. The place was extremely crowded. It felt like the state fair on Texas / OU day. I stood in line for 10 minutes to buy the tickets needed to buy beer and then I had to stand in line for another 15 minutes to buy the actual beer. When I finally got to the front of the line, they were out of everything except regular Coors and this was early in the evening. I’m sure there must have been some food worthy of calling this event “Taste of Colorado”, but we didn’t have any. After listening to Joan Jett for a while (the crowd was so big we couldn’t see her from where we sat) we called it a night.

We hiked North Table Mountain, really a mesa, and Alderfer Three Sisters Park, and spent a day riding the motorcycles up into the mountains and into Boulder, where we went to The Farm, a recreational Marijuana dispensary. I might have sampled once or twice in my youth J and since it is now legal I decided to try it again. It was really crowded inside, so we registered and got on the wait list for our turn. As we waited, we perused the menu of the 20 or so different strains of Marijuana they had that day and looked at all the designer glass pipes they had for sale. I finally asked a gray haired lady behind the counter for some advice on smoking paraphernalia. I felt really stupid, so just confessed to being a “pot virgin”. I had to ask questions like “do people still roll joints? Or do they use pipes?” and “how many joints do you get out of ¼ ounce?”. It was embarrassing, but she was really nice and made some suggestions for us. When it was our turn to go into the room where you actually make your selections, we were called by our “pot-ista”, the escort/salesman. We eventually settled on a package deal where we got 1/8 of an ounce of Light of Jah, a glass pipe, a Farm hoodie for Bill, all in a Farm cloth bag, for $75. Not a bad price considering the pot was almost $20 a gram, and 1/8 of an ounce is 3.4 grams. I must confess it was not as fun as I remembered. The bad taste it leaves in your mouth, the cottonmouth, and just feeling weird. I did sleep pretty well, but I won’t buy more, and we may have to throw some out when we leave Colorado.

We extended our stay when Alex, Ashlee and Hunter agreed to come visit us for a few days. We had to change RV parks again, but stayed in Golden. Alex drove straight through from Dallas, 800 miles, by himself with 22-month-old Hunter in a car seat in the back. I couldn’t believe this wouldn’t be a torturous drive, and asked half a dozen times if he wanted to fly instead, but he wanted to drive. Hunter is generally sweet as he can be, but still, 12 hours in a car seat…what almost 2 year old wouldn’t raise hell? Apparently Hunter was perfect on the trip. Amazing!! Ashlee, who is 6 months pregnant, flew to Denver after working a 24-hour shift. We picked her up and went straight to Famous Dave’s BBQ, a favorite from the days when Bill lived here. It was great having them come stay with us. They were our first visitors, and the garage turned bedroom worked really well. Alex and Ashlee slept on the queen size bed that drops down about half way from the ceiling (Ash was a little nervous about climbing up and down), and Hunter slept in a blowup bed under them. He is so good about going to bed, just read him a book and say nite-nite, and he never makes a peep. Same for naps, what a sweetie. By the third morning he was even sleeping till 9.

We took them to Golden, where Hunter loved all the bronze statues along Clear Creek and the especially the chickens that we fed. We went to Boulder and walked around the downtown pedestrian only area, and one day Ashlee, Hunter and I drove up to Estes Park in the truck while Bill and Alex took the long route through the mountains on the motorcycles. We had a picnic and walked along a trail to a creek where Hunter had fun throwing rocks into the water. During Hunter’s mid day naps we played games, and just had a really nice time. Ashlee flew home in time to make her next shift, and Alex and Hunter drove home the next day (he was a perfect angel again). It was great having them, and we would welcome more guests…just let us know if you are interested. The Albuquerque Balloon Festival is on our agenda, October 8th – 12th.

Colorado is really wonderful. Mountains in every direction, so many outdoor activities. The weather has been perfect, sunny everyday. More of beautiful Colorado to come...Colorado Springs is our next stop. Two weeks in one spot sounds good to me!!