We've also added some more pics to our photo album.
We arrived in Denver Colorado after a short freeway road day from Cheyenne. We stayed in Denver from Monday, when we arrived, through Thursday. So 4 days of the week were basically staying put in Denver.
That said, Monday afternoon was a bit of an orientation day, did some shopping in the fancy schmancy Cherry Creek shopping district. Very nice indeed. Tuesday we tried out the light rail rapid transit system and went downtown. Spent time wandering around downtown and a couple of hours at the Denver Art Museum. What a fabulous place. Their western art exhibits, not to mention everything else we looked at there, are just terrific. This was one of our favorites.
Wednesday we did a day trip out to Boulder. Spent the afternoon wandering around the historic downtown (Pearl Pedestrian Mall) and had a great lunch at the old Boulderado Hotel. What a sweet city to wander around it. Walking down Pearl Mall on a lovely afternoon, Kris asked if this was better than sitting in a meeting discussing data model designs?.. DUH...Later in the day we returned to Denver via Golden. Too bad the Coors brewery tours were closed but that's life.
On Thursday we took in the first Major League baseball game of our trip. The Mets beat up on the home town Rockies by a score of 5-0. We sat in the right field bleachers but no home runs came our way. We did see Jason Bay (Canadian) play but his only hit came while we were still finding our seats, after visiting the gift shop, in the top of the first inning. Note to selves... get there a little earlier next time :-).
Friday we departed Denver and headed south into New Mexico where we stayed a night in the old town of Raton New Mexico. Not much to see there, but had a decent stay at the KOA. During the drive south of Denver we stopped in the old town of Trinidad, Colorado. What a gem of an old town. The old architecture on the main street appears to have been maintained very well. From what we could see, this town was a significant place in the lives of Kit Carson and Bat Masterson (famous wild west folks). Further wiki research reveals that Trinidad is also known as the sex change capital of America... hmmm, that aside, this is a must see place. If the weather had been better we would have lingered much longer but decided to keep moving south.
Leaving Raton, in the morning, to go east across the north eastern part of New Mexico, the clouds were very low. Visibility was poor, not that this was an issue. There is nothing to see. When the clouds did lift, there was just a whack more of nothing to see. A vast empty landscape. After a while you start to long for the majestic beauty of a plastic bag flapping in the wind as it tries desperately to escape the grasp of a barbed wire fence. After we crossed into Texas, the amount of irrigation increased and the scenery changed for the better.
We stopped at a roadside historic marker for the oldest cemetery in Potter County. Reading the list of people buried there and how they died makes you realize what a hard country this must have been for the settlers. A mother buried soon after the birth of a child ; six months later the child is buried; a rancher found dead in the paddock with a bridle in his hand, another died after being trapped in quicksand; all young lives ended in a rocky land.
Amarillo is not exactly a rocking place - but it has its charms. The local sights include the Cadillac Ranch which consists of a whole whack of Caddies planted nose down in a row in a field. As we were driving out there Brian said "I wonder how we will know when we get there" . Basically you don't need detailed instructions, just drive until you see cars sticking out of the field.
Another local site (we did not partake) is the Big Texan Steak Ranch. Their claim to fame is a 72oz steak; if you can eat it and all the trimings in under an hour, it is free. Apparently over the past 5 years 35,000 people have tried, 5,000 or so have succeeded. No reported number on casualties. We also discovered a large sign on a hill side (and I mean HUGE) that just says 'ACTUAL SIZE'. Not sure what that is about; but it seemed pretty much to scale. They say everything in Texas is bigger!
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