We cruised the Black Canyon. It has a lot of train history. The 3/4 trek I made over trails was actually over the old train track area. When they built the dam, they tore out and recycled all remaining portions of the old train tracks and bridges. The name of the canyon is because there are parts of the walls that only receive about 33 minutes of daylight each day. That's not very much. It is really weird. It is about 8 degrees warmer at the bottom of the canyon than it is at the top. The water was about 72 degrees when we were there. I do know that Gunnison is one of the coldest parts of Colorado during the winter. Brrrrr.
We were about half way through our tour when Angela spotted a black bear. She alerted the entire boat (as we were told to do), and everyone ran to our side of the boat. I am surprised it didn't flip, but actually, unless I had seen everyone on our side of the boat, I wouldn't have known. Of course, they stopped the boat so everyone could get pictures. We were told that we were the first tour group to see a bear this year. Yeah team Angie. Here are some pictures...
They knew it would scare me to see them. Here are the two little mountain goats.
The next day they went hiking and I stayed and cleaned up the RV a little. That evening, we headed back to Crested Butte. We attended the tail end of the street art festival and ate and one of the top rated pizza places, The Secret Stash. It was terrible. Morgan's pizza was greasy, the drinks were expensive, and my custom made pizza Margarita was nasty. We left, and ended up eating Mexican at Dorita's. I'm honestly not sure about the name, but we eat there every time we go. Good, dependable food.
Angie, Eric and Morgan headed out Tuesday, and Chloe and I headed for Evergreen, which is a little community outside the Denver area. We actually went to Connifer, but no one ever heard of it, and it butts up against Evergreen. My niece's ex and her children live there. They had just moved from Evergreen onto 47 acres with a small house. His new wife's twin sister and her hubby and 2 boys were there. The company was staying in a travel trailer, and it worked out really well with me and my RV. We did have a little trouble getting up the mile long mountain road, but hey, I'm a good driver. We played Pass the Ace (Sheila's card game) for pistachio nuts. It was a riot. They were doing the rodeo circuit, and had all their saddles and horse gear packed up in their truck, but Chloe did get to ride a horse. My great niece, Taylor, led her around the area. Both girls had a great time together, even if Taylor is 3 years younger than Chloe.
This was in the back yard, and I took the picture thru their living room window.
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The next day, Chloe and I headed out for Canon City to visit my step-father, Frank. He has a big house in Cushing, OK, and a smaller house in Colorado. It was a really good visit.
Thursday night, we ate dinner at the local golf course, Shadow Hills. Their nightly special was Italian food, which each of us wanted to try. I got some of the best lasagna I have ever eaten. Chloe got alfredo, and Frank got spaghetti, and they also raved about their pasta. The house salad and bread were also good, as well as the wine. We ate on the patio, and the view was to die for. Only thing wrong, it made Frank and I want to go out and play a round of golf.
We ate every meal out, and Frank picked up all the bills. He also took Chloe shopping. That is where she bought her new black sweater (see picture above of the three of us) thingy. It was a shop where the lady designs the outfits, and makes them locally. She also carries hand made locally made jewelry and accessories. Chloe had a ball looking at all the clothes, but most of it was out of her price range. She picked out the sweater before she knew that Frank was paying for it, so he got off cheap. She also bought 2 pair of earrings and one necklace. That girl LOVES jewelry.
We went shopping again the next day. Frank took us to the Colon Orchard, where he bought us some peaches to take home to Morgan and family. Chloe got some hot sauce mix, though why I don't know. She make the best home made salsa already. I asked her why she wanted a mix when she makes it from scratch so quickly. Her explanation was, it might be the best ever in the world. She had to find out. KIDS!
We also went shopping for Frank some walking poles. I always carry some in the RV. Get this, I also carry one crutch in case someone hurts their foot. Yup, I have several pairs, but I only carry one. I figure if it requires two crutches, something is broken and they will probably fly home. Anyway, it took us several stores, but we found exactly what we were looking for. They were also on sale. I decided they were such a great deal that I bought another set. I went ahead and bought Frank's set while I was paying for mine. We are both happy campers. We ate our last evening meal at a Mexican Restaurant.... Toreros. The food was pretty good, and the Margarita was excellent.
As we left the restaurant, there was another beautiful sunset for us to view.
We headed out the next morning. Frank went with us as far as Penrose, where we wanted to eat. That is the last Coyote Den restaurant. The one in Canon City went out of business. They make a butter rum muffin that is to die for. Everything else is delicious also. I got quiche, and one muffin which the 3 of us split. If you're ever that direction, go. It is sort of a biker paradise, but really cool. It is along side the road, and sort of in the middle of a garden/orchard.
We drove into the city (it is about 2 blocks long), and I couldn't find a parking space. It was crowded. The whole city won't hold more than maybe 40 cars. I found a back way into the Cachara Inn and offered to pay them to park there while we ate. They refused to take any money, and told me to enjoy my dinner at....
the DOG BAR AND GRILL
It is the only restaurant in town. Hell, the town consists of a small grocery store, a breakfast place, the Inn, a miniature golf complex, a realty office, maybe 2 souvenir stores, and I think that's about it. People come from miles around just to eat at the Dog Bar and Grill. They could go to LaVeta (about 10 miles away) but it doesn't have the ambiance. Of course, we loved our dinner. We ate on the outdoor deck. There are no mosquitoes for some reason. But, there were noisy magpie birds. They are so entertaining, just loud.
Her burger and fries (notice there is always salsa) and my salmon salad which was to die for.
Here is our sunset view - looking east.
The next morning, we headed out for home. Our first stop was in Raton, for gas. By the way, gas averaged about $3.50 per gallon in Colorado. When we left Texas, it was about $3.30 a gallon, and about $3.21 when we got home. It cost a ton of money to buy gas for the RV on this trip. Anyway, Chloe used Gas Buddy (iphone app) and found some gas for $3.19 a gallon. It was 4 miles out of our way, but worth it in the long run. As we were getting ready to leave, I asked Chloe to check her side and make sure it was clear. She got really excited..... cause there was a bear crossing the street. She finally managed to get her iphone out and take a couple of pictures, but it happened so fast she didn't have time to zoom in. I cropped them, so they're not the clearest, but you get the jest of it.
The rest of our trip home was pretty uneventful. We stopped several times along the way, when I got really tired. I take a 15 minutes rest break, then drive again. I actually drove 630 miles in one day in the RV, in the mountains, thru boring west Texas, and then in the dark..... and the worst part was my average speed (not in the mountains) was about 65 MPH. I was so tired around 6pm that I made Chloe stop listening to her music with ear buds and play her music out loud. It definitely kept me awake. We got home about 1am Monday morning.
Here is is Friday evening, and I am exhausted. I spent Monday cleaning Chloe's things out of the RV, and getting things ready to clean it. Yesterday afternoon, I finally finished. It was cleaned completely, inside and out. Gary and I also worked on the bedroom door that broke, the bathroom door know that kept falling off, the false alarm on the black water holding tank (I think it was maybe a wild piece of toilet paper, but time will tell), and washing and drying clothes and all the bedding and linens from the RV. Today was my take it easy day. We ate brunch out (Gary, Chloe and me), cleaning around the house, then if I remember correctly, we just blew dinner off. I had some fruit.
I wanted to get caught up on the BLOG. I think tomorrow I'll take one more day off, cause I plan on having a busy NEXT week. OH WAIT! I almost forgot. Gary's flip phone broke. Battery died. Angie took it in, and they couldn't find a battery that would fit. So....... Gary is now using an iphone. Chloe has been spoon feeding him on the ins and outs of iphones. Of course, Gary hates it. He just wants a phone. She activated his facetime feature, and he tried to call me. It will always shoe the person making the call until the called party answers. He couldn't figure out why he was calling himself all the time. Boy, did he get pissed. Chloe also set his phone on vibrate and he thought he was going crazy cause it wouldn't ring. OMG.... it has been a real ordeal, for all of us. I called him this afternoon and he couldn't figure out how to answer it right away so he just texted "sorry" back to me then walked home to see what I wanted. I don't understand, but hey, he can use windows 8 and I can't stand to even try.
That's it for now. I do want to assure you that this was one of the longest vacations I've had in years. I think it seemed so long because I did all the driving by myself. Next year, Chloe will be 16, so maybe I can convince her to drive part of the time. So far, she swears she'll never drive the RV. Time will tell.
Later....
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