We went to visit Teresa and Tom in Salida, Co. Teresa is our good friend, Larry Sleeth's, sister. We have known her for years but haven't seen her for a long time. Salida is 92 miles from where we were parked. Had to go over Monarch Pass. It has an 11,500' elevation. We crossed the Continental Divide at the top. Even tho we saw a lot of Rv's on the road, we were so glad it wasn't us. The road is VERY steep and curvy. We got there around 10:30 am and she took us on a tour of her town. Great, little, quaint town. LOTS of bicycles. Bought a few things at an antique store and went to lunch. I'm not a beer drinker, but Teresa ordered a local raspberry beer so I decided to try it. I will have to say, it was quite tasty. It looked like red wine.
We stayed overnight and went to Aspen the next day. I wanted to go to the Colorado Rockies that you always hear about. Teresa even drove, which is a real treat for Denny. He usually drives so he can't do as much sightseeing as me. We went up Independence Pass. It was also very steep and twisty. In fact, they close this in the winter. To go to Aspen in the winter, you have to go a long way out of your way. Again, we crossed the Continental Divide at the top, 12,000'. You go down 2000' to get to Aspen. The closer you get to Aspen, the more Aspen trees you see.
Aspens as far as you can see
Lucky we brought sweaters. It was cold and windy
We took a gondola . It took 20 minutes to get to the top. Even during the ski season, it cost $25 each time you go up. No day or season passes for the gondola. Would be a tad expensive. They were getting ready for 2 weddings later in the day. Can't imagine the logistics to having a wedding up there. And everyone would have to pay $25 to get there. The views were spectacular. There was disc golfing tournament going on. That is what they called throwing frisbees into a net. They went all over the mountain.
After we got back town, we decided to walk around town. Ran into their Sat. market. It was fun to see locals selling all their wares. I bought 3 bottles of wine from a winery in the next town. Also a necklace and earrings from an artist 2 towns away. It was a fun time. Went back to Teresa's and stayed the night again. It was too late to travel over that pass after dark. We left the next morning. We really had a good time. Teresa and Tom made us feel very welcome.
There's that good looking couple again
Isn't this a spectacular view for the wedding
Disc golfing-looks like fun
It's a long way down
This is an overview of the Aspen ski runs
Even tho I had looked around twice before we left, I forgot 3 things. At first, I thought no big deal. I'd have her mail them home and get them when we got back. Then I realized my camera battery was in the camera bag. It is not the type of battery that you can buy anywhere. I found it online. We were going to go back and then decided to pay her to mail it to us overnight. Looking at 108 miles, at 9 miles per gallon, that looked like the best way to go. Because they wanted to see our Rv, they made the trip and back in one afternoon. That's a lot of driving. it takes 1 1/2 hours each way and they stayed 2 hours. Unfortunately, it was raining all the way. It was good to see them one more time.
No comments:
Post a Comment