Monday, Oct. 7 - You will note that there is already a posting for this date, but no content. That's because after writing a lengthy and brilliant piece, I lost it somehow. So I have to try vainly to repeat the earlier effort.

We left home two months ago today, and are starting to feel the time has come to head home. We've done most of the things we planned for, and know you can never do everything. But it's been a grand tour, so no regrets. We are now in a little burg called Burlington, still in Colorado, where we managed to find the last site in a tiny little r.v. park that offers nothing but hydro, water and wifi. What more do we need?

But what contrast. We're back out on flat prairie land, somewhat rolling, but mostly flat like our southern prairies. Compare that to where we were on the week-end. We left Granby on Saturday morning, headed into Rocky Mountain National Park, and had one heckuva ride. One of the early stops along the way saw us facing no less than 7 peaks of over 12,000 feet. Amazing. And then guess what!? We climbed and climbed, the air getting cooler with each twist of the road, the wind gaining in intensity. We did stop at one of the lower points to do a nice walk to the area near the origin of the mighty Colorado. A mere stream at this point. But a nice walk.

But on and on up we went after our walk, hitting a high point of 12,183 feet. The air is thin up there, as my gasping clearly told. I had trouble with the altitude for the three days we were at 8,000 feet or higher, finding it hard to sleep, waking up and pulling hard to get more air into the old lungs. A little light-headedness, and headaches were also part of it.  But the views were spectacular, so the drive over the top is well worth it. Gail seemed to be fine with the heights, by the way, tough little person that she is. We descended to our campground in Estes Park, just outside the east gate,  where we were met at the entrance by a wayward and very large bull elk. He wandered around for awhile and finally made his way out of the r.v. park, not paying much attention to the passersby.

Despite the fatigue I was feeling from the altitude, we decided on a nice walk for yesterday, a 2.3 mile walk up to Cub Lake. It wound nicely on a rough trail through several meadow areas, into woodlands of evergreens and aspens, and finally up a vertical climb of 500 feet. That left us both puffing. But it was worth it, as we came upon lovely little Cub Lake, complete with a large male elk on the opposite shore. He was contentedly munching on the fine greenery that encloses the lake, building up strength for what might await him with his harem later in the day. This is elk rutting season, by the way, which has become a major tourist attraction.

After enjoying some time in the warmth of the sun, we headed back down, discovering on the way a herd of elk, about 15 in number, all females except for the boss, who was watching over them very intently. While we were within range, we saw two of the females get into a dispute, rising on their hind legs to paw at each other. Seemed to settle things, for they were quiet afterwards. The herd moved over towards the road, so by the time we got back to our r.v., they were right at the road, attracting a large crowd of onlookers.

But nothing like the herd that we came across in Estes Park. Right behind the Information Center, where we were going to get ideas about best routes to Golden, was a harem of 25 females, standing in and around the river that flows past the center. And above them, on the street across from us, was the King, overseeing his ladies. He was clearly in a position of power, and occasionally made his presence well noted with a very loud bugling. If any of the females showed signs of wandering, they were quickly ushered back to where he wanted them.

After awhile the King went down to the river, rousted a few of the females with little nudges, and than had a bit of a bath, dipping his huge rack of antlers in the river, shaking his head vigorously, stamping his feet, all of which was probably sending signals to the girls. After he was satisfied with his bath, he headed 5 of the ladies off down the street away from downtown, with who knows what in mind. Can you guess? A very interesting experience, with lots of spectators, so many that there were auxiliary police on hand to make sure no-one got too close to the action. The bugling by the big guy was especially intriguing.

Estes Park is a model mountain town, full of shops, restaurants, coffee places and souvenir stores. Gail wanted to do some shopping, so I limped along, no doubt inhibiting her without intending to do so, although she managed a couple of purchases. Then it was off to Golden, following a route that involved 4 different highways. Up and down, down and up, all the way along the route, with quite a few people out enjoying the golden colors of the aspen. One traffic sign acknowledged this practice by warning "enjoy the colours safely".

We finally reached a town called Blackhawk, which we hit just as darkness fell. This town, and its neighbour , Central City, are home to two huge casino centers. There are 10 of them, all high end, tall hotel buildings, fancy frontage, in Blackhawk alone. In fact, that's all there is there, along with an entertainment  center. They call this little town "the richest square mile of real estate in the world". A little hyperbolic perhaps, but maybe true.

This town is enclosed at the high end of  a deep canyon, which we had to negotiate to reach our destination,  making it a pitch black twisting and turning drive for our poor old tired r.v. as we went down, down, down, wondering if we'd ever get to the bottom, cars racing up in the other direction in hordes, carrying eager riders to the casinos, even on a Sunday night. But eventually we entered Golden, and thanks to our unpredictable Lucy (g p s girl), we managed to find our r.v. park in the dark, and were happy to get set up and call it a day.

Today we drove into Denver, and finally managed to find a street where we could park the rig. Our spot was only a few blocks from the State Capital, which we wanted to tour as our only tourist thing in this big city. So we did it, enjoying our self-guided tour considerably. Interesting to note that Colorado has more female elected reps than all the other states except Nevada. Also interesting to note that the official altitude marker is placed on the south steps, denoting 5,280 feet, confirming the city's claim as the Mile High City. The marker has been moved twice, from the 15th step to the 18th step to the 13th step as more refined measurements were taken to confirm that actual altitude spot.

And so we head east, not sure how long it will take to get home. Sorry for the length of this posting, but it was a pretty nice week-end we had. We'll post as we move homeward. That's all for now. Stay tuned. Pictures to follow in a separate posting. More later.