Colorado - days 5, 6 & 7

Made it to Denver despite 50+mph winds between Laramie and here.  The RV sure did some swaying and Deane had to hold on hard to keep her straight.  We were just ahead of a cold front coming from Canada and bringing snow. 

Camping at St. Vrains State Park just north of Denver.  Great state park, it has 4 little lakes, and all  camp sites set up so everyone is parked parallel to one.  All of the lakes are stocked with fish; too bad we won't be able to take advantage of them.  When we arrived on Wednesday, it was 80 degrees and it felt like 90+.  Being so high up makes the sun more intense.  It is actually easier to be out in the sun at 100 in Phoenix, than 80 here.

View from our campsite

You will never believe what we encountered when we were setting up..... our big slide would NOT go out again.  This was the same problem we had last year and we had a new slide motor installed  last spring.  So, inside the RV Deane went and manually moved it a couple of inches and the motor caught and out it went!  Ughhhhhh...  Hope this does not happen each time we stop. 

Waking Thursday morning, the temps had dropped 35 degrees and the brunt of the Canadian  cold temperatures should hit tonight.  I had to dig out my only turtle neck and sweater.  OH my.... looking at the temps in Arizona and wondering if we are going in the right direction.

Mark and Nao picked us up and played tour guide once again.  Went into Longmont, cute little small town where we had a great Mexican lunch at Deli Cioso  This is one Mexican restaurant that I can truly say offered authentic Mexican food.  Always thought best Mexican food was in California.... who knew about Colorado.

After lunch was a trip to the Cheese Factory where one could find any type of cheese your heart desired.  Their cheeses were in a part of the store that was refrigerated, and the store had a selection of heavy jackets one could put on and wear while you shopped.  Of course we could not get out of there without purchasing some cheeses we had never heard of.  Will be fun trying them as we travel.   Not only did they have a big selection of cheeses, there were salami's, olives and a great gift store.  After the cheese factory it was onto a little bakery Nao and I noticed it as we were touring the town, La Momo Maes.     They make the best peanut brittle!!!



Thursday evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset over the Rockie Mountains as seen from our camp site.

Friday we spent time at the National Center for Atmospheric Research located in Bolder Colorado.  A non profit organization that works with NOAA, NASA, Universities  and many others around the country in studying weather and atmospheric conditions.  Part of their research studies history of storms, hurricanes, tornado's and our shrinking glacial ice and tries to predict the future.  Most impressive place.  Part of the tour was to the basement where we saw two super computers, one a Cray and the other an IBM.  The computers are 4 years old and supposedly 'outdated'.  Their new computers will be placed in Cheyenne Wyoming, because there is no way to remodel their current space to accommodate the additional electrical power they would need to power them.

We also found time to visit two winery's before meeting Mark and Nao for dinner.  Was delighted to find some extremely nice wine.  Spoiled from Oregon vineyards, we were surprised to taste some very compelling wine at Boulder Creek Winery  (www.bouldercreekwine.com).  They had a great white Merlot that was surprisingly crisp, nice fruit tones and lightly sweet.  Would be wonderful in the summer.

Few miles down the road we stopped at Redstone Meadery (www.redstonemeadery.com).  Has been a long time since I had tasted Mead and Deane had never tasted it.  Again, were pleasantly surprised.  Took the tour and discovered how they make mead from honey and water.  Honey that comes from lots of sources, like orange blossoms and clover.  Deane likes sweet wines so he found a number of them that he liked.  Redstone has a nice selection of fruit infused mead and one for this winter with a Vanilla and cinnamon flavor.

Had a wonderful dinner with Marc and Nao our last night here.  Will miss them!

Onto Hays Kansas tomorrow.