Beautiful Day

[Yesterday’s run: 3.25 miles]

I was lying in my bed in the hotel here in Loveland, Co yesterday morning.  I was fooling around on my cell phone,  reading Facebook and Reddit.  It occurred to me that I’d be doing that kind of trash in Mississippi.  This is my non-running-related vacation time, this weekend and next weekend.

So I got myself up and out of the motel by about 5:30 on the road up  the Big Thompson Canyon.  It’s been almost 10 years since I used to commute up and down the canyon every day.  And there has been a major flood since then, so things have changed a bit.  But the traffic was light and I zoomed up the canyon.

I briefly stopped at the EP Mc Donalds for some breakfast and continued on.  The Fall River entrance booths of RMNP were vacant, so I went on in to the park.  I drove up Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor’s Center.  The place doesn’t open until 9 AM and I got there about 7:30.  Having forgotten my jacket at home(the temp was around 40F), I put on a few layers of t-shirts and dress shirts.

I watched a herd of elk arrive into the little meadow below the visitor’s center and move across.  Other people started to arrive.  I saw elk, mule deer, marmot, sparrows, humming birds and lots of flowers.  There was still a large snow bank below the cornice of the peaks near the visitor’s center. The clouds were low and brushing Mt. Chapin, obscuring the higher points.

I kept trying to get enough cell service so that I could send a text message.  I was wanting someone to capture my picture on the Alpine Visitor’s Center  web cam.  But it was not to be, nothing went through.

It was a calming experience to just watch the clouds and the elk and the people coming and going.

At 10 AM I hopped in the car and headed down Trail Ridge Road.  The traffic by that time was a steady stream.

I made it down to Estes Park and stopped at a little garage sale.  Then I visited some old friends who moved into EP about the same time we moved away.  They are doing well.  They had built a beautiful big mountain house which they are now looking to sell and downsize.  They fed me a piece of warm-out-of-the-oven cherry pie with some ice cream on it.  yum!

Then I drove back down to Loveland.  I met with the #1 daughter and we went shopping in the afternoon and had dinner at Smash Burger (a chain, I believe, but one I had never experienced… pretty good!)

After that I returned to the motel and went for a jog near Boyd Lake in Loveland.

Today the daughter and I plan to go back up the canyon and do the hike to Gem Lake.

Later this week I will cap off my work/vacation trip by visiting with my parents in Des Moines and spend a day at the Iowa State Fair.  Stay tuned!