Kenneth's Retirement Trip to Colorado!

My plan was to post daily of our adventures in Colorado - the trip there, while there and the trip home.  As we all know, plans don't work out sometimes!  Now that it's so far behind us and our next trip will be here before we know it, I figured I'd better just get these pictures uploaded and be done with it.  They are not in order like I wanted them to be but here they are!  I'm just going to put captions and commentary by each and go with it. 

We headed out early morning June 30, 2016 for Colorado and made it home late evening July 9th.  We made a big circle north to Wichita, Kansas over to Denver, south to Colorado Springs, on to Amarillo, Texas and then home.  It was a long and wonderful trip but we were so happy to be home!  There were things about Colorado that I had no idea would affect me - of course, the altitude.  That made me lightheaded at times and made it hard to breathe at times.  The dry air!  Goodness, that really played havoc on my sinuses!  When used to 98% humidity, dry is not your friend.  And I expected to be walking which, by itself, is no problem.  But the hills...up and down hills!  It's no wonder Colorado is such a healthy state - everything is physical!  Kenneth enjoyed his retirement "partying" in the wonderful, green state of Colorado and now that it's out of his system, we're ready to move on!

 

We rented a beautiful condo right by Coors Field in LoDo (lower downtown) Denver 

Made it to the condo in Denver, he's relaxing and finally doing what he wanted!

Lisa got him a "graduation" necklace - graduated from working!!

This is where we had dinner in Wichita - first time at a Spangles and it was pretty good! Loved the décor..

Street scene in Evergreen, Colorado

Beginning to see mountains!!  I loved our views everywhere we went!

Yep. These are way out of order - on the way home...

We encountered a few storms while driving.  Otherwise, we had beautiful weather the whole trip.

I tried to get state signs when we saw them!

The gate headed into Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas



The cars look so tiny!!

There really wasn't a lot to see at Cadillac Ranch, but it's still a really cool place to see.  There were paint cans laying everywhere and people would just pick them up and make their mark.  It's obvious that someone tends the place - I guess the landowner - because there were minimal cans and they all had paint so I'm assuming they come and pick up the empties and haul them off.  I was surprised at the number of people there - dozens coming and going.  Guess they were like us - had to mark it off the bucket list!  Happy we stopped...:)

This was down the road from Cadillac Ranch

For all the giant, power-generating windmills that I love, this old windmill was actually my favorite...

Next time, Amarillo...Kenneth didn't have time for his 72 oz. steak at the Big Texan Steak Ranch!

Due to the Cog Railway train having mechanical problems Thursday when we were scheduled to ride it, our ride was pushed to Friday morning which put us in Amarillo about four hours later than we planned so Kenneth didn't get his steak.  Oh well, just a good reason to go back to Amarillo one day and see the sights we missed this trip - no worries!

The flag looked so pretty I just had to take this pic!

Another storm we encountered on the road - this one is in Texas.

It was the worst one we got into - I would've pulled over, but not Kenneth...



This is Caddo Lake Dam - we went to check it out when we got home!  Isn't our lake pretty?

Headed out of Louisiana at the start of our trip!  We had just stopped for breakfast at the grocery store in Vivian, LA

You can tell we're in Kansas - the windmills that fascinate me...

We found this mall behind Spangles and went walking after dinner. It was good to walk after all the riding.

And we went to see a movie in the mall - it felt good to sit after all the walking!!

Lunch stop in Kanas, I believe - Buffalo Bill's Bar & Grill



Colorado has them, too!!

Colorado storm...

Following are some pictures of the two bedroom, two bath condo we rented.  It had everything!  Basically an apartment and fully stocked with soaps, some food and even had a washer and dryer.

Lisa getting the graduate his necklace!

Pam picked Curt and Lisa up at the airport Saturday, July 2 and spent the day with us.

The View House-Spent a few hours here drinking, playing corn hole, laughing and visiting!

Here's me and "Stevie Wonder"...don't know why he has to throw his head back in every picture!

One of the many "Bar Cars" rolling around. Drinking/Sightseeing tours and they were having a blast!

Waiting to cross

If someone stole this bike, it wouldn't be a comfortable ride...or they'd just have to stand and ride!

Had lunch here Saturday - Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot...aka WTF

Denver skyline from our balcony



Sunday, July 3rd, we rode around sightseeing.  We stopped for lunch at this cool little local Mexican restaurant, El Fogon (which means stove).  I think we were the only white people in there so you KNOW the food was authentic and good!  Great stop!

 

This wasn't a typical margarita and it was SO good!

If there is a store selling fishing baits within 50 miles of where we are, Kenneth will find it!

Town of Evergreen

Curt and Lisa treated us to a wonderful dinner at the Denver Chophouse.

Next door to the Chophouse - thought about going in but headed back to the condo instead. We decided to howl at the moon there!

On Monday, July 4th, we drove out to Red Rocks Amphitheatre before heading over to Pam and Norm's for a fabulous steak dinner.  They really outdid themselves with the food!  Afterwards, we went back to the condo to watch fireworks from the top of the parking garage.

This is a very popular workout spot. Lots of respect for these folks!

Stopped for breakfast here before Red Rocks

Had to wait for a table, so why not?  Lisa and I are always ready for a Bloody Mary!

The food was SO good!

And our table was right by a small river...really cool place.

Charlie's birthday text from all of us - Curt, Lisa, Elaine, Pam, Kenneth and Norm.

Tuesday, July 5th found us up and sightseeing again.  Curt and Lisa had to be at the airport around 4:30 so that gave us pretty much all day to hang out.

Looks like a painting - I just never got tired of the scenery!

Lunch stop

Eating by another river!

The little town of Evergreen was so cool!

Evergreen National Bank - is this cool or what?

Everywhere we went in Colorado there were beautiful flowers.

The blue horse outside of Denver International Airport

I thought the airport was unusual...

What did I say earlier?  Bass Pro Shop on the way back to the condo from the airport!

Couldn't pass up the photo op with the buffalo at Bass Pro...:)

Cleaning up the condo and taking out the trash. The trash chute was a handy thing on the 4th floor!

Headed to Colorado Springs on Wednesday, July 6th.

Manitou Springs Cave Dwellings

Walking through the cave dwellings - there were SO. Many. PEOPLE!!!

They were really cool and I would have loved to crawl up and down every ladder but we would've been there six hours. It took almost an hour to go through one little section.  :(

Our mountain view room at The Academy Hotel in Colorado Springs. If we were in the room, I was sitting and looking out the window.  Just loved the mountains!

I'm not sure when The Academy was built, but check the "old school" touches they left when they upgraded!  I've never seen a "Used Blades" bin before! I thought this was pretty cool.

This is the set up on the wall - it looks like it's from the 1950s.  The rooms were very nice - oversized stuffed armchair and ottoman and the bed was great!

They had a wonderful restaurant in the hotel that we ate dinner at both nights and the complementary breakfast buffet was out of this world!  I've never seen so much food on a free breakfast buffet.

And they put the Rangers game on for us while we ate - what's not to love?

The salad bar that came with the meal was really good!  And so was the Irish Mule I got to drink - Jameson Whisky, ginger beer and lime juice. 

Grilled shrimp and sweet potato fries - yum!!  And Kenneth got a steak...imagine that!

Caught the sunrise over the mountains from the hotel window.

Kenneth watching TV, me watching the mountains

Thursday, July 7, 2016 - The next round of pictures is from Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  SO many beautiful formations and landscapes!  There are walking trails throughout all 480 acres of the park and there were people everywhere!  It was not crowded, though, because there was so much open space and no buildings or structures.  It would be a wonderful place to live near and explore as it would take years to see the whole park.  We drove through twice and stopped once for me to get out and explore just a bit of one area and get some pictures.

Garden of the Gods

After Garden of the Gods, we drove around for a while.  Our Cog Railway train ride to the top of Pike's Peak was canceled due to mechanical difficulties so we just decided to drive up a mountain and see what we could find.



We stopped here for a local brew.

This is the Lawnmower

Stopped at The Hungry Bear Restaurant for lunch

And got a photo with the hungry bear!

Got us some Colorado Springs t-shirts, of course!

The moon over the mountains...sigh...so pretty!

Kenneth at the condo after dabbing-he's so funny!!

Sightseeing tours over the mountains.

We went by the Cog Railway on Friday morning, July 8th to see if we could get on the standby list since they sell out days ahead of time and low and behold, they had an opening for us!  We were there about 11:20am and got on the noon train!  We enjoyed the couple across from us - Richard and Karen from Hutchinson, Kansas.  Hutchinson is a very small town that the Hot Rod Power Tour just so happened to pass through a couple of weeks before!  Small world, for sure.  I thought that was pretty crazy!  The following pictures are of the train station, the ride up and back and from the top of the mountain.  The altitude up there REALLY got to us.

At the top, trees don't grow

We're above the clouds!

Apparently, the donuts are famous at the top so we tried them.  They were very good - really crispy on the outside just like I like them and tasted like they had nutmeg in them. It was a good snack!

The clouds started rolling in - so happy we got on the train we did!!

Kenneth checking things out with the binoculars.

This was the original Summit House built in 1892.

Passing another train

 

So that was our trip in a bit of mixed up fashion.  After Cadillac Ranch, we were ready to be home so vacation was over and we hauled our butts as fast as we could to Mooringsport!  Happy to be back home and in my routine for a few weeks.  Have work to catch up on, VBS to help with at church and packing to do for our next trip...:)