Tuesday morning, June 25, our goal was to wake up early and set off for Denver by 9am. As we have quickly been learning, it takes twice as long as we expect to pack up camp (and I also move at a negative speed before I have coffee in the am). Today, I was feeling exceptionally grumpy – most likely because I was coming down with a cold. Needless to say, pack up wasn’t the happiest of moments and the drive to Denver was fairly quiet. We stopped in Colorado Springs for lunch which didn’t go very smoothly seeing as how the restaurant we picked was on top of a steep hill and there was no way to pull our trailer into the parking lot. After driving in circles for 15 minutes, we settled on a Wal-mart parking lot and got our rain jackets out to walk 10 minutes on the shoulder of the road in what looked like an oncoming storm. To make the grumpy mood worse, we discovered that all of Chris’ permethrin bug spray had spilled all over the RV and it is somewhat toxic. (He wanted to spray his clothes before we left for this trip and still hasn’t finished doing so. We sat outside at Rudy’s Hideaway and it was a pretty sweet view and decent food. We both agreed to have a clean slate for the afternoon and things quickly turned around. On our way out of Colorado Springs, we decided to stop at Garden of the Gods (recommended by my mom). Chris called it the kid’s version of Arches National Park. We didn’t get to spend a ton of time there but we did stop at the visitor’s center and drive through the garden where Chris started making up names for all the rock formations (which will not be named). 

The rest of the journey to Denver was pretty uneventful except another major storm I drove through but that has become the normal when I drive. We checked into Prospect RV park which was much nicer than St. Louis RV park and connected with one of Chris’ fraternity brothers – Eddie – who just moved to Denver. He very kindly chauffeured us downtown and we got to see his crib. Then we hopped on some scooters and once Chris’ phone finally decided to work with his scooter, we set off to do some brewery hopping with Eddie as our tour guide! We saw some pretty sweet views, ate great food, and tried 4 different Denver breweries.

We even found another one of Chris’ fraternity brothers at a brewery ironically called “Our Mutual Friend Brewery”.

After Eddie said peace since he had work the next day, (whatever that is), Chris and I set off towards 16thstreet mall since I wanted to see it.

Eddie subtly warned us, “there may be some homeless people along the way but you’ll be fine”. Well, about a block in to our walk, a homeless guy emerged from the shadows at a brisk walk towards us, cat-calling me. We immediately picked up pace and found a scooter and I scrambled to get the app pulled up and onto the scooter as homeless guy approached. (Side note: Chris’ phone was still sucking at working the scooter app so we knew it wasn’t even worth trying at this point.) Since there was no time to deal with Chris’ crappy phone, he jumped on the back of the scooter with me and we peeled out at 20mph (those things are fast) doubled up on one. Whew! We made it to 16thstreet mall, stopped in a bar for a drink and to watch some of the women’s world cup.

It was at this point that Chris’ eyes started to close so I knew it was time to catch an Uber home before his narcolepsy came on full force. The following morning, we had another lazy start (my cold had gotten worse). I worked on photos and Chris FINALLY showered after 4 days. For some reason, the one place we had Wifi, Chris decided to bug spray his clothes instead of do some Dockem work. (He immediately regretted this decision when we arrived in Rocky Mountain National Park and found there was no service.) We were just about ready to leave, I only needed to shower quick. Taking advantage of the RV park luxury showers, I went looking for the key we were given to our restroom only to discover that Chris had lost it in the course of getting his own shower earlier. Fortunately, the host lady wasn’t too mad and just told us to mail it if we ever find it (which we did, 2 days later). After checking out, we decided to go see the Red Rocks Amphitheater on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park. This concert venue was incredible – see highlights below.

We stayed here for lunch on the patio and then on our walk back to the car, I convinced Chris that he should fly his drone over it even though he was scared of possibly getting in trouble. I told him just to do it quick and he would be fine – there was nothing posted saying he couldn’t. Of course, just our luck as the drone took off, one of the venue workers was pulling in to set up for a concert that evening and told him to bring it down unless if he had a permit from the city. Then Chris pooped his pants. Just kidding. We made a quick grocery/supplies stop at a Wal-mart just outside the city and then our little Honda Pilot continued to chug along to Rocky Mountain. On that note, the Pilot has been a very trusty travel companion and has been working overtime to get us up and down these mountains out here in Colorado. It is still decked out with our “Just Married” signs as well as a map decal to show what states we’ve been in so we’ve received lots of honks and waves along the drive. So, verdict is out on what to name it??