2010

Sunday, July 11

10:45 Leave Kalinski home after enjoying their wonderful hospitality.

11:00 Leave Niwot after stocking up on ice, picnic supplies, and taking a photo of Dave standing under an "Old Town Niwot" sign.

12:00 Curtains of rain sweep over distant plains as we drive toward Wyoming.

12:28 Enter Wyoming.

1:00 Rolling lunch, including homemade cookies from the Kalinskis. Thank you!

1:57 Driving along parallel to a freight train. Dave gestures for the engineer to blow his horn and he obliges.

2:15 Buffalo roaming.

3:30 Antelope playing

4:02 Enter South Dakota.

4:47 See Crazy Horse memorial but do not stop. Pushing on for Mt. Rushmore

5:20 Stop at Mt Rushmore. See the big guys just before a rainstorm sweeps in and blocks them from our view. Get the obligatory patch.

7:30 Check into the Bavarian Lodge in Custer, SD. Bailed out on the idea of camping during this stay. Too much driving. Not enough time. Then when we saw rain in the area, that clinched it.

8:30 Ate dinner at the Bavarian Lodge. Pretty so so. No one except Pamela has much enthusiasm for German food.

Dave: Time Lapse Vacation

We pulled out of Niwot, CO, my old home, after taking a picture of me standing under an “Old Town Niwot” banner just outside aswanky French restaurant.

When I lived here 31 years ago, Niwot was a punch line. Almost no one had ever heard of it, and, if they had, they knew it was a sleepy little community plunked down in the middle of cornfields with a couple antique stores that woke up on the weekend. Now it’s an upscale little town. The cornfields are long gone, as are most buildable lots.

I shared a house with Jim and, though he lives in the same house, it’s barely recognizable. Only one familiar roofline remains. The rest has been enclosed in a fanciful home of towers, arches, and odd angles. Jim used to be a builder. Now he's an architect. I think architects always have to make a statement with their own home.

It was fun spending time with Jim and Kim. The kids got along well too. They were always racing somewhere together. We enjoyed hearing Quinn walk around the house playing the sousaphone and seeing Lark try to play Jim’s long dormant accordion.

I felt a little sorry to be leaving, although some of that was just the pleasure of being in a real home rather than living out of the back of a minivan.

Hopefully it won’t be 28 years before we see the Kalinski’s again. As we left, we said “Your nursing home or mine?”

Linden: Tea Leaves and Herbal Infusion

The overpowering smell of mint fills your nostrils as you step into the peppermint room.

We are in the factory for Celestial Seasonings Tea. It is just outside of Boulder on Sleepytime Lane. We are getting a tour of the factory.

For the last 15 minutes different smells have bewildered our noses. Chamomile, green tea, lemon grass, clove.

We start the tour with a ticket that is actually a package of tea--to be precise, Black Cherry Berry herbal infusion. We learn that real tea always includes tea leaves. Everything else is an herbal infusion. But that sounds bad so they call it tea.

We learn that Sleepytime is the best selling tea Celestial Seasonings makes. Another thing we learn is that the factory can make up to one million packages of tea a day during the busy season, during the cold months from October to April. And, we learn that if they left the door of the peppermint room open, you could smell the mint two miles away.

It was a beautiful factory, and it was the best smelling factory I've ever been in.

Lark: How Can You Keep on Moving Unless You Migrate Too?

Telluride is a ghost town. In disguise. From the outside it appears to be a very hip, cool town. I was very intrigued I admit. As we walked around and peered in the shops it proved more and more that it was empty and unpromising. Telluride might be different in the winter, framed in ski mountains but on that rainy Thursday it was dissatisfactory.

Boulder was a different story. It was teeming of life and music. It looked as if we spent too much time there we would run out of things to do but otherwise it was quite lovely. I particularly enjoyed strolling along the Pearl Street Mall and listening to the various street musicians. There were nice vintage shops and sweet shops. I don't think I want to go to school there (we looked at the campus which was very nice) but I enjoyed boulder a lot and the people we met and saw there.

There has been an odd sensation that has been going on inside of me since this trip began. At the beginning it was faint but now it is more and more persistent. When I was littler I HATED, HAAAAATED riding in the car. Now I'm beginning to like it. I like to keep moving. Really. I have begun to not like stopping, while those things are beautiful and all for some reason I just like to keep moving. I am always antsy but seem calmer when we are in the car. It is a new feeling but I don't seem to mind it much. All I know is that the 40 minute to and from school will be a cinch when we get back.

Dave: The high dive vacation

Coming into Boulder Linden says, “I knew we were doing a lot on this vacation, but there’s even more. It seems like we should be done.”

Lark adds, “It’s like when we jumped off the high dive at Mt. Gretna. It seems like you should be hitting water, but instead you keep falling.”

2010

Friday, July 9th (Jack's Birthday)

8:35 Breakfasted at Salida Cafe while sitting beside Arkansas River. Very pleasant.

10:10 Checked out of Silver Ridge Lodge Motel

10:25 Ice and bread stop

11:11 Pass through Buena Vista, CO. Looked for Social Club--didn't see one but saw lots of rafters.

11:30 Stopped at Point of Interest along Arkansas River. Read about stage coach to mining town of Leadville. Saw lots of white water below.

11:45 Driving up Arkansas River valley. Passing hillsides where snow fell yesterday.

12:00 Drove into Leadville, Co. 10,250 ft elevation. Would have gone through mining museum but interest level was below the $22 fee.

12:30 Lark bought clothes at Leadville thrift shop.

1:20 Stopped at pull-out after Fremont Pass. Ate leftover steak and cheese. Afterwards had a cherry pit spitting contest, trying to send the pits to the river a couple hundred feet below. Dave won but doubt if he made it to the river.

3:53 Stopped in Nederland to ride the carousel. Pamela rode a big moose and Linden rode an ostrich. Then walked over to Blue Owl Ice Cream and Used Books. Linden got 3 more books to read.

5:05 Entered Boulder.

Pamela: Salida Stop

When Dave and I were last in Salida, Colorado, we were checking it out as a possible place to settle. We had read about it in Outside magizine as one of the 10 up and coming towns to live in. We were driving across country at the time and decided it worth a detour to see what was so up and coming about it. After a quick drive through we decided that it still had a long way to come and continued on our way.

Eighteen years later we discovered that Salida had made it's own journey. After our afternoon in Telluride we thought that Salida might be a good stopping point for the evening. We got a room at a very friendly motel and headed out to Amica, a wood-fired pizza and brew pub we found on Chowhound. http://amicassalida.typepad.com/ Showing up on Chowhound told us that Salida had indeed come a long way.

Yes, Salida had grown considerably, but in a good way. The town was vibrant and full of interesting shops. People were strolling in the Old Town. Many cars were topped with bikes and kayaks. As the gateway to the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, Salida was in a key position to capture the area's many hip young adventurers.

However, what impressed me more was the friendliness the town inspired. From the motel owner to the baker. At Amica we were told the wait (at 8:00 on a Thursday evening) would be about 25 minutes but that we were welcome to sit at the community table if we wanted to eat sooner. We settled in with another family. In the course of our dinner Lark had noticed a Peace Love Ukulele shirt one of the kids at the table was wearing. This spurred a conversation about a range on topics including ukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k, backpacking in the area, Jewel Cave and Crazy Horse in South Dakota. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

The next morning we headed to the other Chowhound recommendation for breakfast, The Salida Cafe on the banks of the Arkansas River. http://www.salidacafe.com/ Another great recommendation. We ate delicious peach pie and breakfast burritos out on the patio while the rushing Arkansas River glittered in the morning sun. Again people were friendly and accommodating, especially Nate, the Salida Cafe barrista. Hey to Nate.

Salida proved Outside magazine right and is certainly a wonderful stop when driving through southwestern Colorado. I still think Northampton was the right choice for us but I'd gladly go back to Salida anytime I'm out west.