Today is May 30, 2016.  A holiday for us in honor of those who have fallen giving us the freedom to travel this great nation.  Hope you enjoyed your holiday and did something to honor those who have served and given their all!

Today we went to the Trail Ridge highway in the Rocky Mountains.  If you are ever in this part of the country this is a must see.  The road takes you up to 12,183 feet.  It was built in 1932.  Trivia question.  What was going on in the USA during that time?  Hint it gave people some work.

There is a gift shop and restaurant at the top but it was closed because they had no electrical service today.  Not sure what the cause was.  At the top you can turn around and come back to Estes Park or you can continue to Grand Lake on the other side of the mountain.  We chose to turn around because of the distance and the scenery was not as good.  We had a good tour guide (sister in-law), Melanie, who drove and allowed us to view all the scenery. Good thing because there are no side rails and if you look off into the distance it may be the last thing you see, or do!

Here is a look at the local residents as we are going through the park.

This is Big Daddy.  He is taking it easy while the other little bulls feed and water themselves.






These guys decided if Big Daddy is going to rest then they would also.

 Here we are one of the first pull offs and you can see we have advanced in elevation.












Here we are up against the snow bank created when they plow the snow.  They do this every day we are told because the sun may melt some of the snow and cause ice.  Of course, at this elevation it could snow every day even in the summer.

Up against the snow bank.












This is a reference so you can see how high the snow is.

This is a sign carved into the snow bank celebrating the 100 years the park have been opened.

Well here we are trying to stand up on the ice for this photo opt.











This is the gift shop and restaurant that was closed.

Sorry for all the Elk photos but I just love them.  I know some are tired of seeing them so just skip over them.

May 29, 2016 Trip inside the Rocky National Park.

Well, we were sick a couples of days and there were no post.  We are feeling better now, but I am still  clogged up and have a bad cough.  Not sure what caused this because it feels like a common cold, but a lot of people here say it could be the altitude and not drinking enough water.  I have been about to drown myself in water.  I am not accustomed to drinking a lot of water.  Maybe a glass every year or so.  But we are taking care of that now.  Because of the sickness we have not been out to do much, but today we went inside the National Park and went to Bear Lake and Sprague Lake and got out and walked around.  Most of you in the south, who are dieing of the heat, will not believe it, but there was snow still around and the temperature was around 53 this morning.  It is suppose to go up to 63 today.  Far better in my opinion that 90 degrees. 

The Trail Ridge road opened up today but there is too much traffic to go up there.  We are going tomorrow (I hope).

Here are the photos of the scenery.

These are Elk in the meadow near Sprague Lake must be a 100 of them!!

Here we are by the river that runs through the NP.  One view from the west and one from the east.

Here is a good photo for those of you burning up on this holiday weekend.  The snow is still around and the air is still cold.  But we are loving it.

This is a photo of Bear Lake.  Still half frozen over.

Here is a photo of the girls taking it easy at Sprague Lake.  This is our sister in-law(Melany) and our niece (Stephanie).

So this is the same day but Cindy has changed clothes for about the third time and now is out saying good buy to the Elk.

May 25, 2016

Ok, so I know on the last post there were blank photos and I have no clue why.  The WIFI here is terrible and so slow to up load photos.  Yesterday, which is the date above, we went on a trail ride with an ATV.  It was a five passenger vehicle and a lot slower that the other type ATVs you are accustom to ridding.  They told us at the AVT shop that we would be in the woods and may see wild life such as Elk and Moose.  We were on a fire service road and there was not any wild life within 50 miles.  We saw more Elk in Estes Park than we did on the ride because there was only one road and about three different ATV companies using it.  So in our opinion the ATV ride was a bust.

So this is the vehicle that we had and these are the riders that I shuttled around the fire road.  You can see part of the road we were on.  There was very little (good) scenery.

So here we are during a break from the ruff ride.  Doesn't my DW look great in her helmet?

After the ride we went to the Lilly Lake and had a picnic and then came back to town.  While parking the F350 into a parking spot I discovered an owl and her chicks in a nest right in town.

If you have trouble see them they are in the middle of the photo and the chick is to the right.  Enlarge it.  They are both looking right at the camera.  The bottom photo shows the mother better than the one above.

This is a better photo of the mother and chick.  Again the chick is to the right of the mother. She had two in the nest with her, but I was only able to get the one in the photos. 

Tomorrow, we will be driving in the Rocky Mountains.  We are going to try to go to the top of Trail Ridge Road which is about 12,000 feet above sea level.  It is still cold here.  Today the high was 53 and there is snow falling on top of the mountain which may mess up our trip tomorrow.  They have been working on the road up there but with the new snow it may cover up what they have just plowed.

If you are viewing the post please let us know in the comments.  Just say, view like it or did not, or what ever is on your mind.

Today May 25, 2016, we visited the Stanley Hotel.  This is where the book “The Shining” was written by Steven King.  However, the film was not made here.  We were able to go inside the lobby and take photos and we slipped up to room 217,  but were not able the take photos because there was a group of tourist there and we were no supposed to be there.

We were able to sit outside on the porch and have drinks and enjoy the scenery.

The view is great from here and you can see the sun hitting the snow top mountains and it is great

This is a 1910 Stanley Steamer displayed inside the hotel lobby.

Another great day here in Estes Park, Co.  We did the tourist thing yesterday by walking in the town and seeing all the things in the shops and of course buying several T-Shirts and other gifts for Christmas.  The town is much like Gatlinburg but different in many ways.  The shops are broken up somewhat and there is not one long main street where all the shops are located.  We had a lot of fun with our sister in-law, niece and our sister in-laws brother who is in town from Tampa, FL.

Here they all are enjoying the river in the back of the shops in town.   This is a river that runs all the way down the mountain and through town.  These were made behind the shops where there is a place for an old man to rest.

Here I am ridding a rock horse into the mountains to round up the big horn sheep.

Wednesday we are renting a 4 wheel drive ATV and heading up into the mountains to view the wildlife and see the beautiful scenery. It is a half day adventure so it should be a lot of fun. 

Here is a shot of the twin owls that you can see from twin in Estes Park.  this is one of the attractions and a lot of photos are captured of this area.  It is neat but you have to really look hard to visualize the twins.

Sorry had to add this photo for my favorite son in-law, Will.

Arrived in Estes Park this afternoon.  The drive was not to bad but I hate the freeways near Denver.  The are bumpy and hard to drive on.  We have been drinking a lot and I mean a lot of water because of the elevation change (altitude sickness) and we must have stopped 50 times to use the restroom.  But when we arrived at our campground in Estes Park we had a welcoming committee to greet us.

This one was laying right beside our RV in the next site over.

You know if you invite one, you have to invite the entire clan to the picnic.  There were 12 laying around and eating next to our campsite and they did not bother to move when we came in and started setting up.  You can see the edge of the RV in the left corner so that should give you and idea how close they were.  I am going to love this place!!  We went through town this afternoon and there was three bulls in town.  One was a five with the velvet still on.  WIFI is not ever good here (slow) but we will post as much as we can.

We are in Goodland, Kansas today.  This is in the north western part of the state.  We are in a KOA campground that is nice.  Not much around but it is country and that is fine with me.  We will be here today and tomorrow we leave to go to Estes Park, CO.  There is not a lot to see between Wichita and Goodland, but what you do see you can see for 20 miles, it seems.  A lot of wheat, hay and corn here.  It is the planting season so not all the crops are out of the ground but there were some young wheat  and corn fields.

Today is a rest day so not much going on.  We are trying to get accumulated to the elevation because tomorrow we will be around 7,000 feet.  Drinking plenty of water to avoid altitude sickness.  Looking forward to seeing our sister in-law who we have not seen for about a year and a half.  She lives in Estes Park and will escort us around to all there is to see and do.  We will be there about 10 days before moving on to the Grand Tetons.  Can't wait!!

When you are in Wichita, KS and it is raining then you may as well stay in bed!!  Yes it is raining again!  We did go to the Cowtown Museum today and it was very interesting to see the town set up in a museum setting.  They had livestock that stays at the museum all the time and some very interesting people that work in the museum and do some acting.  They have a gun fight in the street when it is not raining.  Most of the museum is dedicated to the Wichita area during the 1870's.  But it was interesting to read about and see some of the things that happened during this period.  You know Wyatt Earp was an assistant marshal during this time, but he got fired!  Conduct unbecoming an officer of the law or so said the news paper articles and other documentation that we saw.  He also repaired the sidewalk and shoveled the streets.  Of what you might ask?  Well they did not have cars during this time and the only transportation was a horse.  So what does a horse do when standing in the street for an hour or more?  Well that is why Wyatt had to shovel.

We stayed at the Cowtown Museum for most of the day and since there was no gun fight we left and went to the parking lot and had our own fight over where we would go next.  Cindy won again and we went to eat some lunch.  We travel to the old town of Wichita but it rained so we went hat and boot shopping.  No we did not but a hat for $230. How in the heck can a cowboy afford these prices?  The boots were all made either in Mexico or China.  Now if I could have found an affordable pair made in Mexico I may have bought them.  But how many Chinese have you seen wearing a pair of cowboy boots?  Well there you go and I wanted MADE IN AMERICA.

This is the street or at least one of the streets in the Cowtown

Look where Cindy ended up!

This is a saddle shop where they made saddles for the cowboys.  What Cindy and I did not know was that the start of the saddle making was to use a wooden form and then they layer the leather over the wooden form until the leather dried and then they used other layers to make the saddle..  You can see the wooden form in the upper right of this photo and the rest is tools used to make the saddle.

Does anyone know what this is that she is working on and what she is doing?  This is for you younger generation to figure out.

Outside the Cowtown Museum

We were absolutely dead after all the walking inside the museum.

Well we head to Goodland, Kansas tomorrow.  This is just a stop over for a night to break up the trip before we hit Estes Park, CO.