The Centennial state, also known as Colorful Colorado. Fall foliage that is. I thought I’ve been missing out on the arrival of the fall season by moving away from Philadelphia, but I was wrong. Colorado, you have something special with your golds, oranges, and greens. Today marks a week of being in the state and overall, we are not impressed! We spent the first four days in Elizabeth, (which is more rural, 6448ft elevation) and we are now closer to Denver at Chatfield State Park. We did see real life Alpacas, and have brunch in the cutest conservative cafe. They have a shrine. A shrine to Donald Trump. Isabelle (the owner) gave Gus some bacon. Regardless of party, even for a few moments we all existed in harmony. Juno has made tremendous progress here in Colorado. Only our second time using Hipcamp (super neat camping app) we ended up sharing a site with LA natives doing the same thing we are. Juno connected with Michelle by letting her love on her. Super proud Mom moment.
Oh Colorado! Where is all of your farm to table, fresh organic goodness?? The menu’s we came across have been somewhere between “not impressed” and “just ok” The tastiest meal we’ve had so far were gourmet hotdogs from Biker Jim’s, oh and the vegan baked beans were THE best I have ever had. However, we do wonder if COVID is playing a role in this. Unlike some states, Colorado seems to be taking the pandemic pretty seriously. We do have a reservation at Brother Luck’s FOUR tonight. Check back in with an update. Other foods we’ve tried are a flight of bacon, pork belly Mac N cheese, cbd root beer, tacos, pizza, jai had elk, rabbit and rattlesnake (those three were the hotdogs she had).
There is an abundance of breweries which is pretty cool. We’ve checked out three so far, and each had a sour on tap. Jai is a sport, she just likes beer. Again though, not impressed.
We’ve checked out Manitou Springs (6412ft elevation) Red Canyon open space, Pikes Peak (14,115ft elevation) and multiple dog parks where our 4 have truly found they fit together. Surprisingly, we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting too many friendly people. They sort of just exist. The happy humans must be with the good food. Maybe. While hiking at Red Canyon, an older gentleman approached me about the shirt I was wearing (tie dye Biden Harris 2020) His words “GO TRUMP“ ok. cool. Moving on. As we got about 25 yards apart, he screams back ”and I’m serious” again. ok. cool. But why? At first, all in good fun. But to keep coming at us? Good Karma repaid us for our unwillingness to engage. As we continued on our hike, 4 more people approached with words of positivity.
Pikes Peak for us defines Colorado. The sights, the views, the highs all are incredible. I couldn’t breathe the greatest at 2.5 miles above sea level but that.is.ok! I had my inhaler. Bighorn sheep live above 13,000ft but trees, trees cannot survive. We did, have a donut baked at that elevation though. Weird, different. Definitely a 14,000 foot donut.
Two other places we visited were the Columbine memorial, and Elevations, International Church of Cannabis
Columbine memorial is a wall of healing and is dedicated to those who were injured at Columbine High School and to all who were touched by the tragic events on April 20, 1999.
It brought the nation to its knees, but now that we’ve gotten back up how have things changed; what have we learned?
I hope people come here to this place to think about how they themselves can be better people rather than come here to reflect on death—parent
Do these words resonate with you?
Colorado has us for about 6 more days, so we’ll check back in!
peace & love