feet on the ground

As expected it's been a long day, a good one too. Our feet were on the ground in Denver before the flight's scheduled arrival time. I watched the baggage carousel spin around for a while and then Denise's bag popped out. We picked up our car and hit the road. But - you know about Denise and rental cars, don't you? The car that was assigned was bigger than she wanted, so she switched. Hertz has something they call "gold choice" at the Denver airport. You can just pick a car from the gold choice stalls and take it instead of your assigned car. After switching cars we started driving. We used a loop road to head north and west, switching to I-25 north and then two smaller roads to the west.

Our first stop in Estes Park was the information center where we picked up some maps and talked with someone there about what we hope to do with our days here. Next, we stopped at a park visitor center to chat with a ranger. We picked up information on hikes in 4 different areas of the park. And oh! we are going to go to Bear Lake. Gromit sent me another email and told me we really shouldn't miss it. It really sounds like it is beautiful up there so I'm glad Denise decided to go in spite of the road construction.

I convinced Denise today was a good day for just some "light" wandering. Driving, a little walking, but no real hikes. Flying makes Denise tired even though all she needs to do is sit still - so a kind of easy going wandering worked well for the afternoon.

We were looking at the bright yellow leaves of the aspen when a woman from Longmont, Colorado came up and started chatting. She is an artist who primarily paints (although she had a camera in her hand today). They talked for a really long time about good places to wander in the park - including walks in the Bear Lake area.

Next we stopped at Beaver Meadows. We didn't go there to see beaver though; we went to see elk. Did you know that elk bugle? It's a really interesting sound, kind of multipitched. We stayed there for a while, watching the animals and listening to their sound.

The Anniversary Inn is our home away from home for this trip. No one else is here tonight, and that turns out to be a good thing for our hiking plans tomorrow. Breakfast is usually later but Roger is going to fix breakfast at 7:15 so Denise can drive past the construction section on Bear Lake Road before 9 AM. It's ok to drive on the road before 9 and after 4, and if you drive in before 9 you can drive out whenever you'd like. But if you're not in there by 9 then you have to take the shuttle bus. That wouldn't be bad except there have been delays on the bus. I think I'd better remind Denise to take her Kindle tomorrow in case we have to sit and wait in the car for a long time.

This feels like a good "early to bed" night...

--- Rover