Rocky Mountain Highs (And A Low)

We made it back into town late yesterday afternoon... the 9+ hour drive was a killer... the one on the way out wasn't so bad, but I guess that's how you tell whether you are at the start or end of a vacation.  Pretty beat this morning, so I will try to give you the "cliff notes" version of our week and probably fill in some details later. 

Looks like I have 472 pictures to go through!   We downloaded and viewed most of the them during the trip since Todd has his work laptop (which he thankfully didn't have to use for those purposes while we were away, though I am sure he is feeling the brunt this morning)... so I know there are some real nice ones... while I appreciate compliments on my pictures (though Todd took a lot of them while I was driving), thanks to the scenery its pretty impossible to not take a good picture.  Thank goodness for digital, because I doubt we would have so much to look at/sort through if it was the load film, old school camera!

Okay, let's see how quick I can do this!   Since I hate to end on a bad note, let's start with...

The Low:  Our trip ended under a bit of a dark cloud.  On Monday, Todd got a speeding ticket while we were out on a spontaneous afternoon drive.  Felt a bit guilty, since I told him he had to drive back and have some fun on this wonderfully twisty highway.  Long story, short(er)... he got clocked going twice the speed limit in a 25mph zone... sounds bad I know, but we still find it hard to believe... since due to the nature of the twists in the road won't let you go that fast (and it wasn't going through a town, school zone, etc)... there is a lot of altitude changes... and even more frequent changes in the speed limits...and needless to say we had never driven the road before... so we feel we kind of fell into a popular out-of-stater trap... worse of all, the police officer didn't cut any slack... a few hundred dollars... nope, a court summons for next month... in a town that is over 10+ hour drive away from Phoenix and even a 5+ hour drive from Denver.  The "alternative" to (pardon the pun) speed up the process was to get arrested... so just a big 'ole mess, that hopefully will be able to be resolved without making a return trip to CO.

Okay, onto the good stuff!

Mileage: Pulled out the garage with 5672 miles last Wednesday morning... pulled in with 8092 yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon... so for the arithmetically challenged that's 2420 miles tacked on in under a week!

Santa Fe:  A return to one of our favorite vacation spots of the past... didn't have much time with just one night in town... but we managed a nice dinner at a local favorite Horseman's Haven... walked around the Plaza after dinner (which was very much abuzz with lots of folks and free live music... on a Wednesday night!)... and once again had the best ever huevos rancheros at another local favorite, Tortilla Flats, on Thursday morning.

Denver:  Again, just one night... stayed at the very nice Magnolia Hotel in downtwon... when I booked the room, I decided to go for a suite...  while a tad pricey, it was huge and we really made us feel all schmancy.  Quite impressed with downtown Denver.  Mix of historic buildings and the "new,"  a wonderful pedestrian-only street of shops and restaurants, sport, concert and theater venues all walkable distances, heavily used public transit (including light rail)... I would say Phoenix could only wish for the same... granted we do have a lot of the same things, but in Denver it just seemed like people were around in their downtown!  Also, had a good time at the Rockies/Cubs game at Coors Field... at least know we know that Phoenix isn't the only ballpark where Cub fans outnumber and out-cheer the "home team."

MITM:  That's MINIs in The Mountains... the centerpiece event our vacation... with nearly 200 Coopers from all over the country in attendance.   Seeing another MINI is usually a rare occurrence, so it was blast just to see them everywhere!   We drove around most of Friday & Saturday on runs with other MINIs... first up to Mt. Evans, driving up the highest paved road in North America... over 14,000 feet... at the top it was in the 47 degrees and hailing... can't say we've ever experienced that kind of weather in August!   Saturday turned into a very nice, but nearly all-day run, with stops in Steamboat Springs and Vail.

Telluride:  As mentioned, in my special live report from a couple of days ago... we really loved Telluride.  It has a reputation of being snobbish and high-brow (Oprah and Tom Cruise are among its part-time residents)... but we certainly didn't see much evidence of that, even walking by a 1,200 sq. ft. "fixer-upper" house selling for $1.895 million... food prices were pretty affordable... very much a small town feel with very friendly folks... we did splurge staying at The Hotel Telluride, it was one of the places where you felt you were getting what you paid for... for the most part.

As I did with the NJ/NYC trip, it is probably more palatable to share the trip via pictures... so I'll let you know when good chunks of photos are available for public viewing!