#16 Sunday Morning Musings and Mimosas-A Mile High Adventure-Meet Bucky! 6/11/23

Welcome to Bronco Country! Top of the Bucket List; 11,000 Feet Altitude is Way up There and Coach Addy is a STUD; Family and Friends on the Road is the BEST; an Old Schoolhouse reimagined where the Principal’s Office is a place you want to go!

I LOVE COLORADO! What a beautiful state! So much open space, incredible scenery and a river that runs parallel to the freeway. All of this and more make traveling through this state an RVers dream! The trip from Utah to Colorado was indeed a beautiful drive, but also a bit intimidating and certainly challenging for a motorcoach. Highway 70 takes you up, through and over the Rocky Mountains-a climb that exceeds 11,000 feet and takes you through a tunnel (The Eisenhower Tunnel) that is 1.6 miles in length and 1500 feet of mountain on top of you as you drive through. It is the highest interstate of any road in the United States. What an experience!

Coach Addy (and Peder) took this climb like champions! (Peder even did a video as we were approaching the tunnel and going through it!)

Hot Tip #1: Every road has its own beauty. Enjoy each for what they offer along the way.

Once in Colorado, the Colorado River flows next to the highway and gives the spectator a glimpse into all that it offers: swimming, fishing, kayaking, whitewater river rafting and a host of places to picnic. So beautiful! My only complaint would be the condition of the highway as you get to the higher elevations, can you say potholes?! Big potholes! Again, Coach Addy and Peder were quite the team as they played “Dodge the Potholes!”

Our first night on the Road we stayed at an awesome Harvest Host: The Stoneyard Distillery. Plenty of room to park, super nice host and delicious spirits. Our most expensive Harvest Host purchase yet, (just under $200.00) which tells you how much we enjoyed the tasting and the whiskey! Max, our host and “hooch maker” was so accommodating, meeting us as we drove in to show us where to park and then opening up the tasting room for a private tasting. Another great Harvest Host experience…which as you will see later in this post is not always the case…

Our next stop was Cherry Creek State Park near Denver and close to our friends, Todd and Laura. We had the best time spending 3 days with them. They were the ultimate hosts and tour guides. Our first night at camp, Peder made homemade pizzas and we entertained them at the campground. The next day was a day of sightseeing: we visited Red Rocks Amphitheater which is simply stunning-an amphitheater built right into the Red Rocks. They say that the acoustics are supposed to be close to perfect-I don’t know if that’s true, but I can tell you that the aesthetics of the venue are close to perfect! They were doing a sound check that afternoon for the concert that evening and it did sound incredible. I think the most interesting thing about this venue is that it is also a State Park and thousands of people visit it everyday to hike, picnic, exercise, etc…I can’t really think of another concert venue that has this draw. Red Rocks is not to be missed on a trip to Colorado!

Hot Tip #2- State Parks are the best for camping, beautiful scenery, well kept and very reasonably priced!

We stopped by a quaint little mom and pop hamburger joint, Crown Burger on our way back to Denver. So delicious!!! And then we were off Coors field to see the Rockies vs Giants baseball game. What a great stadium. The outfield is huge, those players really have to cover a lot of ground and as you know, the ball travels in this altitude.

But the HIGHLIGHT of our site-seeing trip happened between Red Rocks and Coors field…You guessed it MILE HIGH STADIUM, HOME OF THE DENVER BRONCOS! I was in total awe as we drove up to the stadium. I got to walk through the tunnel towards the field, take pictures of the bronze busts of past Bronco heroes, and of course see Bucky, the Broncos’ 27 foot-tall statue that’s rearing up on top of the large scoreboard. The sight of Bucky literally brought tears to my eyes, I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but for those of you who know me, you know what die hard Broncos fan I am, and for me to finally be in this stadium and staring up at this iconic statue was very emotional for me, to say the least! This part of the stadium is under construction and had we been here 3 weeks earlier we would not have seen Bucky as he had been taken down for only the second time in his career, for a major restoration. He was just reinstalled a couple of weeks ago. Click here for more information on the restoration and installation process-pretty fascinating story.

I know we will visit many memorable sites over the next few months, but I am hard pressed to think that any of them will evoke the emotion that I felt as we walked around Mile High Stadium. It really was a moment I will treasure! And I will be back someday to see a Broncos game!

Hot Tip #3-Shop and eat local when you can! So much better and memorable than any chain restaurant or store. Research your favorite places you want to go and make it happen!

Our time with Todd and Laura culminated with the most beautiful evening at their home which would be the perfect example of the Danish word hygge.

Three of their adult children were able to join us for dinner along with Todd’s sister and significant other. Childhood stories were shared, laughter was abundant, yummy BBQ was consumed and a lifetime friendship was celebrated. Laura even demonstrated how to use the instapot (she made the most incredible Mac and Cheese). I think I am ready to bring my instapot down and give it a try! Love and kindness filled the evening. Todd and Laura have done an incredible job raising 5 children from Romania, each of them are beautiful and filled with joy. I have to share that the sweetest moment of the night came when their son Christian, who is an AVID sports fan, after hearing about my trip to Mile High, left the room only to return with an official Von Miller Denver Bronco Jersey which he then gifted to me! What an incredibly kind and generous thing to do. When one gives from the heart, it is truly special to be the recipient. I am so grateful to Christian for his generosity and will treasure this gift!

A special thank you to Todd and Laura for their hospitality and taking time out of their busy lives to entertain us and drive us all around to see the sites of Denver! What a special three days we have had!

Sadly, our time in Denver had to come to an end, but then we were off to Colorado Springs to visit with Peder’s brother Finn and his family. We had three fun filled days catching up with Finn and taking in the sights of this area of Colorado. I’m just going to pause here for a moment to say that one of the best parts about going into stores in Colorado…there is Denver Bronco attire EVERYWHERE! The grocery store, Walmart, Kohls, etc…I was like a kid in a candy store! (Ok, I’m done boring you with my Broncos obsession!)

We stayed the first night at a Harvest Host, The Cherokee Ridge Golf Course. I must admit this might be our last time to stay at a Golf Course. The place was beautiful and we had a nice view of the first tee, and that’s about where the good stops. We arrived just before 5:00 as the directions indicated and the auxiliary parking lot where we were directed to park was packed! Certainly no room for a motorhome! I made my way to the pro-shop to check in and make sure that we were in the right place, and the man assured me that we were and that it is suggested you not arrive until after 7:00pm and that we leave by 8:00am so that we don’t get boxed in and not able to get out of the parking lot. I was a bit surprised by this and really wanted to tell them that perhaps the Harvest Host business isn’t for them! But I bit my tongue and headed back to Coach Addy to wait for the parking lot to clear out. We had a difficult time getting level and couldn’t put our bedroom slide out, so not a very good night’s sleep. I got up early to fulfill our commitment of spending $20.00 by arriving at the golf clubhouse restaurant around 7:00 to order a couple of breakfast burritos. The lady was very kind, but let me know that it would be a while until they would be ready as she was the only one there and was still prepping for the day. By the time I got back to the coach ,the cars were starting to park in the auxiliary lot and we had to make a very quick departure to avoid being blocked in. Not my favorite Harvest Host to say the least!

One of my favorite things that we did in Colorado Springs was our visit to Ivywild School. Thank you to Finn and Fiona for taking us to this very fun place! This place is an educator’s dream…and not for why you might think. The elementary school was built in 1916 and was closed in 2009. If you close your eyes and imagine what a large school building from the early 1900’s might look like, you would see a large frontage with stairs leading up to the front doors, beautiful wood floors, classrooms with black chalkboards, an incredible gymnasium, metal lockers, etc…you get the idea. That’s exactly what this very special building looks like, but what you wouldn’t imagine is that the Principal’s Office is an artisan cocktail & coffee bar! Yes, I said cocktails! Their tag line: “The Principal Will See You Now and Libations for the Troubled” truly spoke to me! I had the most delicious Orange Stout-so yummy!! The old Teachers’ Lounge is now Axe and the Oak Whiskey House specializing in handcrafted, unique cocktails that highlight their flagship spirits, liqueurs, hand carved ice and seasonally rotating ingredients. It even has live music on the weekends and boasts a cigar patio! Other classrooms are a variety of bars, breweries, and restaurants.

What a great concept! You can read all about their story here, but essentially the vision was to create a space that stayed true to its roots, a place where neighbors, friends, colleagues and visitors can meet and mingle, but with totally reimagined spaces. This place is, as their website boasts, a flourishing communal atmosphere linking commerce and community with gathering spaces, local cuisine, education, art and gardens. Such a fun place!! It really did feel like an old school. It actually reminded me very much of my middle school, Richard Garvey Intermediate.

The Colorado weather is something else. Everyday we woke up to beautiful blue skies and the sun shining bright. Temperatures in the upper 70’s by mid morning…And then mid afternoon came and BANG-Thunderstorms and dark clouds. Which makes eating outside and enjoying a campfire rather difficult. So, meals with Finn and his family were at his house. One night the very best BBQ ribs, corn, rice and salad. Finn is quite the smoker! The other night we had planned on eating at the campground, but at the last minute we called an audible and packed up the Sausage Fennel Pasta, Salad, home baked bread, whiskey and wine and headed over to Finn’s house.

A huge thank you to Finn, Ionna, Lola, Fiona and Svend for a wonderful three days. We so appreciate you taking the time to show us around Colorado Springs, what a beautiful place. The afternoon in Manatou, the Ivywild Marketplace and the awesome food and conversation made the three days even more special. Gotta say that I also really liked the Bartesian Professional Cocktail Machine. It makes a mean Old Fashioned. I’m thinking Coach Addy may need one of these on board! Just Sayin’!

Lesson Learned: When reading the reviews for Harvest Hosts, you need to read between the lines. People want to be nice, but if I read the reviews of the Golf Course with a critical eye, I would have realized that people were kindly suggesting that this might not be the best Harvest Host and that parking was difficult, to say the least. Lesson Learned!

Bummer of the Week: I think it would have to be the weather. The afternoon thunderstorms really put a damper on enjoying the lovely outdoors. Oh well, at least it was lovely from dawn until mid afternoon. Which is more than I can say about the weather in San Diego this year!

Highlight of the Week: I know you think I’m going to say seeing Mile High Stadium and it was indeed a highlight-but the true highlight was spending quality time with family and friends. This week was filled with laughter, joy and so much love. I’ve said it before but these visits are what make this trip so special!

As I hit the publish button we are heading out on our next adventure. Durango, Colorado here we come! We are very excited for the round trip train ride from Durango to Silverton and then the drive along the Million Dollar Highway from Durango to Ouray! It's going to be a great week! As always, enjoy everyday and count your blessings!