Into the Rockies

Drizzle was falling this morning and rain fell several times today, but it didn’t interrupt our plans or cause any driving problems. We left Fort Collins and headed south for Boulder, Colorado. I had a tour of the Budweiser plant in Fort Collins on our itinerary, but it didn’t open until 10 am and we were ready to leave the hotel at 9, so we skipped it. We drove to Boulder where our first stop was at Chautauqua Park for views of the Flatiron Mountains. We didn’t stay long as the park was very popular, no parking spots to be found. After the snow peaks of yesterday and the uniqueness of Devils Tower, the view of the Flatirons was rather unimpressive. I jumped out of the SUV, took a few pictures and we continued on to our next destination.

Our next destination was only a few miles away in Boulder, and we did spend over an hour there, at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). NCAR is a scientific research laboratory sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Over 100 universities partner with them for atmospheric research. In addition to climate change research, some of their work has had direct impact on us, such as their studies of wind shear that have made airports safer. NCAR’s Mesa Laboratory has a visitor center with two floors of interactive exhibits. Phillip and I had fun with the tornado, wind, cloud, and the lightening exhibits. He’s making lightening in the picture. We also watched several videos about the work of NCAR and the huge super computers they use to do their atmospheric models.

Before we left Boulder, we made one more stop, for lunch at Foolish Craig’s Café. This location had been on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I checked our route before I left home against the list of locations visited by Guy Fieri on his show and Adam Rickman on Man vs Food. Only Boulder had restaurants visited by Guy and Adam. Three Boulder restaurants were on the list and I chose the one with the crepe cake. Twenty-one crepes stacked to make a cake, in this case, a butter rum crepe cake. Was it tasty? Yes, especially the cream cheese frosting. We were very glad the serving was just a slice of the twenty-one crepe stack, not the whole thing. I had a mushroom and cheese crepe plate for lunch and Phillip had a stuffed Reuben sandwich, so this slice was plenty of dessert for us.

We left Boulder and headed west, driving in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. As soon as we left Boulder, the road began to climb. A stream ran beside the road for quite a distance up the mountain. I took several pictures of it from the SUV, then Phillip stopped at a turnout for pictures when we saw a particularly intense section of rushing water. We drove with the windows down and heard the rushing water. We also didn’t want to tax our SUV or make it suck quite as much gasoline by running the air conditioner as we ascended the mountains. Also, the greater the altitude, the cooler the temperature. I read somewhere that, other things being equal, the temperature drops three degrees for every 1000 feet. It certainly did get chilly, but we didn’t go high enough today to be in snow. We were in a beautiful forested area as we drove.

At one point, we began the downward descent into the valley where we are spending the night. We are still in the Front Range, just not as high as we were at one point. As the road dropped, it also continued worming its way down the side of the mountain. We didn’t just see “curve ahead” signs or even just what I call the “snakes in the road” sign (actually just an “S” figure). This sign was the common sign, and it accurately depicted what the road did. We didn’t drive as far as usual today, but it took us just as long because of the road.

We arrived in Black Hawk this afternoon, the town with the highest concentration of casinos in Colorado. Within a two mile stretch, 25 casinos lure folks like us and people coming from Denver for a day. I checked the internet this evening and found that in 1991 Colorado passed a referendum to allow casino gambling in three locations, including this one. This town was a gold rush town, but after the gold rush was over, it began decaying. The expectation was that the town could renew itself with the money from the casinos. I’m sure that did work out because this is a really nice area. We decided to spend the night here and have a really nice room for less than we’ve paid outside this area. Free wifi, a huge room and a quiet air conditioner. The toilet doesn’t leak like at the hotel in Deadwood. And, we have mints on the pillow!