Tuesday, Sept. 6 "Horse Day"
So to give a pre-cursor: I (Amy) LOVE horses. Well, actually, I love animals. Dogs, horses, cows, donkeys, octopodi, butterflies...you name it i love it! (except several bug species; even though Clark tells me bugs are not animals). Anyways I was so excited to finally ride a horse I could barely contain myself. We went to the ranch and when we got there we were assigned our horses- I got "Tequila" and Clark got "Amigo". We went outside to wait on everyone else to get there and there were 2 cats playing- super cute. I named one George. A few minutes went by and the 2 cats turned into 10! They were everywhere. I wanted to grab them and cuddle, but I'm allergic, so I refrained myself. (Maybe its better if Clark writes these blogs because I add way too much superfluous information)
So we got our horseys and the ranch hand made a joke that Tequila had a long night of partying. We hopped on and were off. I could tell my horse was a cranky character right off the bat. They said when she tries to eat pull her head up, but when Tequila wanted to eat there was nothing I could do to stop her. Clark's Amigo was tame and calm and easy-going. Tequila on 3 occasions nipped at other horses. She was a flat out jerk. She was all up in the horses grill in front of me. I was nervous most of the time, but I tried really hard to make her like me so I pet her neck half the time.
When we got off the horses Clark and I couldnt walk!! We were SO stiff from climbing the mountain from the day before.
Wednesday, Sept. 7 "Jeep Day"
Ate lunch in Jeep (SO COLD)
Clark's Take: We rented a jeep to go off roading. Amy was quite excited to drive...turns out it was a stick shift. Amy and stick shifts do go well together with anything above a 1% grade. The guy at the rental company helped us plan our day so we packed our lunch and took off on a slightly cloudy day. Our first stop was Iron City on the road to St Elmo. There was much left except a cemetery and an old power house for the mines. St Elmo was a little more exciting with a few old buildings left. The best part (according to Amy) was the squirrels. There was a small counter where you could buy sunflower seeds and then sit on a bench. The squirrels and chipmunks then proceeded to crawl all over you to eat. These were the fattest ones I have EVER seen. Needless to say we spent a while letting them crawl over us. After that we headed up the mountains to Mary Murphy Mine. This was our first taste of some pretty rough roads. It took us quite a while to get up there but there were several building intact. It looked like some company was also starting a new mining operation in the same area. Any how we pressed on.
We move on towards Hancock Pass which turned into a very rough road. I'm honestly not sure how we didn't scrape the bottom of the Jeep. An hour later we reach the pass at a little over 12,000 ft and ate our lunch. It was very cold and windy so we stayed in the Jeep. Going down was a little easier but we took a detour to Alpine Tunnel (
http://www.narrowgauge.org/alpine-tunnel/html/index.html). This (was) the highest railroad tunnel in North America at the time and quite an impressive sight. There isnt much left but a small group of volunteers has been restoring several old buildings. Sadly, the entrance had a cave in so you cant go in anymore but was still a neat stop that very few people get to see. We continued back down the mountain which followed the original railroad bed. I really wanted to go back over Tin Cup Pass but we were warned that it would take us at least 3 hours and it was already getting late. So we decided to go back the long way over Cumberland Pass and Cottonwood Pass (both over 12,000 ft). We got back late but saw some amazing and remote country side.. I dont know how the folks that live back in there get anywhere during the winter as there was still some snow when we were there. We got back to town, dropped off the Jeep, and that ate at the local pizza place which was delish.
Thursday, Sept. 8 "Lazy Day"
This day was exactly as it sounds. Lay around the cabin and watch TV and sleep and read magazines. I loved it. We walked around Buena Vista to get some souvenirs. We got some candles and a picture frame.
We ate at the Asian Palate for dinner. It was authentic-y Asian food. I had awesome noodles.
Friday, Sept. 9 "Denver Day"
Clark signed me up for Texas de Brazil's free birthday dinner. So we went Friday night. It was so different. Salad bar first. They give you a card with red on one side and green on the other. If you want meat turn it to the green side. I'm talking as much meat as you want. The beef ribs were my favorite. It was so so salty and tender......I need to go back here ASAP. We got the banana/apple pie for dessert. Delish.
Saturday, Sept. 10 "Home Day"
Flew home! Met Clark's parents to pick up the doggies and then headed back to AL.
PS: More pictures to come, but they are on Clark's computer.....which is sitting at his desk.
