The Western Slope

So sorry we been out of touch for so many days. Quite simply we have been having
time of our lives! Oh, the things we have seen and done. The western slope of the Rocky Mountains holds so many visual wonders. We have had the very best tour guides anyone could ever have—John and Elaine Merkert. We took off for Ridgway State Park which is in the area called the Switzerland of the Rocky's near Ridgway Colorado, Ouray & Telluride. If you are interested in some awesome pictures I’ll be happy to burn you a disc and send to you.
We met up with John and Elaine’s friends Jeff and Karen and they all took us in like we were old friends. What a cordial, wonderful group of people and dogs! We ate, toured, and laughed so hard we cried.

John and Elaine took us on our first 4-wheel jeep tour on Last Dollar Road over the mountain from Rigway to Telluride through high mountain meadows, Aspen groves, rushing mountain streams and by old abandoned ranches. I was not sure if I would like the experience and now I am hooked on seeing the mountains “up close and personal.” Betsy

Betsy is correct, we've seen some absolutely beautiful sights. The ride over the mountains to Telluride was spectacular.
But my favorite was our second Jeep trip from Redstone to Marble and then on to the tiny town (about 5 or 6 cabins) of Crystal.
Our driver, Cousin John said that if you see pictures of Colorado scenery it was probably taken in this area. We four wheeled
up paths that I think a mule would have trouble with. We were about a mile from Crystal and met a couple walking down the
path. We stopped to talk and I noticed that the man had a Notre Dame hat on. I ask if he was a fan or from Indiana and he said "both". He and his wife were from Elkhart! He told us to be sure to stop at his friends house in Crystal and buy some books about the area. We did stop and discovered that the authors wife and the only other customer in the "shop" were both graduates of Indiana State University!! So we had the authors wife, the customer, Betsy, Jamie, and John all in little Crystal, CO and graduates of good ol' ISU!

John and Elaine's friends, Jeff and Karen were so nice. Jeff is so laid back. Karen on the other hand is a female version of Ed Merkert. I'm not sure what planet Ed and Karen came from, but I think it was the same one. The last day at Ridgway Jeff and I took a wonderful trip in his two person kayak. We found a waterfall that emptied into the lake and positioned the kayak so that on the left was the waterfall and the right were the spectacular mountains. You couldn't help but say WOW when you looked either left or right.

The whole Colorado portion of our trip was so special because of John, Elaine, Jeff and Karen. All four are slightly nut's but in a good way.

We returned to Denver and Chatfield State Park on Tuesday to regroup. On Wednesday evening we invited John and Elaine to our campsite for our first dinner party in the trailer. I cooked dutchoven stew and Betsy whipped up a peach tart. The stew took almost all afternoon to cook because of the altitude.

This morning we left Denver and headed north into Wyoming per John's directions. We are now in Lusk, Wyoming(population 1500) which is located in the east central part of the state. Tomorrow we head east into Nebraska and then north to the Black Hills area. I purchased a gold pan in Denver that I'm just itching to try out. The store offered two sizes of pan's and I selected the big one because I plan on finding a lot of gold. JK

Picture #1-Aspen grove
Picture #2- John, Elaine, Jamie, Tipper & Katie Kazoo