Summer Roadtrip 2009: June 2009

Last night we stayed in Denver with one of Allen's old baseball teammates, Jon. He is a super guy and we loved hanging out with him and getting to meet his girlfriend Amanda and getting some love from their English bulldog, Broseph, who was happy to help us cope with missing Agee.

This morning we had a yummy brunch and did a little reflecting about the past three years, since we realized yesterday that today is our three-year anniversary. Yeehaw! We're amused to be spending it in the flatness of western Kansas. Tonight it looks like we'll be somewhere around Hays, KS, before heading toward Lawrence and Kansas City tomorrow. If we find anything three-dimensional to take photos of, we'll be sure to post them. Love to all!

So, we thoroughly enjoyed our full day of touring Yellowstone National Park. Saturday evening we got a chance to catch up with our friend Jonathan, who was passing through on his way to begin residency in Tacoma. It was great to see him in such an amazing place, and we had fun hanging out with him even though it was sad to know he'll be living far away from us.

After leaving Yellowstone we headed to Estes Park, Colorado. Allen worked there during two summers in college (following in his big sister's footsteps) with our friend Joel, who came out from NC to meet us for some camping, hiking, and music. Joel is pretty much the closest thing to a zen master of music that we have ever met, and we always learn a lot about what it means to play and love music when we hang out with him. He played some great new tunes for us and listened to some of ours. It was excellent, and we wish his cool wife Jen could have been there too.

We camped up at Pole Hill the first night, and the view was beautiful, as you can see below. The next morning, we had a little bit of a close call when some fellow campers started shooting a .22 at the next campsite over. We heard a series of pops, which was a little alarming, but more alarming was that some of the pops were followed by whizzes just above our heads. That's something you never want to hear. We definitely don't want to hear it again, and we're thankful we were safe despite the utter stupidity of our fellow humans. We hit the deck and started screaming, and the shooting stopped.

Then we headed into town with utmost haste and had a huge breakfast at the Big Horn. After that, we went for a hike in steady rain, and got soaked through. The hike was quite an adventure in itself, with snow covering the majority of the trail IN JUNE and the rain and thunder hounding us back down to the trailhead. After the hike, we returned to the lodge at the Y for some hot chocolate by the fire. Best. Hot chocolate. Ever. Even though we were wearing wet jeans that weighed about 25 pounds.

After a quick nap, the three of us headed to the local bowling alley, where we absolutely dominated the lanes, since the weather was too unfriendly for sunset viewing. The next day, we drove up Trail Ridge Road to catch what is allegedly an overwhelmingly beautiful view...but it was completely obscured by fog. (Sorry Gin...I still haven't seen it up there!) The road was actually closed off due to the weather, which was stubbornly uncooperative for our entire second day there. Despite the rain and fog, though, we managed to feel pretty well-adventured, and we loved getting the chance to have some great conversations and play music with Joel.