Colorado, Sept. 2010

After several weeks of discussion with his former roommates Bart and Duane, Nathan and I made plans to swing up to Colorado to spend some time with them again. We hadn’t seen them since our wedding three years ago, so Bart, Janet, and Kate’s visit to Colorado Springs sounded like a perfect opportunity. We planned on meeting them on Saturday morning, with the intention of visiting the Great Sand Dunes National Park, so because that would be quite a haul, Nate and I decided to head up on Friday, and to spend the evening in the lovely town of Trinidad, CO.

We left work slightly early so we could make good time, as we had a number of things we wanted to do while in town. The drive up was uneventful, though we were starving much of the way. We stopped in Las Vegas briefly with the intention of getting a quick bite to eat, but for some reason, we couldn’t find any restaurants! We were in too much of a hurry to really try much harder, so we just continued on our way.

Once in Trinidad, we stopped at a ma and pa motel, the Budget Inn, and checked in for the night. The room was rather large and had a strange odor, but we didn’t stick around for long. Dusk was settling, and we had some geocaching to do. Our first cache brought us to a baseball park in a hilly part of town. We trudged through the brush and the hills and found our spoils just as darkness was settling in. We were glad to have our first Colorado cache, but decided the rest would have to wait until tomorrow.

From there, we motored over to Rino’s, the Italian restaurant with singing wait staff that I had visited a few years ago. We had such a great time, and the food was superb, and the singing brought me back to a bygone era during which time I’m sure I was supposed to have lived. Unfortunately, the restaurant is never open for lunch, so getting Nate there had been a challenge. This time, we were not disappointed! We were seated after a five minute wait and were treated to show tunes and songs from the 1950s that I knew so well. It was hard to resist running up there and grabbing the mic and just belting a tune along with them! And EVERYONE sang…the host, the waiters, the chef, and the busboys. And they were all wonderful! No doubt they all had to audition to even work there. On top of that, the atmosphere is so high class…chandeliers, low lighting, and situated in an historic building from the 1800s. We were served bread and oil, which is often bland at many such restaurants. Here, it was flavorful enough to be downright addicting! And our meals were superb, too. We were also treated to a little extra entertainment by the two guys seated next to us who were getting pretty inebriated and were making plans to come back again the next day. Oh, how I would have loved to have come back again soon. We need more places like this – so special and unique, with quality to boot! Rino’s is a must-do if ever one is in Trinidad.

The next morning, we got up early, as we had a lot of things we needed to do before meeting the gang up in Walsenburg. We started out by hiking up the bluff with the Trinidad sign (ala the Hollywood sign) overlooking the city. We’d attempted this once before, but weren’t sure which road was accessible to the public. We’d considered driving it, but the gravel road made me uneasy in my car, even though I have driven on much worse. The sheer drop-offs weren’t encouraging. We hauled ourselves up the road for a little under a mile before leveling out atop the bluff. We joined a few other people up there, enjoying the views and cozying up with the giant letters. The other group started to drive back down the road, and we high-tailed it back on foot, beating them down by quite a healthy lead. Then we picked up a few more geocaches before hitting the road up to Walsenburg.

We ran a little late, and the gang was already there waiting for us. It sounded like Kate was being a bit fussy, so we decided the Great Sand Dunes may not be the best option right now. Still, we all came quite a way and hadn’t seen each other in forever, so we decided to catch a bite to eat in town. We found a diner downtown, and seeing as our other options were basically fast food, we decided to give it a shot. We were pleasantly surprised, as the food was decent, and despite being outside of New Mexico, their green chile was not too shabby. The only downside was the extremely slow service, but we had no real plans just yet, so it was ok.

After eating, it appeared that Kate was doing better, so we suggested, rather than heading further south, why don’t we head north, back toward Colorado Springs, and hit the infamous Bishop’s Castle. Nate and I had been there way back in 2002, on our very first trip together, and, seeing as how it’s a work in progress, we wanted to see what, if anything, was new. Much to our delight, everyone agreed, and we began our trek, along windy mountain roads, to this monument to hard working poor people.

Duane and company sped off, and we lost them, but they also stopped for gas, so we wound up beating them to the castle by about 15 minutes. Nate and I didn’t waste any time, and we headed up to the spectacle of human ingenuity. How would one describe Bishop’s Castle? Well, it’s a structure built out of scrap and refuse, by a man of questionable sanity. All around the site are signs full of rantings about the establishment, and warning people to climb at their own risk. Once you arrive, you are greeted to the verbal rantings of Mr. Bishop himself, as he yells about the government and the sheeple of society. Between rantings, he occasionally stops to work on his newest addition: the moat.

The castle itself is an enormous building with three main floors and a number of towers, each of which you can climb. A dragon adorns the front of the castle, way up high, and it used to breathe fire before the establishment put a stop to that. Darned risk of forest fires. There are also balconies that wrap around the outside, and many spots which don’t really have railings. It is no place for someone with a fear of heights. Like me. Haha! But I’ve been on a “getting over fears” kick for a while now, so I wasn’t going to let a little acrophobia keep me from experiencing something this cool.

Last time we were here, I only went part way into the orb tower: the section of the castle sporting a round orb that originally was meant to rotate. This time, through the encouragement of other scared visitors, I made it to the top. Yeah!! Then, the rest of the gang joined us, and I got even braver. Duane, Bart, and I climbed into the tallest tower of all. It seemed like the spiral staircase just led into infinity. I got ALMOST all the way to the top (and had I realized there was a guestbook up there, I probably wouldn’t have turned back). The only reason I stopped was that the steps got narrower and narrower, and there were large sections with NO wall and essentially nothing of substance on which to cling besides the steps themselves. Still, I got within one twist of the top, which I think is pretty impressive. I was surprised to run into a group that toted a daschund with them – in their arms. I used my hands to crawl up the darned thing. I dunno how they managed!

Then Duane and I went back to the orb for a photo shoot. Nate stood on solid ground and took our picture…many times. The entire time, the structure was swaying and making awful squealing sounds, and we were just gritting our teeth saying, “Hurry!! Take the picture already!” Haha! It was awesome. Quite the rush, indeed.

After we’d exhausted all explorable nooks, we reconvened at a picnic table in the shade. I had told them about a tiki bar that served German food, of all things, up near CO Springs, and I had been wanting to go back for a long time. I don’t think anyone really believed that such a place existed, but being this far, I figured it’d be a perfect time to go back. We’d planned on going back to NM that night, but it was Saturday…what’s another day out of the weekend? So we headed up to CO Springs, following Duane back to his house. On the way, we passed an insect museum we’ll definitely have to return to see. Other than that, it was mostly uneventful.

We arrived at Duane’s house, which is located down a tiny street that most people wouldn’t even notice, and amongst some trees. It’s also alongside a small farm owned by the university. Duane gave us a tour of his lovely home, and then we went next door to see the farm’s chickens. While there, some students came over to greet us, and we chatted chickens a bit. Of course, they called their easter egger chickens Araucanas, which was totally wrong (and corrected ME when I called them EE’s!), but whatever. Araucanas are a very rare (and tailless!) breed, as are Ameraucanas, yet just because their birds lay blue or green eggs, everyone thinks that’s what they have. What they have are common mutts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – I have easter eggers, too. It’s just that this is a very sensitive point amongst serious breeders of true “aucanas,” and a huge area of ignorance among many chicken owners. Oh well, /rant. :)

After settling for a while and playing with Duane’s adorable and vocal cat, Nate, Bart, Duane and I headed over to my restaurant: The Castaways in Manitou Springs. It was just as I remembered it: a cozy, island-themed restaurant, complete with lovely tiki drinks and weinerschnitzel. We had a fun time, joking about the menu and laughing about this and that. While the food wasn’t as great as I remembered from last time, it was still a fun place that I’d recommend again. I’m so glad we were able to spend as much time as we did with everyone! Hopefully we can do it again before another three years go by.

After dinner, we briefly stopped at the grocery store, and then we bade farewell to the guys. Nate and I hit the road, heading south with plans to stay in Alamosa for the night. We tried to beat the darkness, but it eventually caught up with us before we made it to Walsenburg. On the way, I made reservations at the Grizzly Inn, which wound up looking worrisomely like a Travelodge (with which I’ve had really bad experiences). Luckily, it was just fine, and we were able to spend a restful night there.

The next morning, we got up early and found a number of geocaches around town. I really love geocaching in new places because it allows you to get to know a town and see places you might ordinarily not have visited. This was no exception, as we visited some neat city parks and some forested open space land. The only trick is that you wind up looking suspicious in the process. We were even being watched suspiciously by some homeowners at one point. Oh well, we were as discreet as possible!

After we’d exhausted our list of geocaches, we headed over to the Great Sand Dunes, another place Nate and I had explored on our first trip together. That time, we were lucky, as it had recently rained and the sand was easier to traverse. It was also cooler. Despite all that, it wasn’t really bad at all! The sand was much easier on which to walk than I expected, though it is still a challenging workout. We hiked pretty far in, my goal being to get to the end of the dunes, or at least to the highest dune. We got really far and darned high, but it was getting late, and we eventually did have to turn back. Plus, the sand wasn’t doing my poor camera any favors, though we did get some nice shots. It was like being in the Sahara, and I still say they should rent camels – what a neat addition that would be!

So from there, we headed on home, stopping briefly for a very disappointing Dairy Queen experience with rude employees. It’s a shame that’s the only convenient DQ on our way home from points north. We made it home before too late and had a bit of time to relax before starting our work week. It was a wonderful, though whirlwind, trip, but it’s always nice to get home.