Stitzs in Colorado

Pop a squat, this may be a while.

Dad, Mom, Me, Jess, Anna, and David headed out for a week in Colorado. Dad had never been further in to the state than business trips to Denver, Mom and Anna had never been at all, and David had only been in the winter. The new experience had everyone extra excited to get out of town.

Jess and I rented a car because after calculating the gas mileage we'd get in the CR-V it would only run us $100 more or so to rent and fuel a sedan of some sort. The rest of the family took the Taurus. Our "Ford Fusion or similar" ended up being a Hyundai Sonata. This had Jess very nervous, as if it's not a Honda or Toyota, it's crap. No offense to anyone, but I'm almost in agreement. Can't forget the amazing silver Nissan Altima. Anyway, the Hyundai was nice and it drove pretty well so we packed it up.

We departed Wentzville Saturday morning around 7:30AM anticipating a stay in Limon, Colorado that night to rest up and have a nice morning drive in to Denver to hang out. Tim Russert's "Big Russ and Me" audiobook was our entertainment for the day. Great "read", evoking all of the emotions and keeping us interested all the way through.

The drive through Missouri was uneventful. Kansas was different to me for some reason though. Usually, it seems so boring, maybe because I usually drive through at night. This time, however, it was beautiful. We had one of those sunny, blue, puffy cloud days and that must have changed my perception. I won't bad mouth the drive through Kansas anymore.

I will begin badmouthing our rental Hyundai Sonata. Somewhere in the middle of Kansas (I think we were between Salida and Hays) the ride started giving us trouble. I was using the cruise, doing about 78, when the cruise just shut off and the check engine light turned on. Hopefully no big deal, I'll just go manual and restart the cruise. I stepped on the accellerator and nothing. I stomped on the accellerator and nothing. The car was idling but I couldn't give it any gas. Pulled on to the shoulder of the interstate to assess the situation. The car was running but I couldn't give it any gas. We decided to restart the car to see if that would restart the drive by wire system. It worked, and we were on our way. This happened two more times. Once to Jess and again to me. There was no way we wanted to continue the entire trip with this vehicle so as Jess drove I called around to try and find a replacement. The closest rental car office was at Denver International, but we were just past Hays. They would tow us a new vehicle from Denver if ours broke down, but who knows how long that would've taken. We decided to cruise right on through Limon and go straight to Denver International. Everyone was more than happy to do that as we had been making good time. At the rental office they were extremely helpful. They took us right in, gave us no hassle, and let us pick any car on the lot for the same price. We decided on a brand new 4WD 4Runner, figuring it would be great for the mountains. It was the 6cyl and we still ended up getting 22MPG on the way home. We made our way to a hotel, checked in, had some dinner and drinks, and went to bed. Things actually worked out better than our initial plan.

Up the next morning, awesome free breakfast, spent some time in the LoDo area of Denver. Then we were on our way to Breckenridge. Of course, the drive to Breck is amazing and we really enjoyed it. Lake Dillon looked especially nice and we decided we wanted to spend some time there. We arrived at our condo, 3 bed 3 bath, 3 decks, all wood and stone, walk to Main St., perfect. Thanks Mom and Dad, nice work.

We did a lot of fun things, and just kind of enjoyed being away. Relaxing, dining, hiking, biking, shopping, boating, rafting. I'll let the photos talk from here. Click to enlarge. I have a lot more pics if anyone is interested.


The Town Of Breckenridge was our home base.












Monday we rented a boat on Lake Dillon. Weather was perfect. You're not allowed to touch the water in the lake. $50 fine if you do. The folks in Denver drink the stuff so they try to keep us dirty humans out of it.












David and I did some riding.











We rafted Brown's Canyon on the Arkansas, outside of Buena Vista. Class 3+ water according to the outfitter, though they were at record water levels due to the snowy winter. I think Mom was the most excited for the rafting, and it showed. When given the option she was always the first to tell the guide to hit the big holes head on. She wants to try the Royal Gorge next time. Sounds perfect.






After the rafting, we hit the local Mexican joint for some fajitas, Coronas, and margaritas. Coyote Cantina was right down the street, and it was obvious they were used to catering to hungry rafters. Good stuff. We get around to the Mexican restaurants, and this place had very impressive salsa. Everything else was great as well.




So, the entire family did some bike riding as well. We spent some time on the multi-use trail that ran from Breck to Frisco. It would be great if we had more stuff like that around here.











We met this bad ass on the trail. Her bike was equally bad.



Spent some time at The Brown. Flowers intoduced us to this place a few years back. More of a local hangout. It hasn't seen any rehab since it opened I don't think. They say it's haunted. It's perfect.









Caught the 4th of July Parade. There were thousands of people on hand to take in the fun.







One for Jeremy.







Caught the Firecracker 50. I wanted to participate but there just wasn't enough time, more important things to do.

The race leads out the parade. You can see how many people were on hand to wish the riders luck.



900 or so riders registered, I believe a bit more than half finished.



Pro men lined up.



The lead out.



Pro men start.











Pro women.





Dad, David, and I decided to try and tackle a 14er. Specifically, Quandry Peak, just south of town. 14,265 feet above sea level. As far as fourteeners go, relatively easy. But not easy in the big scheme of things. No one had any problems except for me. Got a throbbing altitude headache at the peak. Went away pretty quickly upon descent. We took our time, rested often, and enjoyed the views. 3.3 miles, 3300 feet up, took just under 8 hours. Dad kicked ass. He had absolutely no problems, what a badass. This was really a great experience that I'm glad the three of us got to share.









Hoosier Pass in the background, heading toward Alma and Fairplay. That's the way we took to Buena Vista to raft.





















Where's Waldo?





Almost there.



At the top.











We saw some wildlife on the trip. Pretty sure on the names, not positive.

Pica.



Ptarmigan.



Marmot. (Alpine Groundhog)



Mountain Goat.



The fanny pack brigade. These things rocked. I need one myself.





So the best part of the trip without a doubt was getting to spend time with one another. This was a great idea and a wonderful vacation. I love all of you guys. What's next?











The drive home was not too bad. Kerouac's On The Road audiobook was our entertainment. Somewhat fitting. We stopped at Gate's BBQ in KC for dinner.

THE END