What are you doing here?!?

It's the funniest thing, being out on the road and meeting up with people from back home.  We left the green hills of South Dakota to head towards Loveland, Colorado.  We found a RV park that was at the base of the Rocky Mountain National Forest.  I do believe that it is my favorite spot that we have been to yet. This was our "backyard"

We would keep our back windows open at night and listen to the river rushing by...awww, peaceful.  We only stayed here a few days, so we had a lot of things to pack into a small amount of time.  The first day, we made the Meep meep do all the hard work.  We took her all the way to the top of the mountain.

Thank goodness we came equipped with sweatshirts!

As Richard played in the snow,

I was busy checking facts about this beautiful place, and of course trying to get close enough to the furry creatures but no such luck...those suckers are quick!

We called it a day at about the time that we could no longer feel our faces and headed back down the mountain.  For those of you who know Richard really well, you know he is not a fan of heights.  So I recommend that anyone going to the top of the Rocky Mountains with him should go in a vehicle with 4 wheels and make sure that he not intrude on the oncoming traffic, or suggest to the park rangers that they install a guardrail!

The next day, we went back into the forest to go on a hike.  This is me at Bear Lake and in hindsight, we should have just hiked around the lake but I had to go up the mountain to the glacier...

That's me up there in the distance.  Rich says he fell behind to take a picture but we know the truth.

So if we had just stayed around Bear Lake, I wouldn't be out of breath right now because what was suppose to be a nice walk turned into a 3 hour hike.  But, we finally made it!

That was great and everything, but now we had to get back down.  Thankfully, Richard is thoughtful enough that he packed a baggie of pretzels, peanut M&M's and a delicious bottle of water when I wasn't looking, so we had some soul food to get down the mountain on.  Upon our much desired return to solid ground, I found this cutie

Not only did he come right up to me, he then SNATCHED the pretzel from my fingers.  Then the little bugger sniffed it, threw it on the ground and had the audacity to come back and ask for something different.  Well, I wasn't going to give him a M&M so he was out of luck with me.

We left Loveland, Colorado after 3 days and headed to Creede, Colorado.  There we stayed at Antler's Lodge and met up with these folks...

I would like to introduce you to Shawn and Jen from our "old neighborhood".  They were having a family get together and we were invited to join.  Good times with friends and great hamburgers is what we like to do, so for 2 days we had a fantastic time hanging out in the mountains.  After Antlers, we drove 22 miles up the road to stay in Southfork, Colorado for the next week.  Peaceful little community full of ice cream socials and domino tournaments.  Out of the blue, a different set of friends called up and said they were on a road trip and were headed our way!!  Lucky us!  A small taste of home in a beautiful mountain setting!  Jeff and Christy stayed with us for 3 days as we explored Pagosa Springs. 

Where, I had to touch the water,

and make Jeff pull over and take in the serene waterfalls

After they left for home, we headed to a reservoir to take in some sun and fresh air.  Although the water was freezing, the beach area was nice to lay out on.

After one week in Southfork, we sadly decided to leave Colorado and head to Santa Fe, New Mexico to study up on our WWII factoids.  Watch out...I'm coming for you Fat Boy!