Tuesday, July 21

Today was more random than most of the other days we've gone through so far. We woke up when we wanted to, no "get up now, we gotta get going" (hint, hint, that's Mr. Mazur and Mr. Haeseker), so we ended up leaving the campsite to explore quite late, around ten-ish. Not that it matters very much, because we saw quite a bit of good scenery as it was. The first thing that we did was to go to the Visitor Center to get some information about Estes Park. After some amount of inquiries, we decided to travel on the Peak-to-Peak highway, from Estes Park to Boulder, CO. We made the decision with the knowledge that we wouldn't cover the whole highway, which was, point to point, 55 miles. A round trip would be 110 miles, 70 more than we traveled yesterday - and today was down time! Anyway, we took a side trip from the highway which took us into the Wild Basin area of the Rockies, on a dirt road along an idyllic stream with firs and aspens dotting the way. We stopped at a nice picnic area, around 10:45 or so, and just walked around for a bit, marvelling at the beauty of the mountains. Eventually, we decided to take a short hike, maybe half a mile long (my apologies to Troop 215 that I did not go further than that). We hiked along the trail for about twenty-five minutes, viewing the superb alpine scenery - and attempting to avoid the stench of huge piles of horse excrement every two meters. That's right. We travelled on what we suspected to be something different than your average trail, and our suspicions were confirmed when we saw the sign: "Horse Trail - 1/2 mile to Finchley Lake, 1 mile to Ranger outpost." Go figure. By the way, note that "Horse Trail" is written in bold print. After our stinky side trip, we headed back to camp for some lunch. Lounging for about an hour, we ate potato chips and sandwiches, while planning in our heads what to do next. Following a standard lunch, we headed downtown to drop Mom off at the laundromat while Dad, Philip and I strolled around the shops along Elkhorn Avenue in Estes Park. Now, for those who are skeptical about Elkhorn Avenue, it is the equivalent of just about every major street in Gatlinburg, except with better flora and far more parking. And yes, I will admit, there was no Ripley's Believe It Or Not museums or 16-screen cinemas, but most of the shops were loaded with unnecessary pieces of garbage. Nevertheless, we did find some very cool things. For one, Dad bought me a 5'9" hickory walking stick, for the value of twenty-six dollars and ninety-five cents. Also, we saw a rock shop with exact casts of life-size Triceratops and Tyrannasaur skulls. Both were priced around ten grand. Not exactly a quick purchase. Dad got a tye-dye style shirt colored completely orange on the front and completely blue on the back. Who says dads can't be ostentatious? Oh yeah, Philip and I each got a half-pound of candy, courtesy of Dad (and of Mom's absence). We all climbed into the car after an hour and a half of looking and buying and proceeded to pick up Mom at the laundromat, along with about 150 pounds of clean clothes and bedsheets. When I got back, I almost immediately got on the computer to write about today, so here I am, typing away. Hey, that rhymes! Anyway, here's a "goodbye and good night" in Polish: Żegnaj i dobranoc!