Paris' Hilton

I Lady Tamara www.HighlandTitles.com would like to invite you into my last few days of adventure in Colorado.

We decided one afternoon after a late lunch and before a cozy late dinner to take a drive out into the Rockies. We went from Interstate Highway to State Highway onto a county road that soon became a dirt road that meandered its way through a forest and eventually became a dirt trail. Some of this trail was still covered in snow and ice. We passed an old, hand dug, hand reinforced (as in no visible nails) busted up falling down mine( see photo). This vision of creepy haunted mine only helped to serve my soon to be “what have we done?” imagination. Several hundred feet after the mine we come upon several signs tacked on trees and an open gate on the trail that warn of private property and keep out. There is no place to turn around except for a slightly wider section of road inside the property bearing the warning. We crossed the threshold. We started the process of a 7 point turn to maneuver ourselves out of there. Now it is usually at this point in the movies that the bad thing happens. We were vulnerable, sideways to the only escape route. I just knew that at any moment a gaggle of unshaven ruffians shouldering their grandpas shot guns would bear down on us. Nothing happened so far. We make our turnaround and head back down the trail to the gate. Do we go through the gate? Just as I am about to relax Tony stops; still inside the property line and the female inside my head is screaming. I have a vision of becoming some woman starved mountain man’s girlfriend, firewood chopper and rabbit skinner. I am watching our 6 in the mirror as if my life might depend on it. He gets his GPS bearings and slowly moves forward. I sigh and he looks over and asks……”what?”

Dinner that night was the best tasting food ever!  Partly because I was not being held prisoner by the sons of the Deliverance crew and partly because only people from The Czech Republic can make stuffed green pepper like my mother, cooked red cabbage, dumpling and a steamed bread dumpling gently decorated with creamy brown gravy.

On another day, on another adventure we were driving up from Bolder to the grave sight of Buffalo Bill (photos on my Facebook page) on Lookout Mountain. We pass a few other vehicles coming down, several bikes with spandex clad people peddling up the incline and several coasting down. What we did not expect to see was a boy in a stocking cap, scarf trailing behind him in the wind, ski suit and boots careening toward us around a sharp curve on a skateboard. He survived.

Still on another day as we are trekking up to the summit on the Guanella Pass (see Facebook also for photos) we round a turn in the road and there charging down the pass coming around a curve is motorcycle boy. Popping a wheelie and hitting his throttle like he believed his bike was a horse and he was about to win a joust.  He also survived.

As we reached the summit we spy a red truck off to the side of the road buried in snow to his wheel wells on one side, axle on the pavement at a large drop off from the road. There are three people in the truck. We stop to assist if we can. One shirt clad lad gets out finds a tie down strap and we make three attempts to free him. We are not successful. I notice that none of the kids are wearing coats. It is only about 42 but it is windy and feels much colder. Do they not live there? Do they not know it could become chilly? And is it me or if you live in a place that tends to get snow covered and you own a truck would you not also have an emergency tow chain? We did and used it several times for ourselves and to assist many others. But then we lived in Alaska. Maybe it was the law. After we tried to help the over wrought teen became snippy and refused any further assistance. We were going to offer to notify park rangers but he insisted he could deal with it. I sure hope they made it home. No, we did not leave them alone. There were three other trucks and 2 cars up there. Please!

We pick up a brochure from the lobby of the Community center that advertises Silver mine with tours and adventure. We follow the directions and cannot find the mine. We drive back by again, nothing. We remember a time in California when we went on an adventure into some coastal mountains looking for Lorna Doone winery. We never found that either. We are convinced that the two places are owned by the same people.

We drive up to a state park that boasts fossils in a huge fossil bed. We arrive and there is a fee to drive around and hike around and basically just be there. NO. We turn back and head back up the road to an old pioneer farm we had passed to check it out. I am thrilled to find a restroom, rustic, but usable. So I avail myself of this and as we hit the trail to the buildings we pause at a sign to find out who had settled there. It is part of the fossil park and please go pay at the visitor center. Really?  I am awaiting my ticket in the mail for peeing and not paying for the privilege to do so.

We spent a part of the day on Halloween exploring an ancient pioneer cemetery (photos on Facebook). There were headstones from 1873 on to the present.  There were stakes in the ground with numbers on them and some had old plaques attached to stakes with no information except one that said unknown infant. This one still lingers in my mind. What was odd was that almost all of the graves were children. Staring from birth to about 14, and maybe only a few adults, the deaths of the children occurred in 2 separate years.  One group was about 1887-1889 and the next group was from about 1892-1893. The adults born were all born in the 1890s and died in 1930 and beyond. Where are the adults for the all the children? Because the adults buried there were all children at the time the other children were born and dying. If I can find 15 minutes in my day I will scour the web for info…..I love a good mystery/puzzle.

I will end this letter with this. Everywhere I go and I stop at a Starbucks there is usually a wait, sometimes short most of the time long. We found one that had no wait. But as Murphy’s law is always in effect the minute we publically said we were at Starbucks a man walks in behind us, then a bus pulls up and about 11 Paris Hiltons unload in dresses and shorts and jeans with skimpy shirts. No wonder they needed coffee, they were freezing to death. Paris’ this is not the mall!!!!! It is a small coffee shop in a little village elevation 8,000 feet and it is October in Colorado!!!!

I have errands needing my attention.

Have a wonderful cold day adventure today!