Happy 32nd Anniversary to us! It’s a wonderful life! We left at 8:45 and it was already 89 degrees with sunny skies. Last night when I went to check out the stars around 10:30, half of the sky was filled with stars and the other half to the northwest was putting on a lightning show you would not believe. There were some cloud to ground lightning strikes that were awesome and lots of lightning within the clouds. It was quite frequent at 5 second intervals. There was no thunder or rain. Either there was a huge storm somewhere off to the north or it was heat lightning. Either way, it was quite a show! Leaving Douglas this morning, we were out on the prairie again. The landscape was very much like the Badlands.
As we continued south on I-25, it became more hilly. The road was carved out of this rocky hillside.
We caught sight of the Glendo Reservoir.
Within 5 miles, the terrain became rolling hills sprinkled with pine trees and sagebrush. In the distance, we could see Laramie Peak (10,272 ft) in the Laramie Mountain Range. The wind was a strong crossbreeze which brought tumbleweeds rolling across the highway.
The further south we went, the more varied the terrain became.
This statue of the cowboy and his dog sat overlooking the highway from the bluff.
We entered Colorado and the wind became non-existent.
On the bluff we saw this buffalo statue. I think some artist made a killing making these statues. We saw a camel near Denver. Really?
As we neared Denver, the Rocky Mountains came into view. We could see snow on the higher peaks and this red rock cliff.
Traffic became intense as we approached Denver.
The temp was 100 degrees on the thermometer in the car.
We hit some rain just north of Denver and of course, lots of traffic.
We headed into the foothills as we traveled around the west side of the city.
We arrived at Chatfield State Park at 2:00 and paid our entrance fee.
We followed the road to the campground near the lake and located our site. We set up and relaxed in the AC.
After the rain, the temp dropped to 88 degrees. The campground is very nice and has very private campsites far away from your neighbor. We made plans to meet with Bob’s sister tomorrow after work. Around 4:30, we left to go have our anniversary dinner at Casa Bonita.
It is a cafeteria style Mexican restaurant in a Disneyland setting. In the center of the restaurant there is a diving pool.
They put on a diving show and provide other entertainment. It is very festive inside with lots of amusements for kids.
We ate our dinner and took a walk around to see how much it had changed. It was pretty much the same as we remembered it back in the 80’s. We had to go back there for nostalgia’s sake. The only thing that had changed was the neighborhood. We stopped at PetSmart to get some dog food for Auggie on the way back. It had started raining, but just lightly. There were very dark clouds over the mountains, but we ended up getting a double rainbow! Wow! It was a doozie!
It lasted most of the way back to the campground. As we neared our site, we could see that one end of the rainbow was on the lake.
How cool! By the time we got back to the camper, the rain had stopped and I was able to take Auggie for his walk before more rain arrived. We saw another rainbow appear as we finished our walk. The radar showed that more rain was coming, but not until later. We enjoyed a cooler night and relaxed watching some TV. It was a long, hot drive today and we were tired.
