Sunday, August 19, 2012

Good times in Colorado

Colorado was a good time. We headed for my friend Phil's place in Avon, who I meet in 2009 at university when he was studying abroad and who I also visited last time I was in the US. Phils a good dude so I was looking forward to a chilled out time relaxing in the mountains, not worrying about long days driving, setting up camp, cooking or how I can cool down my beers! Again it was a nice drive through the Rockies and just as the drive was nearly complete only minutes away driving on the I-90 highway we had an exciting moment.

All of a sudden we hit a wall of rain and hail. So to my terror I suddenly had no control of the car while traveling at 65mph on a downhill gradient, so this was very concerning. The car slowly veered across the lanes, but I kept calm and slightly applied the breaks, but I stopped doing that because that was worse, put the car into a lower gear, and quickly undid that change, again not helping. Our only option now was to ride it out till we lost momentum and fully regained control. I'm not sure what was more difficult: trying to control the car or trying to reassure Amy as we slid across the highway.

Crazy Mountain Brewry
Phil's dog Keona

The good times at Phil's involved beer and pizza to catch up over on the first night. The next day a visit to the local brewery 'Crazy Mountain' for beer tastings and playing a fun American game 'corn hole' in the car park. We sampled their full range with a sampler 'flight' followed with a few pints of their delectable IPA. Wicked spot to chill out with a very local feel with the bar right within the brewery with tables and games right in the car park out in the beautiful Colorado sun.

We continued on the beer sampling theme with the bunch of us heading back to Phil's all with a different Colorado 6 pack in hand with beers right across the flavour range. A great medium for cementing old friendships and making new ones.  Phil's friend Chris, who says 'STOKED' alot, was super keen to meet us, so much in fact that he drove several hours from Denver to come party for the night. Also Phil's ladyfriend, flatmate and a chirpy dog`(who loves chewing bottle caps) made for a fun group for the night. 

Chris taking us on an adventure
Rocky Mountain NP with Chris, Amy & Thomas
Mr Chipmunk


Our new friend Chris then convinced us to stay in Colorado an extra night by offering to take us for a hike out in the Rocky Mountains National Park and checking out a local brewery in Estes Park. So off we went out to the park on another stunner of a day, perfect for a wicked little walk a few hours up then back. Some awe inspiring scenery getting right amongst some big mountains, barely another soul about, leading right up to a beautiful lake and getting into some crazy deep snow, shortening our walk as it was too deep to go any further up the mountain! Pizza and craft beer as a reward for the effort. Also, we finally spotted a elk with antlers just as we were driving out of the park when he decided to cross the road in front of us and I have to mention the new friends we made with the little chipmunks on the road side, awww! 
Elk with velvet antlers



3 comments:

  1. Colorado sounds mint!!!! I never seen the pic of the Moose, wicked bro!!!

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  2. I have just read this out to Gran and she wants to know whats the difference between a moose and an elk?

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  3. The picture we have is of an Elk! We unfortunately didn't see any moose on our trip! Moose and elk are both part of the deer family, but moose are the largest, they're HUGE, black and have crazy big, thick antlers!

    We're going to try and finish entries for our road trip tonight, so hopefully Gran can see all of those!!! Hope you're enjoying them!

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