everyone should come to the rockies

Woke up to another absolutely perfect day today. It was cool in the shade and pleasantly warm in the sun. I don't think clouds really exist here. If we do see clouds, they're huge pillowy looking ones that decorate the sky nicely. Kevin, Ben's roommate, cooked us an awesome breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, and potatoes. We had a relaxing, lazy morning while we tried to figure out what to do for the day.

We decided to go play some disc golf up on a mountain about 20 miles away. We took Ben's truck and Kevin's topless and doorless Jeep. Jo and I rode in the Jeep...what an experience. It was pretty similar to driving through the mountains on a motorcycle I'd imagine. We were winding through absolutely beautiful mountains, following the Eagle river. There were tons of rafters in the river who looked like they were having a blast. We then played some holes of disc golf up by Colorado Mountain College. I bought some discs because I figured I'd be playing when I go to Tucson too. I'm not sure how great of investment they were considering how terrible I am at the game. I'm really lousy, but at least that means I get a pretty good workout. Regardless, it was a great spot to play in and we all had a good time.

Afterwards we found some lunch at a little coffee shop/cafe in town. We drove up the Colorado river where we were going to find some cliffs to jump off of. The Colorado wasn't as cold as the Eagle but still was not warm by any stretch of the imagination. To get to the cliffs we had to swim across the river before climbing up the cliffs. Andy, Jo, and I decided against that after looking at the current of the river. Ben and Kevin were going to give it a shot, though eventually decided the current was too strong. There were tons of rafters/tubers in the Colorado too. It seems to be a pretty popular activity out here.

We had a pretty relaxing evening. We went to a nearby park to play some basketball but found four little girls there already playing. There was only one hoop so we just shared and played with them. They had been playing with a soccer ball so were perfectly willing to share the hoop since they got to use our basketball. They were adorable. We played two games of HORSE and I won both games! I'm not really sure why I was decent, I just like to think I was making up for the disc golf game earlier. After the games we played on the swings and slide, doing funny tricks and all of that childhood stuff.

Kevin made some delicious jambalaya and cornbread for dinner. He's from Georgia and sure knows how to cook. Jo and I had to go to the store to buy some food for our hike tomorrow. I picked up a brownie mix and we just ate warm brownies a la mode. It doesn't get much better than that.

Tomorrow morning we're waking up to do an alpine start on a fourteener. To the normal person that means we're waking up at 5, driving two hours and going on a nine mile hike up two 14,000 foot mountains. I'm both excited and nervous. Andy says that it's not easy and it's tough to breathe but the views are well worth the trouble. It's going to be awesome but difficult.

The views and the mountains really take your breath away as it is here. Everyone should come to the Rockies, it's just healthy for your soul. Everywhere you look, you see something beautiful. The air seems so fresh and there's frequently a smell of spruce. The lifestyle out here is so outdoorsy and healthy. Even if you don't like outdoors activities, it's worth coming out here just to drive around. The views are inspiring and the people are friendly.

All that being said, I'm going to call it a night since I have to be up in a few hours for a crazy hike. I'll upload more pictures tomorrow evening if I make it out of this hike alive!