Inn At Steamboat Steamboat Springs

Despite what you're probably thinking right now the title to this blog isn't intended to scare or startle you. Today was the drive up to steamboat to visit my brother, Boo, at school!!! YAAAAAAY.

Day 8's drive was our shortest because in order to get to steamboat we had to detour off our original route a bit and fortunately it was only about 3 hours! The drive was beautiful, too. We headed through the mountains and ...

... my sleeves. I’m now in Steamboat, have picked up new tires although I’ve discovered another broken spoke, fixed front rack, stuffed face with good and bad foods, slept well and looking forward to the Strawberry Park thermal pools tomorrow. Matty will be back from sanfran and we should be all go in the afternoon. Only problem is this cold front is here for 2 more nights and It’s going to snow more, stay freezing at night. Bring on the hot weather already.

Had an easy morning. We headed into the ski area and took the Gondola up to the mountain top. We met Kelli , her son Dustin and her nephew for lunch on the top of the mountain. It was $9 for the ride and with that you got a $9 coupon towards lunch. Everyone was dressed up for St Pats. Afterwards we went back to the hotel for a nap and then ...

... find Kelli. We met at a bar called "Slopeside". Everyone was sitting outside at tables set on the snow. The sun was out and it felt really warm. I think I saw Jessie from the Batchelor there with some of his friends. We partied the night away and got home aroune 10.

So, my marvellous mates, Steve and Lorraine (who I met on my 2005 tour to Nepal) came to Denver to pick me up and we drove the 3 hours back to Steamboat Springs (NW of Denver). The drive to Steamboat Springs is spectacularly picturesque through mountain terrain and beautiful passes. Fall (autumn to those of us in OZ) is on the way and the aspen trees are starting to turn yellow and it makes for quite a spectacular scene. The road goes pretty high ...

... to visit Dinosaur National Monument on the way. The cliff face inside the Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center has some 1,500 dinosaur bones embedded in the side of a mountain. Nevertheless the Visitor Center is currently closed, so we give it a miss this time. US 35 ends at US 40, which runs on for 200 boring miles through dry scrub and ...

... So what are the stand out moments so far? Well, I have begun to think of myself as the littlest hobo, going from one town and adventure to another, of course with each one nicely packaged into one day. What are the words to the Littlest Hobo theme tune? I keep trying to hum it to myself. I had a bad day a week or so ago: I had to make really big miles and ended up on an oldrailroad, which was deep in soft sand. I kept falling off as I could not control my bike. When I tried ...

... stores. My beloved Kitchen Aid mix master, that I paid $699 for, here is $299 ouch. I found beautiful dinner sets and cookware but had to walk away.......................... I did manage to buy two pairs of ski socks which at home are $79 each and here are $19.95 each, go figure. I also bought a good quality fish slide, which I have been searching for at home and could not find. Ok my ...

... General store to get gas. You'll notice on the picture that it serves as the ice cream parlor, liquor store, post office and gas station. Can't beat it - all in one! Gas was pretty expensive considering Atlanta's prices at $3.19 a gallon. A few days ago it was up around $3.30. Any case, we filled the tank and headed towards our hike location. Along the way, we passed Hans Peak (I plan on hiking it ...

... sang a song about rainbow one appeared in the sky although it was nearly dark. The crowd went crazy in a huge burst of energy. I found a ride back in a VW bus with some nice kids and a guy I had met at trade circle for a few minutes named Mystic. I ran all the way into the middle of the trails to say my goodbyes but it was so late noone was up. So I turned around and booked it back to the bus and made it just in time to hear the alarm going off for leaving.