Big Horseshoe/Fall River Road 40.24N 105.38W 8671ft

What an incredible day — we had a great drive in from Grand Island and made good time, in spite of getting off I-76 too soon and taking an extra 10 miles on the 2-lane highway. We listened to :NPR again on various public radio stations. When they faded, started to repeat or played yesterday’s programs, we stuck CDs in the player — the RAV doesn’t have one and the Silver Beast does, so that was a treat. We got into Estes Park at 12:30 or 1:00pm — much higher average speeds were allowed across the whole of Nebraska and Iowa, so we got in much earlier than planned.

Tomorrow we’re planning to hike in RMNP. We drove up all the roads that are currently open, today after checking in, and got a yearlong National Parks pass — when we go to Maui in February 2005 we’ll still be able to use it at Haleakala. It’ll probably pay for itself, because we’re going on to 3 other national parks on this trip alone.

We had dinner at Mama Rosa’s in Estes Park — I’d like to figure out how they made their “Confetti Spaghetti” pesto and try to duplicate it at home. It had finely minced black and green olives, black pepper, roasted red pepper, crushed red pepper, fresh grated parmesan, parsley, and I think garlic but not a lot. The pasta was fresh, too. There was grilled chicken on the top with a dab of very good alfredo sauce – plenty of flavor from some kind of really good cheese – Gorgonzola? It reminded me of mizithra cheese. David had regular basil and pine nut pesto – served over fettucine and also with grilled chicken. He had so much he couldn’t finish it, so we brought it home to the little kitchen and it may or may not get heated up in the microwave later.

We took a lot of photos — a LOT of photos, and David’s moved them onto the laptop so we can look them over and also to make room for more photos on the cards. Some of the wildlife ones he took are AMAZING. and there was one of a blooming cactus that I found in a rock ledge micro-environment that is outstanding. The picture I took of it is only so-so. We encountered plenty of elk, woodpeckers (two kinds, big and small), a photogenic marmot, various ground squirrels, and just as we arrived back at the B&B, a bunny ran across the road.

As we were driving back into town for dinner, we passed an outdoor clothing store that had a mannequin in summer shorts and light sweater, and standing next to him was a llama mannequin (a llamequin?) wearing a red sweater. I was so tired and relaxed that it took at least 10 seconds for this to register, but finally it occured to me: “What IS the well-dressed llama wearing this season?”

We’ve got no TV, looks like no radio but we do have a CD player, we’ve got several games and a ton of books because the bed is built ofto an alcove with bookshelves at head and foot. It’s very high (the bed) and the stepstool is not just for decoration.

Time for sleep – bedtime for gonzos.