Playing with Paka in the Rockies

Louisville, CO was our best stop yet (and we've had some great ones)! First, after three straight days of driving, it was really nice to spend a day in one place. Second, it was really fantastic to see Errin and Jeff, the best hosts ever, and to really see, first hand, just how nice they've made their lives. Finally, Pixel had an amazing time playing with her new "big sister" Paka, with whom she ran around in circles for hours and hours! 

Jon has been sick for most of our trip, and Errin gave him some Chinese medicine her acupuncturist swears by.  Jon was a bit anxious about taking it, but he did, and today he's the perfect image of health.  Perhaps he just got over the cold, perhaps it was the medicine.  Who knows :)

Pixel and Paka went on a hike together on Marshall Mesa.  It was a lovely, cold hike with lots of exciting things to smell and roll around in (!).  At the end of the super exciting hike, however, Pixel met her first cow (at a good 30-40 foot distance) and it scared her badly. The cow was merely grazing, and didn't even see Pixel for all we know, but Pixel's tail went from perky to tucked firmly between her legs in a nano-second.

We had dinner at a newish Pizza place called "The Bop Organic Pizzeria" in Boulder.  Jon found it on Yelp, of course. They had a delicious gluten free crust that they were willing to put nearly any PIzza onto, and so we enjoyed three unique and filling Pizzas.  They also had a gluten free brownie dessert which we consumed quickly between the four of us.  Boulder turned out to be *the place* to be gluten free!

We left windy, beautiful Louisville at around 8:30am this morning and, unintentionally, drove ourselves right into a Blizzard on Vail Pass.  It took us nearly three hours to get over Vail Pass, as a semi-truck rolled over near the summit just before we got there. We were quite frightened, and poor Jon was driving because I had thought it would be a good time to take pictures out the window. At one point we were stopped for a good 45-50 minutes near an exit, and were given the option to take a longish detour through smaller mountain roads or just sit it out. I noticed most of the truck drivers were sitting it out, so I got out of the car and went to talk with them.  They advised us to stay put and wait for the 70 to clear up, even if it took an hour or so, as the other route was far less then safe in blizzard conditions. Honestly, I think the wait ended up taking us less time than the detour would have, and we made it through safely so I'm sure we made the right choice.

We ate lunch and calmed our nerves at Larkburger in Edwards, CO, which had great reviews on Yelp. They are an entirely wind powered restaurant with all natural ingredients, and their old fry oil is used for diesel. The food was tasty.  I had a portobello burger on a lettuce wrap.

Pixel got to experience snow for the first time. She was rather unsure of it at first, but by the last opportunity she had to play around in it she seemed to find it interesting enough to enjoy. At our last snow stop she buried her nose into a snow tunnel that took her less than a second to create.

Now we are pushing on through Utah in order to attempt to keep to our schedule, as our plan is to return to LA by tomorrow night.  We should be able to spend some time in Cedar Breaks and Zion tomorrow morning if we get an early enough start.

This is my second to last travelogue entry for this trip. The next one will be at the conclusion of our adventure.