Retirement Travels: Pine, Colorado and the Red Rocks Theater

Wednesday, June 28

We are off on a new and different adventure.

Yesterday we drove from Beaufort to Slade's home in Cary to spend the night before embarking on a different kind of adventure. We are leaving the motor coach at home for the first time in our travels since retirement.

Instead of the usual 2-week drive to Colorado, we're flying there. We had initially planned to take the coach, but time constraints on all of us called for a different plan. So this morning, Anna drove us to the airport (after a 5 AM get up) to catch a7:15 flight to Denver.

On arriving in Denver around 10 AM, we picked up a rental car and headed to Pine, Colorado. Neither of us has ever heard of the place, but after wrestling with plans and reservations to go to Colorado Springs and stay on-base at the Air Force Academy, we decided to look at Airbnb and see what might be available.

That's how we found Pine. While searching for an Airbnb around Colorado Springs, this one in Pine popped up. The reviews were good and it looked like it might be a nice place to spend a few (4) days. And it's seemingly in the boondocks, which we always like.

So it's off to Pine, about an hour and a half Southwest of Denver.

We spent the time in Pine on Great Divide Trail

The cabin is about a third larger than our guest house in Beaufort and in a beautiful setting looking toward the Continental Divide. We quickly found that it is almost like a home built by someone who is not a carpenter. It's functional, but not finished very well, or in some cases not at all (the electrical system). But it works, and like I said, it's in a beautiful setting.

Beautiful views from the cabin

And we quickly discovered that there is NO Internet service. Nothing. We weren't prepared for that. We just assumed that we would have it and we could do all our planning when we got here. So now, we are somewhat at a loss.

We also expected a guest book like we have in our homes which would provide all the local information. But there isn't one.

We'll be here for four days, so we immediately set off to find the nearest grocery. I thought I had checked this on the Internet before leaving home, but we initially set off in the wrong direction and after about 10 miles, while civilization seemed to be melting away, we decided to turn around, retrace our steps and go the other way – back the way we had come from Denver. We remembered seeing something that way.

Interestingly, within the span of 20 miles, we felt that we had moved from the 1800's to 2018. Pine is a historic area that has not been gentrified or discovered it seems. Not only is it a historic area, but it looks it.

We found a great Safeway grocery, did our shopping and returned to the cabin.

Now we settled in for a quiet evening, very quiet and dark, reading, relaxing and learning.

Appropriately, a pine

Thursday, June 29

Today is to be a day of exploration and trying to find out where the heck we are.

We went back to a country store, built in 1898, that we had stopped at for directions yesterday and after talking to a couple people, set out a beautiful 2+ hour drive along the Pine and Platte Rivers.

One of our first tasks is to find a map. An honest to goodness old fashioned paper map. We've become too used to Google Maps. But when there's no Internet, there is no Google Map.

And we went back to civilizations for a few things we had forgotten to get yesterday, or some things (like a flashlight and map) that we found we needed.

This evening we went to the Buck Snort Bar and Grill for dinner. This is a restaurant like no other we've ever been to. First, it's very hard to find. You have to ask a local (or maybe it's on the Internet or Google – but we don't have Internet). You turn left at the Emporium in Pine – a place that looks like it went out of business several years ago. Then you drive up a semi-paved road for 5 miles.

It's a fascinating drive, with cabins of every description hanging to rocks on the sides of the mountains or built OVER the creek that runs through the valley. Then you're there. It's not much to look at and the deck sits right on the creek. The building is an indeterminate age. Maybe 20 years, maybe 100 years old. But it's the local “in” place.

Homes seem to be hung on the rocks

Or sitting over a river

The girl who took our order was obviously on something other than a mountain high. The cook/manager had to come back out on the deck where we were seated and ask what we had ordered. Apparently, the “waitress” couldn't quite figure out what we wanted (a hamburger (which was great) and nachos (not so great). We were served, enjoyed it immensely, and found our way back to the cabin for another great night's sleep. I've slept great both nights. Must be something to do with the altitude – around 8,000+ feet.

Friday, June 30

This turned out to be a wildflower expedition day. On the “paper” map (which are quite good to use for exploring and planning – I had almost forgotten how good they can be), we identified what looked like a promising area to go hiking near Mount Evans, Deer Creek. After a few wrong turns and going up some dirt roads, we finally found the trailhead. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my “big” camera, so all we had was the phone camera, which I find to be difficult to use. As soon as we started up the trail, we realized this was going to be a great hike on which to view and photograph wildflowers. They are abundant. We slowly made our way “up” the trail for a mile or so, stopping often to take pictures (and catch our breath – we're not acclimated very well to the over 10,000 foot elevation (and we're not the hikers we once were physically).

We generally followed a small creek thus the name Deer Creek. It was a lot of fun. We haven't been hiking like this in a long time. After returning to the car, we head back down to civilization.

On the way to our next destination, we stop at a backpacking provisioning store to see if we can find Clara some decent hiking shoes. We don't, but get a recommendation for a small winery nearby for lunch. We did the winery and really enjoyed the wine and lunch.

I had noticed on the paper map that there is a scenic byway nearby, the Granelle National Scenic Byway between Grant and Georgetown. We're sure glad we did. It was a beautiful drive, peaking out at nearly 12,000 feet above the tree line and near some remaining snowfields.

We have rented a huge Dodge Durango SUV. It's fun to drive in the mountains and Clara wanted to drive the hour back to the cabin. Well, she grabs a hold this big boy and drives like a race car driver. We finally arrive back on the road up the mountain to the cabin and I thought she was going to wear the brakes out. 40 Mph. Brake! 10Mph. 30Mph. Brake, 5Mph.

When we turned on Mangy Moose Drive, we stopped to photograph a deer, but when we started up the mountain, the brakes were squealing like you wouldn't believe. I figured we were in for a problem and would have to get the car towed back to Denver or get Payless to come and bring us another car. I couldn't imagine what might happen if we tried to drive it any further. Probably a fire in the brakes. We parked it for a couple of hours and let the brakes cool, then I went out and they weren't squealing quite as badly. I backed the car up a few times and applied the brakes real hard, and the sound went away. Maybe we're okay, we'll see.

Saturday, June 31

First thing is to find a store where Clara can get some decent hiking shoes. We hope to do a lot of hiking in the next week and a half, and she needs something more substantial than a worn out pair of tennis shoes. We find a store 20 miles away and she got some awesome new walking shoes.

Now, we have to try them out, so we go to a state park not too far away and give them a workout.

Staunton State Park is packed on a nice weekend, obviously from people from Denver which is less than an hour away. We pick a simple trail (Davis Ponds) of a couple of miles around a lake and enjoy a slow leisurely walk while she breaks in her new shoes. We stop by the lake and have some water and a peach. While reclining on the side of the hill, a friendly chipmunk decides to visit. For the next thirty minutes, we enjoy his visits and share some of our bounties.

It's time to head back to Pine, but first, we decide to visit the Pine Emporium in downtown Pine.

Well, we've never seen such a place. I would guess that there are hundreds of thousands of “things” in this place. It was truly unbelievable! My thought while going through the 12 to 15 inch clearances between shelves stacked 6 and 8 feet high with “things” was “God help the owner and parents if they bought a 3-year-old kid in here”. It would be an absolute disaster.

The owner commented on my shirt, which had Key West on it. Amazingly, he is from Key West and owns the Banyan House on Whitehead Street, one of the most photographed houses in Key West. Obviously, he had done well somewhere in life, because he spends his summer here in Pine, very near the Buck Snort Restaurant which we went to a couple nights ago.

We had an interesting conversation about this eclectic community and now I think I understand why we are paying such an exorbitant fee for the cabin we rented. He tells us that there are many Airbus's in the area, and apparently we are in one of the “nicer” ones. There are some rental cabins that have water delivered in tank trucks, and sewer pumped out because there are no water or sewer systems attached to the cabins. This begins to explain why this place is rated 5 stars and has glowing reviews. We are apparently in one of the finest cabins in the area. And the supply of Airbnb's is far exceeded by demand. Who would've guessed that we would end up in one of the most eclectic communities in Colorado?

We had a great dinner at one of the two restaurants in the area where we had prime rib and a half rack of ribs. They are fantastic with the ribs winning the day.

Tomorrow we leave here for a night in Denver to meet the kids and go to a performance of the Avett Brothers. Should be interesting.

Overall, this part of the trip has been very interesting. It's been a long time since we've not traveled to places and stayed in our motorcoach. As such, we have generally stayed in more populated areas where adventures were as easily accessed. This has reminded us that we need to go to different places rather than those that we have enjoyed before. There are so many adventures to be had and we need to get out to the unknowns. This has been one of those!

Sunday, July 1

A most unusual day.

We leave the 1800's and head to Denver.

But first, this morning Clara and I went for a hike along the river near our cabin.

Then we headed to Denver to meet the kids. We decided that we needed to change cars. We've been driving a big Dodge Durango. We had initially thought that we would use it and Slade could pick up a small car. Instead, Slade ended up with a Chevy Tahoe, extended version. I think it might be big enough to be an RV. It's huge. Anyway, we went back to the airport, picked up a little Subaru and met the kids at a shopping center.

Then we drove both cars to the Table Rock Inn in Golden. Turns out that the hotel is on the main drag and all the shops and restaurants.

After a short walk around town, we head out for the main event.

Candace had arranged for us to have tickets to the Avett Brothers concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, along with 9,000 other fans. This is a genuine Wow! From what I've learned, it is one of the premier live show venues in America.

I also learned that you are supposed to stand up for the entire concert. That's a first for us. And we enjoyed it tremendously. A real treat.