A Sick Puppy; Vail Trail; Frisco; New Duds

This morning we slept in; it was a nice change of pace, since my bride is usually up with the roosters. It was partly because little Gretchen got a bit sick last night; she’s fine now, but tending to a sick puppy at 0230 is hard on a DogDad and a DogMom.

After brekkie, we hit the bike trail. Suzanne at first wanted to drive 35 miles for a more challenging trail, but I wussed out and convinced her that 15 miles of big hills to 8,500 ft elevation was enough. Here she is with a smile on her face... I should have taken one with her pushing up a 40 degree hill, but I wasn’t at my best then, either. At least the second half was mostly downhill.

We were riding alongside the Vail Golf Club at the time; what a beautiful course! Here is a foursome about to tee off with a big drop downhill to a gorgeous fairway.

The bike trail (which is also a walking/hiking trail in summer and a cross country ski trail in winter) goes right through Vail Village, and then through some very nice residential areas. Here are a couple of houses that we liked...  

As you can see, it's not exactly low income housing...

There are also some very nice resorts here in Vail and nearby towns. This one looked acceptable.

After our bike ride, I did some bus preventive maintenance, and added oil and coolant to our big Cummins diesel engine.  Then we got underway for our next stop, Frisco... no, not that Frisco... it's a small town east of Vail, in a pretty valley, but you have to crest Vail Summit, elevation 10,603 ft. The grades were so steep that even with a 400 hp diesel, we were only making 35 mph at times. Some of the semis were down to 25-30, so we were doing okay. Oh, yes, Suzanne was driving again; after all, it’s not easy driving in the mountains, and she needs the extra practice. ;-)  

Frisco doesn’t have a campground or a Wal-Mart, but it does have an Elks Lodge, so we are here dry camping (no hookups), like last night. Suzanne has a live TV interview Monday morning with KUSA-TV Channel 9 in Denver, and of course she doesn’t have anything at all to wear (do all women have this malady?). So, she went shopping this afternoon at an outlet mall, but while she did find one dress she liked in 2 hours of shopping, they didn’t have her size, but one of their branches down the road toward Denver will hold it for her... geez, I could walk in to a store and be done in 10 minutes; well, unless it was a bike/hiking store... I know, vive le difference.

While looking for a place to walk the puppies, we watched a young guy fly fishing in the stream below a bridge. His girlfriend was acting as spotter on the bridge, telling him where the trout were; even so, he came up fishless; it’s a tough sport, and that’s why they don’t call it catching. (Okay, so I may be rationalizing... and no, it’s not because the fish are smarter than I am...)