Rocky Mountain High...Colorado

The Rocky Mountains appear to us in the distance.

We stayed at the Foot of the Mountain motel, a rustic gem with beautiful views.

Climbed the Chautauqua Trail with Chris. Needed lots of stops to take deep breaths since the elevation is so high. Chris was a wonderful tour guide and we learned so much about rock formations, trees, wildlife and fire mitigation.

It was windy on the hike but Charlie enjoyed his ride up the mountain.

Flat iron was amazing. We learned how these formations were made and how crazy people climb straight up these rocks for fun.

Chris treated us to cocktails at Chautauqua while we waited for Emma to finish work.

Our view from the porch. Boulder is filled with beautiful scenes like this everywhere.

Before dinner, Chris showed us where he fought his last fire. Another amazing view.

Chris and Emma were wonderful hosts. We had such fun touring Boulder and enjoying their company. Can't wait to come back to visit for a longer time.

After a dinner of tacos we ended our night with gelato on Pearl Street. 

 

High hopes for our short stop

 

Windmills and wheat fields were all we encountered as we crossed Kansas on our way to Burlington Colorado.

We hoped to see the Kit Carson museum but it was closed.

We hoped to ride the carousel for only a quarter but it doesn't open until June.

Making the most of our limited photo ops in Burlington.

But the bright spot was we found an amazing restaurant just across the parking lot from our

low quality Quality Inn. (Since it's only $87.00 a night we can't really complain. ) Ann had a French 75 and Poblano pepper with plantains and I had local draft beer and duck legs with fingerlings and fresh vegetables. In this town of 3500 people in the middle of nowhere, this was a hidden gem!

Best news of the day...we both tested negative!!

Podcasts, Spotify and 12 hours on the road

This was the weather warning as we waited to leave our place in Nashville. We had thunderstorms that were so loud they shook the house. The rain was coming down in a torrential downpour. We couldn't even get to our car until the rain abated which delayed our start time by an hour.

Charlie's car bed and safety belt kept him snug and safe during the ride. 

Look closely and you'll see The Arch.

 

Lots of beautiful scenery during our very long ride.

Hazards abound on the rode west but we navigated them all and arrived safely in Gladson, MO in time to crash in our hotel room for the night. Stay tuned for more adventure pics as we travel to the county seat of Kit Carson County Colorado.

 

Honky Tonk Women...and Charlie

We decided to do an early walk around Nashville so we started off with a tour of all the famous music studios. It was cloudy and cool but we bundled up and kept warm.

The famous RCA dog was just one of many iconic sites.

Ann plays a duet with Owen Bradley, famous music producer from Nashville. He produced Ernest Tubbs, Burl Ives, kd lang and Patsy Cline among other greats!

Not sure why these nude people are dancing. Maybe they want those rain clouds to open up on us soon.

We stopped in a local coffee shop for some coffee, water and a womlette (that's a waffle and omelette combined). It was still so early we had the shop pretty much to ourselves.

We found out about a local donut place that makes layered donuts. Imagine croissant pastry and donut taste and filling. Ann is sampling a raspberry filled sugar donut at our outside table.

After the donuts, the rain began to fall but it didn't stop our exploration of music square.

We read that you could visit the outside of this famous prison where films like The Green Mile were filmed. We drove up to the gate and were promptly told to "move along" in an aggressive way by the guard. He made us do a quick u-turn and we only got this shot from the highway as we left.

After leaving Charlie back at the Air BnB for a nap, we drove back downtown to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Neither of us knew anything about country music but by the end of the tour we realized how much country music has been a part of our lives. From Loretta Lynn's commercials for Crisco to Hee Haw and the Dukes of Hazard and Andy Mayberry.

A wide range of women's country singer costumes. Can you guess which one is Dolly Parton's dress?

Elvis' gold plated car was just one of many cool vehicles on display.

Lots of greatest hits and gold albums covering the walls.

The rain began to come down harder as we left to find dinner at Assembly Food Hall. 

We ended our day walking past all the bars and saloons filled with live country bands playing music. As we walked down the street, each bar had a different song playing and the energy of the music and people was a wonderful way to end our two days in Nashville. Now, we honky tonk women will go to bed early and hit the road for a long ride to Gladston, MO as we travel on west.

 

Tennessee turnaround

 

Of course, Ann is the DJ of our road trip and makes sure our songs sync with our destination.

We're staying in the Johnny Cash suite Air B n B. Great little place in a sketchy neighborhood.

First stop was to Centennial Park to see the Parthenon. Ann and Charlie took a break on the beautiful sandstone benches.

This exact replica of the Parthenon is a structure from the 1897 Centennial Celebration in Nashville. They built this to celebrate the technical and social progress of the new age. Nashville has the reputation of being the Athens of the South. Who needs Greece when we have grits?

It was so nice to see spring flowers in full bloom when it was 31 degrees back home today.

The park had a small lake to walk around. It was surrounded by beautiful trees that looked like cherry trees. 

 

Our next stop was a belated birthday dinner at Urban Grub a place recommended by our Air B n B host. We had homemade mini biscuits with homemade butter and jam to start and a cocktail to toast our first vacation dinner eating food that was not fast cooked or premade.

Ann had the shrimp and grits and I had a double cut pork chop marinated in agave mustard and topped with smoked peaches. We shared the oven baked asparagus. It was delicious!!!!

We at outside on the patio and Charlie fell asleep during dinner. He was tired from all the sightseeing. He did wake up in the car and try to eat my leftover pork chop out of the "to go" box but I caught him just as he was sticking his face in to take a lick.

Ann really wanted to see the Grand Ole Opry so we drove off to find it. It's actually just a big building right next to a giant mall across from a Dave and Busters. It wasn't as grand as we expected.

Had to take the tourist picture by the giant guitar to prove we were here. Stay tuned for more adventures from Nashville. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow.

Driving, driving, driving...

We spent the entire day on the sunny, concrete highway traveling north to Atlanta. We left at 9:00am, had a quick fast food lunch in the car, listened to a really bad book on audio and stopped for gas many times.

We hit traffic in Tampa and again in Atlanta so we didn't arrive to our hotel until 8:30pm. Dinner was cheese sticks, hard boiled eggs stolen from breakfast and wheat thins.

Best part of the day was all the texts and calls with birthday wishes. Not a typical celebratory day but still grateful for friends and family, excellent car snacks and a comfy bed to sleep in tonight. Stay tuned as we make our way to Nashville tomorrow!