Old friends are the best friends!

We are now in Estes Park, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. We arrived this evening and are all settled in with our motor home connected to all the needed services. Tomorrow we will begin to explore the park and the beautiful town of Estes Park. The busy season has not quite arrived but there are still lots of people here. The RV park does have some empty spaces and that will change later in the summer.

We have just left Littleton, Co where we spent the weekend with some very dear friends of Anne, Dave & Rosanne Minson. We had a glorious visit and we're sure we'll pass that way again. Good friends, good wine, good food, good conversation, good times...it just doesn't get any better than that! Thanks, dear friends!

Tuesday was a quiet day for us, laundry day. Doesn't sound very exciting but after we left the laundromat Anne & I got manicures and pedicures. The women reading this will understand, the guys won't. Such a pity.

Wednesday we drove to Cañon City, CO where we boarded the Royal Gorge Train for a 2 hour, 24 mile trip along a stretch of the Arkansas River. The Arkansas has carved a magnificent gorge in the last three million years. Now the walls of the gorge tower 1178 feet above the water at the highest point. We had seats in a Vista Dome car and enjoyed the trip alongside the river. The canyon walls were magnificent and we saw a deer and Bighorn ewe as well as several dozen rafters floating the turbulent river waters.

After the train ride we drove to Royal Gorge Bridge and Park which is at the top of the gorge. A suspension bridge crosses the gorge at it's deepest point and is undoubtedly one of the highest suspension bridges in the world. We first crossed the Gorge in an Aerial Tramway which danced around a little in the wind. We were told it was safe in winds in excess of 50 mph. We crossed back by walking the Royal Gorge Bridge. It, too, was "wind sensitive" but we had a great time and the views from the top were spectacular. We then took the Incline Railway which takes you down to the train tracks below. We saw the Gorge from top to bottom, a wonderful experience.

Thursday we visited the museum at Petersen Air Force Base. Petersen is dedicated to the Defense of North America. There is a beautiful air park displaying a number of aircraft that played a significant role in air defense. We were able to go through a training module for the Peacekeeper missiles that were the mainstay of our defense during the Cold War. The module included the control room where two airmen would have had the tools to launch up to ten Peacekeeper missiles should the situation ever have warranted it. Fortunately they were never fired. The Peacekeepers have since been decommissioned due to Nuclear Disarmament Treaties. The museum is on the grounds of the Colorado Springs Airport terminal from the 1940s. We would recommend the museum to all who pass this way.