Day Four - Making Our Way South

No exercise today.  I'm sure I'm going to regret the lack of structured exercise when I get back and step on the scale, but I've been getting some happenstantial exercise in at least!

So this morning, we woke up in our cabin-shack nice and toasty warm, about as the sun rose.  I, of course, had to pee like every other morning, but sans bathroom, our only option was to trompse out into the sub-freezing weather and piss in the trees.

Which I did.

When I came back in the boys were stirring, and as I donned my cheapo winter coat from Walmart, I told them I was gonna go out and find where the real bathrooms were.  I walked around the cabin loop, not venturing too far, and didn't find them.  When I returned, I found Cory locked out in his jammies, after he'd made the morning trompse as well.

He blamed Cole, but the cabin doorknob turns from the inside but not the outside when it is locked, and it'd been locked all night.  I recall Cole getting up at some point during the night to pee outside too, but he must not have let the door close all the way like I did this morning, else the poor kid would have been locked out while we were both asleep!  And, the bears!

Anyway, we all got our coats and hats and gloves on (well, Cory's ONE glove. He's already lost the other) and then explored around Steamboat Lake a bit before packing up the cabin and heading out.

It was another hour to get back to Steamboat Springs for breakfast, so we turned The Golden Compass back on and listened while we drove. After a hearty and relaxed breakfast at The Shack Cafe, we hit the road again back towards Denver.

On the way there, Cory wanted deperately to do some climbing, so we found a trailhead alongside the road in a BEAUTIFUL part of the mountains and spent about an hour climbing almost to the top.  There was snow everywhere, so it was a bit slippery, but the boys enjoyed the snow at the base and got into a snowball fight.  As with everything with boys, it was fun at first, but escalated to the point that one got pissed at the other and Daddy had to put the kabosh on it before both were crying.  I got some good pictures of the fun part though.

Anyway, back mid-statish, our goal was to hit three places: Tiny Town, The Coney Island Hot Dog stand, and The Buck Snort Saloon, then go on to Colorado Springs for the night.

By 5:25, we were 1 for 3.

Tiny Town was closed for the season, but we found The Coney Island after some shenanigans with Google Maps on my phone leading us astray.  We had a late afternoon hotdog snack (nachos for Cole), then played a bit by the river in front, and with a dog that'd found us before heading to the Buck Snort in Pine.

In the Pine area, we saw some of the absolute coolest scenery yet, and so were excited to get to the saloon for supper (even though we weren't that hungry after the hotdogs), which is perched atop some major rocks and a gorge.

Much to our dismay, we pulled in at 5:25 to find out they closed at 5.  Apparently, the whole town of Pine shuts down at 5 too, so we trudged back, having gone well outta our way to see the stuff, with a bit of a sense of failure.

The good news is, though, that we then just hit the road for Colorado Springs, which we got to early enough as a result of the two closures to have a late supper with my cousin Marisa.  However, none of us had showered due to our rustic accommodations last night, so first st was to check into the hotel (Hyatt Place, very nice!) and shower up, quick like a flash.

She chose Fargo Pizza for us, which was a pretty cool parlour-type pizza joint with an arcade in the front.

We ate, caught up, and played, then parted ways and headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime again, like 9:45.

So, despite the disappointments today, it was a pretty good day all 'round.