Road trip!

Act One

We had some time off from work and hit the road for some summer down time last week. We shuffled our recreational plans a bit to make a "quick" dash over to Iowa to visit Kathleen's folks. Kathleen's mom is battling cancer and was just home from a third operation in a year. Not fun. But we had a good visit and got to spend a little time with her brother, sister in law and the two nieces.

Here we are enjoying some nasty ice cream goodies.

If you are ever in Sheldon, Iowa you must visit Dairy Dandy. They have some spectacular ice cream and make a wicked chili dog - available in regular or foot-long depending on your running/caloric intake needs!!!

When you have ice cream, you must balance it out - right?!?!

The ONLY trail in the surrounding area - the Puddle Jumper. Two miles of dirt oasis in the middle of farmland USA. We sometimes take our plethora of public access land in Colorado for granted.

Finishing a run with two things we are not accustomed to - Oxygen (good) and humidity (bad)!
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Act Two

After spending some time with the family, we headed out on the highway for some down time in the mountains. Fourteen hours in the car, touching 5 states and we were ready to be rid of driving for a while. However, that little trip landed us in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, one of our favorite mountain towns. We headed up Rabbit Ears Pass in the morning to catch some trail on the Continental Divide.

Wildflowers galore and the Rabbit Ears - remnants of a volcanic plug on the Divide.

We ran parts of the Wyoming Trail and Base Camp Trail, both are on the Continental Divide Trail route. Both are also part of the Run Rabbit Run 50 mile race - anyone interested in that would have some unreal scenery to distract you from the elevation gain and lack of oxygen! We have biked or run most of the route at different times and it is a whale of a course.

Steve on one of the smoother sections of the Wyoming trail.

Fishhook Lake - unspoiled, high alpine beauty!

Kathleen on a more "rustic" piece of trail coming to a water crossing.

Stopping for a quick group photo at Lost Lake.

Another view of Lost Lake - of course, we found it!

Amazing wildflowers still going strong in August!

High alpine meadow surrounding Dumont Lake - closest Lake to the pass. We ended up with a 13 mile run and some great scenic memories - we will be back to explore more on the pass.

Mr J from Montana.

We met J while we were out on the run - he is through hiking the Continental Divide Trail this summer from Encampment Wyoming down to Mexico. Steamboat was his resupply and "connect to civilization" spot for the week, so we gave him a lift back down to town, showed him where the post office was and dropped him off at the library to do some email. Good luck on your hike!

Stay Tuned ... To Be Continued ...