Yeah,Woody Creek was a bit disappointing after all,and we moved along pretty quickly.Luckily tho,coming back down the valley,we ran into the 'Strawberry Days' festival at Glenwood Springs.I managed to indulge my fetish for native food and sampled a CornDog and a Philly Cheesesteak (both very good).
We stayed in a really bad motel around Golden (both the motel and surroundings were like a damned maze to get around,the motel was expensive,dirty,and had no breakfast on offer other than at the restaurant next door,to which we got a 'discount coupon' for being a motel guest--mighty 10% off
.),and set out quite grumpy the next day,which we shouldnt really have,as it turned out quite nice.We paused outside Morrisson and snapped a few shots of Dinosaur footprints on the side of a hill,after having a giggle at a related but quite dubious gift shop at the foot of it,then dove into Denver to take shots of a model of a big blue bear which peers into the second-storey window of the Denver Conference Center,and of a statue of a massive dustpan and brush nearby (plus some statues we happened across en route.).
We then blew north to Fort Collins,and spent a good couple of hours nosing around the 'Swetsville Zoo',a pretty good junk-art collection east of the town,free to enter,but we left a donation.
I also tracked down a damned fine tobacconist in Fort Collins itself,and had to be physically dragged out of the place by Persistence,as she felt our budget was threatened by my prolonged presence.
Clipping Wyoming,we proceeded into Nebraska,and stayed at a fantstic motel at Ogallala,which we'd planned to call at anyway,in order to get pics of the town's water-tower,which is painted up like a UFO.
This morning,we headed out for the North Platte Classification Yard.In simple terms,that translates as 'The Biggest Trainset in the World',8 miles of trains,which if it doesnt sound that exciting to you,didnt to me,either.We climbed a purpose-built observation tower,and after about 20 minutes,I got Persistence to nip back down to the parking lot to grab my binoculars.I'm not that mad-keen on trains,but I spent a happy couple of hours watching incoming trains being split up and sent down a hill to a holding yard where they were shunted about and attached to ongoing trains.It was all a lot more interesting than it sounds
This afternoon,we played 'hunt the ghost town' around Hastings,NE.We eventually tracked down 'Spring Ranch' after a spectacular navigational effort,only to find that its all gone,and only the Graveyard remains.It was frankly odd,even in bright sunshine and hot weather,to wander around the place,it had something of an atmosphere,but was interesting too.
We tried to get a motel room back in Hastings,to no avail,and I had to drag Persistence away before unpleasantness occurred.The desk-clerk at the last place we tried must have something of an issue with English folks,but we jacked some free wifi in the carpark,to search for somewhere else to stay while she stood at the door and glared at us.
The heat remains blistering,even at 11pm(we're confused today,we've lost an hour having come back east out of Mountain time,back onto Central),and now the humidity has ramped right up too.Persistence shall have to climb over my dead body in order to turn off the aircon tonight.