6-17-17

When the alarm went off this morning I really did not want to get up. I slept so well in the hotel. But we had things to do and places to be. We are breakfast at the hotel and pulled into the Toyota dealership about 7:30. They were performing a 15,000 mile service and in an hour they called us back to a freshly washed car. 

We arrived at the US Olympic Training center for a 9:00 tour.  Everything was working out perfectly on our adjusted itinerary and we were even an hour ahead of schedule. I drive through a construction area and about 5 miles later we were picking up speed to cross the mountains for Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument when I said "why is my tire pressure indicator on?" And then I felt that the car was losing air in a tire with a familiar lub luv of rubber on pavement. I managed to pull over three lanes to the shoulder before we were riding on the rim. I have roadside service but it was completely useless because I had NO SERVICE on my phone. And then all I could think was that I was going to have to pull everything in my trunk out to get to the spare tire. Everything in my trunk= two duffles of clothes and toiletries, a duffle of shoes, a tub with all of our cooking and in camp gear, a propane two burner stove, two cots, two sleeping bags and an old school metal Coleman cooler. It was quite a sight to see all of that crap on the side of the highway while I was trying to get the tire out. Luckily, right as I got the tire out, Brett rolled up behind us with his hazard lights on and offered help. While I'm completely capable of changing the tire, my adrenaline was running pretty high because where we were pulled over was not the best area. Within a half hour we were rolling on the donut and heading back into Colorado Springs. We broke the no GPS rule and found a different Toyota dealership where we spent almost two hours playing cards to get a tire that doesn't match the other three. 

Our timeline was completely off but we headed west again, me a little nervous of a repeat flat and feeling plum worn out from the stress. We made it to the monument and took a little hike to see some of the petrified trees and help get some of the bad juju out. Junior ranger badge and park stamp in hand we were on our way to Denver and then we hit stop and go traffic. We had to get off the highway in Larkspur because we have been trying to drink extra water to combat the ridiculously dry air. Larkspur is home of the Colorado Renaissance Festival and there were two guys in the gas station with devil horns. Seriously. 

When we got back on the road the traffic opened up and before we knew it we were in downtown Denver. We could not get all the way to the Capitol because Pride Fest was in full swing. We found a parking deck and walked through the festival to get to the Capitol for our picture. 

Heading west from Denver we stopped and grabbed some pizza to eat in the car and made it to our camp ground in Central City just before 8:00. We were met with cold. Already 57 degrees, we quickly put up the tent and changed into warm clothes for the night. The elevation here is 8978 feet. Looking forward to the Rockies tomorrow.