MAY 1, 2021 : In two weeks from now, my son Ari and I will be starting a 12-day road trip to Colorado. This is our fourth road trip together. We both enjoy the travelling, and it gives us a nice excuse to spend time together.
This trip, however, has me just a little bit worried. Usually when we travel, our days are full from morning till night. This time, I think it will be at a much slower pace – but not by choice. Many, or even I dare say, most of the places we would have visited in the area, are not open now to tourists. Some, such as the Celestial Tea Factory in Boulder, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the Mizel museum and the Cannabis Tour in Denver, for example, are all closed due to Covid. Others, like the Trail Ridge road in Rocky Mountain National Park and horseback riding in Vail, are not open because the summer tourist season has not yet started, and then there is Pikes Peak – closed until the end of the month while they finish renovating the visitor center. Not such a good start.
Another objective of the trip is to test the Wandering Jew application in Colorado. I am now updating the data with the Jewish Heritage sites in the area, and the plan was to visit the locations and verify that the app brings the correct information. However, the app is only available on Android and both Ari and I have iPhones. The app is not yet running on the iPhone, so we cannot test it unless we get an Android phone before then.
On the other hand, yesterday while playing GeoGuesser (my latest pastime game of choice) a beautiful scene appeared – green trees, blue skies, snow-capped mountains. Literally a breathtaking landscape. The object of the game is to figure out using Google Street View, in what state the scene is from. Turns out it was from Colorado, not too far from where we will be going. Seeing this amazing view, made me want to get there as soon as possible.
We will be leaving from St. Louis and driving Ari’s car. Our first stop is Colorado Springs – about 12 hours away. The plan is to leave Wednesday morning and put in about 9-10 hours of driving. We should reach Colorado Springs Thursday morning and are scheduled to then visit Garden of the Gods. Friday, we stay in the Colorado Springs area (originally to visit Pikes Peak but not sure yet what we will do instead). Saturday, we drive to Denver and spend the weekend there. On Monday, we drive to Boulder and then onto Estes Park, at the eastern entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park. Tuesday is hiking in the National Park. Wednesday is driving the Peak-to-Peak Highway to Georgetown, one of the best-preserved 19th-century boom towns in the American West. Thursday morning we have reservations to go on a two-hour old steam engine railroad trip in the mountains, and in the afternoon, we drive to Vail. Friday we are in the Vail area visiting the Piney River Ranch and, in the afternoon, we drive to Leadville, an old mining town with a Jewish history. Saturday morning, we will visit the former synagogue – now a museum – and the old Hebrew cemetery. Afterwards we will start the 14-hour journey back to St. Louis. We will drive until we call it a day and finish the rest of the way on Sunday.
Now that I summed up our plans here – it looks like I do not really need to worry. Seems like there is still plenty left to see and do.
Sounds like you will be busy, but if you happen by Golden (near Denver) and have some spare time, you guys can hit up Ariel 😃 Have a safe trip!
I wouldn’t trust that steam engine if it’s only two hours old. 🙂