I promised some people that I would give a fairly detailed account of my trip to Colorado, just because it was filled with adventures and interesting things.
Thursday, July 28, 2011:
Mary and I left Manhattan around 7am, super excited for our weekend trip to Colorado to see many things and visit our lovely friend Rebecca. We drove I-70 until Oakley which we then took two-lane highways pretty much all the way to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. We got to see lots of corn in Kansas and lots of beef once we crossed the state line in Colorado. The problem with two lane highways is that there are only really small towns off of them. So it took us several hours to find a place to eat lunch and have a potty break. We found a really small town with a gas station, luckily, since we were running low. We didn't know how long it would be until we hit a bigger town so I grabbed a hotdog and Mary grabbed a tuna snack and we sat out side and watched some llamas walk around the street. We got back in the car and in 10 minutes we hit a much larger town, with much more lunch varieties, Rocky Ford, CO. This is where we eventually got lost, because the highway that Google Maps gave us was closed for construction and the detour signs were very few and far between. Luckily, my dad gave me a giant road map of Colorado before we left so we found our way to Pueblo with it. We drove longer and arrived at the Great Sand Dunes after about 11.5 hours of driving. We rushed to the visitors center so that we could get there before it closed, forgetting all about the time change that provided an extra hour before closing time! We decided to backpack camp on one of the dunes. So we loaded up our Dads' Army Issued backpacks and duffle bags and began a long, arduous journey up a sand dune. The Sand Dunes were huge, 700 ft high, just of sand. In one book I read that there are old wagons from pioneer days buried in the Sand Dunes which are continually changing with the wind.We finally made it far enough to camp and then we saw big dark clouds rolling in. The wind picked up dramatically. And I was actually scared that I would be taken up in the storm that was coming (I acted like a freak). So after making it all the way up there, we decided we would spare our lives for the night and not get struck by lightening, and just go straight to Gunnison, CO. Our great friend Rebecca was camping for her job, and wouldn't be home until late Friday, but Rebecca's boyfriend, kindly said that we could definitely crash at the apartment a day early. So we left the park, just as sun was setting. We saw many deer as we were driving and that scared me for the rest of the trip because it was so dark and windy on that drive, my mind made me believe that there was going to be a deer at every turn in the road. We were running low on gas so we stopped at the soonest gas station we found. Once we filled up the tank a little, I stuck my key in the ignition and the car wouldn't start. I tried it again, it still wouldn't start. Here we were in Middle of Nowhere, CO, pouring rain all around us and my car wouldn't start. I took a deep breath and I asked my Heavenly Father to just touch my car with His hand and lead us safely to Gunnison. A moment later my car started and we left for Gunnison. We did get to Gunnison safely where we got to meet Rebecca's other roommate and her mysterious cat, Journey.
Friday, July 29, 2011:
This was the day we would hang around Gunnison until we got to meet up with Rebecca. Scott, Rebecca's boyfriend, gave us several options for a great breakfast. So Mary and I dined at a local cafe, The Bean. Munching on burritos I loved the idea that I had no where to be and no schedule and really no worries at all, and that was a magnificent feeling. We walked around downtown Gunnison, which isn't much but 4 or 5 blocks. We went to the visitor's center so we could find some trails to hike. They were super helpful and after a little playing in the park we went to The Dillon Pinnacles trail, about a 20 minute drive from Gunnison. I think we got lost, it was only supposed to be four miles, but we were out there a long time for 4 miles. We ended up turning around, I think we probably did 6 or 7 miles. So we were tired little hikers after it was all over. We went and got some yummy cold drinks and hung out by some fountains, then it started to rain. We decided to try to take little naps in the car for a while, as the apartment was locked because the repairman brought a new fridge for the apartment and locked as he left. After our naps we went to Mochas, so excited for our friend Rebecca to return from her camping trip. We enjoyed happy hour, buy one get one free deal, and Mary taught me how to play Golf the card game. We saw some super cute kids there and soon enough Becca called us; she was home! We went straight to the apartment and then out to eat at a local restaurant Gunnisack. Then we enjoyed the river near Gunnison. After going back to the apt. we strummed Rebecca's ukelele and went to bed.
Saturday, July 30, 2011:
Becca took us to Judd falls, which was outside Crested Butte, near Gothic, CO. We hiked a couple miles and saw the gorgeous waterfall and enjoyed the thousands of wildflowers along the trail. We took tons of pics and stopped on the side of the dirt road on the way back to take even more pictures of all the beautiful flowers, I don't think I've ever seen so many flowers. We ate lunch at The Brick Oven in Crested Butte, which is so touristy and cute I loved it. We sat outside and enjoyed the mountain air. After taking a while to decide, we figured out we all loved the veggie lovers pizza. After eating we stopped at this photographer's gallery, she had everything printed on canvas and all of the pictures of Colorado/Utah were just magnificent. We got back into the car to head to The Black Canyon, I warned my friends that I would fall asleep on the ride, and I sure did. We made two stops at the canyon, one had a dog that seriously looked like a Wolly Mammoth, it was huge and hairy. The canyon definitely made me feel so tiny, such a small thing in a huge scheme. We went back to Gunnison and made ourselves some sort of spaghetti, which was super yummy after the long day. In typical 21-year-old fashion, we went and got Martinis with our favorite Western State College/Gunnison Guy Henry. He's always great company, so we chatted it up at a local bar, that was kind of like a piano bar. Mary's drink tasted like a milk shake, and mine looked like it would poison me, but it didn't. All weekend long Rebecca, Scott and Henry had been talking about a librarian at their school Charlie, so we went and met Charlie. Charlie it probably the most memorable person I've ever met. After a very interesting conversation we went to the apartment and to bed.
Sunday, July 31, 2011:
This was the day we departed Gunnison. We ate a delicious breakfast with Becca at The W Cafe, said our goodbyes and left to Kansas. Monarch pass is much more enjoyable when it's not covered in 3 feet of snow. We made a long and windy drive home, stopping a couple times when we were hungry and had to use the restroom. I can't remember anything of significance that happened this day, we made it home in 10.5 hours, which I think was great time.
The days since then I've been recovering from the full weekend. I volunteered at the ER today and the PA who was working basically told me I was an idiot for going into the medical field, because he thinks it's awful. I didn't like him before that, and I definitely didn't like him after that. I've realized that people with bad attitudes see the world in a totally different light than those of us with much more optimism and much better attitudes. I'm trying to forget about him.
Then I went to work, I was late. The phones were ringing nonstop and it was taking me forever to log onto my computer. Finally at 5:15 I was ready to work when our on-call clinician called me asking me to find someone for her because she couldn't get ahold of the emergency phone call that that person had taken. But after several failed attempts, I could not get a hold of this person. I call the clinician and told her this, and she demanded that I call the police to do a welfare check, when I had no info of the person, no name, no phone number, no nothing! I told her I didn't know how to do that and that that I was not the on-call clinician, that this was not part of my job. She told me to "get with my boss and figure it out". Wonderful. Luckily the situation worked itself out, the client called us saying he was waiting for a call from the clinician. Some days I love love love my job, others I feel like I worked a 15 hour shift after only 4 hours because it gets that stressful.
So I enjoyed writing all these words and giving a full account of my life's past week. It wasn't boring, was it?
