Florence to Buena Vista to St. Elmo to the Great Divide to Gunnison

I completely forgot to mention in yesterday's entry, Jess is coming for a visit after we get back. They took the entire birthday week off, and will come Wednesday, leave Sunday, and they are bringing their dog. 

And I so very very hope Dijon gets along wonderfully with Toffee! 

They asked to go see Twelfth Night at the Folger Shakespeare Library, so we'll do that on Friday. Doug wanted to do the 2pm Saturday show but ... oh no. That's going to be kind of a Day To Stay Away From DC. I won't say more about that. But ... Ugh. Plans altered for that day. We will find something else to do on June 14th. 

This morning we woke up early. Well, Doug woke up early like a little kid at christmas to jump back into the soaking pool. He made us coffee and we headed out to enjoy our last bit of time. I didn't get the really cool shot of the clouds lower than the mountains, black green surrounded by white grey. But I got a little of it after. Staged this shot of our coffee cups after we got out. 

Hard to leave go of this little space but we had to. We headed into Florence to grab coffee and started our journey for the day. We headed to Rte 50 in Cañon City to run alongside the Arkansas River for a good long time. There are a lot of little towns named on the map but nothing there really. 

We got to Salida, and it was too early to stop for lunch so we headed further north to Nathrop. Which... is .... a nothing town. oops. We passed where we needed to turn just to go up to Buena Vista, or BV as the cool kids call it, and there were tons of options there for lunch. We picked Sorelle and got take out sandwiches and an oatmeal cookie whoopie pie. 

Off to St. Elmo. 

We enjoyed our trip from Buena Vista over, passing the chalk cliffs and Mount Princeton. Gorgeous ride along the Chalk Creek up to the top where the "ghost" town lives and lives and is lively! We ate our lunch in front of the Mercantile building, walked all up and down the road reading about the history of the town. We stopped in at the general store and I got a refrigerator magnet, and we found a license plate for Geoff's collection. 

They have a ton of hummingbirds there, so hummingbirds are big on all their merch. We were fascinated watching them fly and fight. 

Doug went and bought sunflower seeds so we could go over to this wood pile and feed the freaking chipmunks. And I think it was the best dollar we ever could have spent. 

I took maybe 900 pictures of the little beasts eating right out of our hands. And video.

There were a dozen little kids there and the chipmunks were afraid of them but also really wanted sunflower seeds. After the kids cleared out, we had the beasts to ourselves. An older couple came by and the husband was feeding the chipmunks while the wife recorded and took pictures. They were laughing hysterically. 

Relationship goals in 10 years for Doug and Chris. 

Doug and I both agreed that my dad would have had an absolute blast feeding chipmunks from his hand. 

Anyway.

Onward. Back down the road out of St. Elmo into BV, instead of over to Tincup. I'm glad we went this way to get to the Cottonwood Pass because the ride was extraordinary. So beautiful. I took almost as many pictures up there as I did of chipmunks in St. Elmo. 

I am not good at selfies, but there you go. That's the highest point on earth your girl has been to at over 12k ft above sea level. 

Down from the Great Divide you leave San Isabel Park and enter Gunnison. The terrain changes, there are more trees, It feels less desert and more forest. We stopped at Stage Coach Meadows and watched a deer graze by a pond filled with frogs and peepers. The symphony was amazing. I don't know how to put Video into blogger, but if I figure it out, I will. 

Over to Taylor Reservoir and the dam, and over to Almont and into Gunnison. Whew. 

Dinner at the brewery in the center of town, and boy are we tired. Our hotel tonight is nothing compared to last night and the three nights in Cripple Creek, but it's perfectly cromulent, and it has a jet bathtub which methinks I want to soak in! 

Doug is plotting our day for tomorrow. I just know we are staying in Carbondale, and we could zig or zag or loop-de-loop tomorrow all around the area. Not sure yet what the plan is. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Really good walk in St. Elmo. 46 min/1.05 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:
6:30am: 135
4:30pm: 123
9:45pm: 162

food & meds:
6:30am: phentermine, jardiance
8am: met+glip. cheese and blueberries
1:30: turkey and cream cheese of some sort w/arugula and cranberries on a nice roll; bread pudding
5pm: oatmeal whoopie pie 1/2 split with Doug (on top of the great divide!) 
7:30pm: 2 beers, goat cheese & beet salad w/chicken, 2 slices of pizza w/pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms
8:30pm: met+glip