Reluctantly, we moved on from Frisco. The leaf show was over, the fat lady has sung. The aspens had switched on their ‘Bring It On’ mode, their silvery trunks and skinny branches standing stoically prepared for the oncoming winter. All boats had to be removed from the lake, as it would soon start to freeze around them. Time for us to move on indeed, but who can resist a forlorn glance in the rear view mirror, an unspoken question on our lips as to when we’ll be back. Because for sure, we will be back.

We moved on to the nearby town of Leadville. If we thought we were high up in Frisco at around 9,000ft, Leadville tops that at over 10,000ft. In other words a smidgeon short of 2 miles high. At that elevation, good job the bike ride we chose was relatively flat. And more to the point, was on paved tarmac 🙂 Such a nice ride along the Mineral Belt trail, my love hate relationship with my mountain bike took a decided turn for the positive.

And of course a bike ride deserves a flight of beer, the two go hand in hand right?

Ever played darts in a British pub and found your form improves after a few beers? And so it would seem my corn hole skills (or corn hole luck) increased too. When Darren unexpectedly lost the first game to me, we upped the ante to Best of 3. At 10-0 down, I came from nowhere to steal the second game too. It is now a few weeks later when I’m posting this, and I can confirm we’ve not played since. Not that he’s a bad loser or anything 🙂

It was pretty snug in the Leadville campsite. We were tucked close into the real life Breaking Bad RV. Not even joking.

Leadville was a mere weekend dalliance en route to our destination for the week, Colorado Springs (co-working office) / Manitou Springs (camping).

What a surprise this turned out to be for excellent morning walking options. Turns out we had Garden of the Gods on our doorstep. The name’s a bit OTT, I’m with you, conjures up an Adam’n’Eve type paradise, I’m thinking snakes and apples. Instead we got ancient sandstone rocks, rather impressive actually, especially at sunrise.

The surrounding area also had some pretty cool morning hiking, complete with the most inquisitive, docile deer you’ve ever had the opportunity to meet.

The Epicentral co-working option worked out pretty well, we had our own office in a contemporary environment with plentiful coffee, beer and hand sanitizer. Also a good central location to partake in some of Colorado Springs’ local drinking establishments.

After a couple of weeks break from running, I eased myself back into it along the scenic river path, just a couple of blocks from Epicentral. And bonus, they even had a shower in the co-working space, no need for me to squish myself into our teeny tiny bathroom in the BaseCamp.

So what’s next? Well we plan to head east, there’s vast parts of the US over there that we’ve not really touched. That being said, there seemed to be a lot of not much at all really between Colorado and a long way away. Fasten those seatbelts, we’ve got a big drive coming up.

Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures of yellow leaves. That’s what we went to Colorado in autumn for, and that’s what we got. So that’s what you get too :-). As the Lightning Seeds would say “oh Lucky You”.

Gotta first just give a shout out to being back in Frisco. Feels almost like a second home. Nice to be back.

Our campsite gave us some of the best views over the Dillon reservoir towards Frisco. Being back on the mountain time zone meant our work start time was reverted to 9am, so we could appreciate the nature around us before heading into the office.

I just couldn’t wait to get into the midst of trees to be within and amongst the golden loveliness, rather than viewing from afar.

I don’t recall getting quite so excited about seeing trees change color when we lived in the UK. But the more you become accustomed to the gradual merging of seasons in the Santa Clarita Valley, the more you appreciate the stark diversity of a waning summer and a waxing autumn when you get to see it in person. The beauty of nature becomes all the more wondrous as you realize you have less time to appreciate it!

That said, my oohs and ahh’s were far exceeding Darren’s and he was becoming impatient with our inability to make any progress on our walks without me stopping incessantly to take pictures. I eventually realized the difference between what he thought was awesome and I thought was ‘out of this world absolute best thing I’ve ever seen’: Magic Glasses. Yes really.

So I’d recently acquired a new pair of prescription sunglasses, and on a whim I’d switched from a grey/black tint to a brown/yellow one. Amazing as the autumn leaves are, when you put the Magic Glasses on, it introduces a whole new dimension.

Rest assured, more trees to come. But our two weeks in Frisco was more, much more than that. For starters, there were breweries and there were sausages.

And then there was the time spent on our new found friend’s boat. We were generously invited to join him for a soirée on the Dillon reservoir. Complete with awesome views, a real good vibe, and meat and cheese. Which I woefully neglected to get a picture of but rest assured was good.

We loved the boat experience so much, we went back again the next day. Unfortunately, the wind had other ideas. So much so that we just hung out in the marina. Hard life.

Back to trees. I’m gonna put it out there: my favorite tree is the Aspen. Can you even have a favorite tree? (surely only as weird as a favorite color and most people have one of those?). In Summer, aspens are resplendent with bright green spade shaped leaves. They don’t have long to blow their trumpets so they’ve worked out a way to wave their leaves on their branches like a coquettish Jessica Rabbit fluttering her eyelashes. “Look at me, look at me”.

It’s when the air turns crisp, the days become short, and pumpkin spice appears in everything from lattes to cream cheese that the aspens really come into their own. With the chance to experience this phenomenon first hand (complete with Magic Glasses), I was like a kid in a sweet shop. As I googled “best fall colors” I realized there’s even an official term for my new obsession: Leaf-peeping! So leaf-peep we did.

But it’s a fine line when it comes to timing for the best leaf-peeping. While the trees lining the residential streets of Frisco were still turning from green to yellow to gold, the clusters at higher elevations were already starting to look bare, their coats of many colors lying discarded on the forest floor. Well you know what that means… time to move on.

Don’t get me wrong, it was FUN being at home. We had the chance to catch up with friends in person sharing drinks and good times, to chill out in the pool as we re-acclimated to the desert heat, and to appreciate deep gulps of salty ocean air with a bike ride along the coast. Oh how we missed the sea! Oh yeah, missed the friends too 🙂

But there’s a but. The relentless media COVID coverage with the rise and fall of daily cases & hot spots, the latest lock-down measures and ever-increasing death toll seemed so much more acute at home. From a personal point of view, it was clear the cruise industry’s recovery would be a long gradual uphill struggle. Pair this with my company’s extension to remote working for an additional few months, and getting itchy feet was inevitable. Bring on COVID escape road trip part 2.

However, that damn COVID played havoc with our trip planning. Our initial plan involved the state of New Mexico – but they required a self-quarantine or negative test, hassle factor way up there. So we binned that in favor of our go-to summer Frisco base. After that, we’re thinking east but right now all bets are off.

A few things to take care of at home first: teeth done, eyes done, chiropractor done. Hair not done but hey, one for the road. The truck was serviced and Basecamp almost serviced (long story, don’t make me go there). Less than two full weeks after we rolled back into Santa Clarita, we rolled right out again, trusty Basecamp in tow.

Essentially a 1,000 mile weekend of driving to get to our first base, Frisco. Overnight stop number one was a case of “getting dark, need to stop, there’s a brewery nearby, this will do”. Turned out to be better than a case of make do – Cedar City in Utah had a brewery and a vibe.

Creatures of habit, Sunday night en route to Frisco brought us to a Harvest Host distillery we’d previously visited in Dotsero, Colorado. We already knew their coffee spirit was the bomb. This is also the place where they add all manner of ingredients into their uber-alcoholic spirit to steep and soak and bathe. These are happy ingredients that end their lives basking in this way: cacao nibs, ginger, star anise, turmeric. Random cocktails galore and an early night!

All that remained was an hour long commute into Frisco the next morning. You’re going to hear so much about the leaves and the trees in the next post so I’ll save it to then. But put it this way, if this was the regular commute to work, you’d just want to keep on driving…