On the road again...

Warning, this post is about our travels and visits with puzzling friends.  It is photo heavy! 

We left Boca at 2pm on Sunday.  Because our flight was leaving at 7:30 in the morning, we decided to spend the night at the airport hotel. It would save us from waking up at a stupid hour on Monday.  NOT.  We still woke up at 5 am.  Sunday night we decided to have dinner in the hotel dining room.  Huge Mistake!  The popcorn shrimp I had was bad as was George's chicken sandwich.  Needless to say, we were both sick all night.  

The flight was uneventful and we were able to land in Denver without issue.  But dang was it cold!

When we arrived, we waited for luggage as always and I loved the signage. The gargoyle jumping out of the suitcase was pretty cool too. 

Our first stop was to see Kagen Sound, but sadly he wasn't home.  I left a message but got no call back so he must have been very busy.

No worries, we called George Bell and headed to his place.  

They were such wonderful hosts. George and his wife Esther put us up in their above the garage apartment.  This was much nicer than any hotel we would have stayed in.  We were even able to do a load of laundry after I had an accident at dinner. 

But you don't want to hear about that. George took us around and showed us his puzzle rooms and his workshop.

He showed us his IPP exchange, and a few others he's been working on.  The two George's hit it off well, and spent a great deal of time chatting about puzzles and such.  I like the mini Prusa and will buy one for our next ocean voyage. 

I think around 3 I fell fast. We excused ourselves for a short nap and didn't resurface until dinner time around 6. I had my first ever drink out of a jam jar. George had told me about this previously, but I've never done it before.  

I didn't realize one can get jet-lag from a 4 hour flight, but with the early wakeup preceded by a horrible nights sleep, we were dead.  We made an early night of it and arose early the next morning for more chat. 

The two George's spent some time printing puzzles and doing lord knows what.  I went to a place to buy a few legos and some mini-figures (over-priced!)

and to the Liberty jigsaw puzzle store in Boulder.  

While there I bought a few small puzzles for gifts and discovered that the factory is just 4 blocks away so I took off for a tour.  

Sadly, it was closed with no plans to open again until late spring. I returned to the house where we had a nice lunch and talked a bit more about puzzles and other things.  

That night a twisty-puzzler, Gage, who lives in the area joined us for dinner and a lot of fun was had by all.  The conversation left puzzles and went to skiing but I won't say anything bad about that.  The food was excellent, the wine was good, and the company was better.

When we returned to the house, we all took turns sliding down the fire pole.  Amazing fun!  I want one.   

We retired and the next morning said our good-byes at around 8:00.  George gave us a few octoball puzzles he had been working on and we hit the road.

Our drive south took us through Denver again and two thoughts occurred to me. There are a lot of homeless people here and if I were to be homeless, a cold place like Denver is not where I'd want to be. The other is the amount of pollution!  Yuck!  The stench was so strong it came through the cars closed windows.  This is not a place I would want to live.  The surrounding area is beautiful, but to what detriment to one's health?

Next stop Rocky Chiaro.  Now this was a great idea.  We got there around 11:30 but Rocky wasn't in.  From his front door you can see Pikes Peak!  (14115 ft -I got it from a post card.)

As we were walking back to the car, he and his wife pulled up.  We took a tour of his workshop and spent a good amount of time talking about puzzles and other things.  

We all went to lunch at a local pub and carried on talking there for a while.  

Sadly, this visit had to be short lived as we had to get across the Rocky mountains before dark. As we were leaving, he gave us a wonderful gift of some original bolts and OMG! A die cube.  

I was in shock, and so very pleased to be able to add this to the collection in the museum.  There are very few of his pieces we are missing now. One day I will have a complete collection.

Rocky is a very interesting man.  He spent time in the Navy when he was younger and was also a boxer.  He told us about his early days as a metal worker and how he got interested in puzzles.  

His workshop is smaller than I expected considering the wonderful pieces he puts out.  I have to be honest, I was sad to leave.  I wish we would have budgeted more time.  If you are in the Pueblo area, do look him up.  It is worth the trip!

The drive across the Rockys was amazing.  I kept gawking and pointing at things for George to look at. It was supposed to take 4 1/2 hours, it took 6 1/2.  I'm not one to go fast on windy roads, and when I spotted water in spots and noticed the temperature, I decided it would be best to slow down.  We were watching the Gunnison river as we drove along. Usually we listen to a book, but today George decided he wanted to see when we crossed the continental divide. It was along the Monarch Pass, the highest point in elevation on US 50.  The summit was 11,312 feet or 3448 meters.  Yes, our ears popped.  All along the river we could see a railroad track.  

This is a truly amazing country we live in.  I'll let the photos speak for me.