Rocky Mountain High
It was through the bleariest of eyes that we spotted the fuzzy green time on the clock when that reliable alarm sounded loudly through our room this morning: 3:30am! Let’s face it, that’s the middle of the night. I’m sure half of New Orleans was still stumbling home from the night before. Trying to get everyone up, showered and dressed in time was a major production and we were all just as crabby as each other. Luckily we’d packed the night before. Rossco leapt into action and swung into airport mode early in the piece, (thankfully) to get us all motivated and in the car on our way to the airport through the still dark streets of NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana).
As we’d expected, there was a certain degree of rearranging of the bags this morning – with my bag the main culprit. One day I’ll have this 50lb thing down to a fine art. In the meantime, Toby took some shoes, Maisy took some toiletries and we had a hit and miss session with the scales, the contents of my bag strewn all over the floor for all to critique. Ross and Sam were able to crash out on the plane but the rest of us got a second wind and ploughed on through the morning, still pretty weary. I listened to John Denver all the way on my iPod, trying to get myself psyched. I tried to win Molly over, letting her listen too but she wasn’t convinced. And after all that music we played to our kids in the womb. Oh well. As we flew over Denver, it struck us just how flat it is out there. The imposing and beautiful Rockies stand proudly around the outside of the city but Denver itself is really flat. It was a really modern airport and the roof reminded us of St Kevin’s church in Dee Why, with all its white pointy turrets. We hired our car, me still singing “rocky mountain high….Colorado”, stuffed the boot to the brim with all our luggage and thought we’d take a quick look at the city centre before heading for the hills.
We all agreed that Denver has a really great feel. The 16th St Mall is lined with funky hand painted pianos – which Toby had fun playing (and drawing a little crowd who took photos of him!) and big round terracotta pots overflowing with colourful flowers. We were able to get Sam an American SIM card for his phone and sign him up to a plan and the guy in the phone shop boasted that Denver was the “fittest city in the USA”, putting it down to all the outdoor activities here. Just by looking around we could see that. After some sustenance and a good walk around the Mall, we returned to our car in the carpark. When Ross pressed the unlock button the back doors automatically opened. Wow! We were all suitably impressed with oohs and ahhs and so Ross thought he’d take it to the next level and said “well if you think that was good, check this out!” where he then proceeded to pop the boot with the press of another remote button and all our luggage (expertly packed) came crashing out onto the concrete with a loud thud, bags tumbling all over the ground! It was so funny! We were all in stitches!
The drive up through the Pike National Park was absolutely breathtaking; the view was truly spectacular with blue sky, snow-capped mountains and little rivers running through the green fields. It was breathtaking for me in another sense of the word too. We were driving fast, round lots of bends, with such a steep ascent, on dirt roads at times, being on the wrong side of the road. Not for the feint hearted. (Ross and I were both driving – he was driving the car but I was driving him crazy with my backseat driving. Sorry Rossco!) He did a great job and got us to our little log cabin in the historic little alpine town of Fairplay. It is so cute! It has a loft upstairs and handmade patchwork quilts on all the beds, with a couple of rocking chairs and a little verandah overlooking the mountains and the forests of pine trees.
There were little chipmunks romping around when we got out of the car and the cleaner, who hadn’t quite finished sprucing the place up for us yet, gave us the rundown on all the local wildlife that would be lurking amongst the trees outside the windows: bears, foxes, elk, antelope, moose, squirrels, chipmunks, bobcats, humming birds and more! She warned us about leaving food anywhere on the verandah or in the car as her friend had done, only to return to the car to find a bear peeling the roof back with his claws like a can opener. Apparently bears are suckers for potato chips. Good to know. With all that dangerous fauna on our doorstep it would seem ironic that the animal Maisy was most scared of was the friendly (but admittedly noisy) stray dog that had made its way up to have a nap on our porch! The cleaner was a bit of an animal lover and took the dog with her to see if she could return it to its rightful owners.
One of the first things we all did when we arrived was enthusiastically bound up the staircase to the loft to check out the foosball table (how good is that?) and the view, only to find ourselves all panting in unison and feeling like we were going to pass out. Ahhhh. Altitude sickness. We’d forgotten about that. We certainly hadn’t banked on it being so full-on! Our cabin has an elevation of 11,000 feet so it is pretty high! As the afternoon continued, each one of us was struck down. Maisy declared that she thought she was “going to chuck”, Toby was clutching his head and telling us he had a throbber of a headache. Molly just wanted to sleep hers off and Sam, Ross and I felt really dizzy and light-headed. We were all huffing and puffing just moving slowly around the cabin! We hit up the Drug Store for some advice and some remedies but they only had ONE packet of “Altitude Adjustment” tablets for one person, for 3 days. We’ll have to draw straws for that one! We also got some anti-nausea medicine, headache tablets and antacid as instructed. We have been told to drink LOTS of water too. Hopefully we’ll all start to feel a bit more normal soon so we can get out an enjoy this gorgeous place without having to move around like unfit geriatrics clutching at all our sore body parts!
Armed with all our stash of pills, we explored the little town that’s about 10 minutes away and had some dinner at a little steak house (South Park Steak House to be exact) which was great. It’s quite a lot chillier here than the steaming hot weather we’d had in New Orleans. We’ve even had to crack out the jumpers and jeans! There’s a small town within Fairplay that’s called “South Park” and was the inspiration for the tv show. The guys who created it were from nearby Breckenridge and wanted to make fun of their South Park neighbours! With insomnia another symptom of altitude sickness and the gallons of water we’ve consumed today in an effort to combat the condition, I’m not sure how much sleeping will be going on tonight!
