' Never Picture Perfect: A Day Off

Steve took the day off; maxed out on his vacation time he thankfully would rather donate the day to me than back to the company. We took a drive up to Estes and ate at the Wapati. He had a 10.00 gift certificate they sent in the mail for his Birthday, so we were able to get lunch together on the cheap. He got an Elk burger and I got a chicken wrap. Our waitress, a young girl, spoke broken English. I couldn’t quite place her thick accent it almost sounded Russian, but her dark hair and eyes contradicted. We visited for several minutes; she was a foreign exchange student from Moldova only in the sates a couple of months. She mentioned how much she enjoyed the area and the holiday festivities, but teared up when she mentioned how home sick she was. We saw a lot of elk in town, crossing the streets and grazing along the sides of the roads.

After lunch we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park for the day. They had already closed the high roads for the season. Bummer since it was snowing up at the peaks but we could only look from afar. There was some snow on the lower roadsides though, so not all was lost. We kept to the lower part just inside the eastern edge of the park, parked near the Bear Lake trail head and took a hike up to Beirstadt Lake. We took the long way…extra long having to retrace our steps a couple of times when we lost the trail. After 1.5 miles, we finally got onto a well-beaten trail and hiked it the rest of the way up to the crest. Dusk was beginning to descend and the temps were getting noticeably cooler as the sun dropped behind the Continental Divide. I knew the lake had to be just beyond the ridge, but we had already hiked for 90 minutes just to get that far and didn’t want to risk being caught in the dark on the way back, hiking the not so well marked path. So, against my deep desire to press on and accomplish the goal, we decided it was prudent to head back. Bierstadt Lake would be there next time we came and we turned around vowing to head up earlier next time.

After we returned home we found out that it was just another 50 yards or so ahead of where we had stopped. It reminded me that there are times in life when we are so close to the answer but don’t realize it, maybe not even till we have backed down. Sometimes we feel like giving up but need to remember that success is just over the ridge. And when we do retreat in defeat or face a setback, plan a better approach for the next attempt and victory will be achieved.

The minister I do some work for was in town and invited us out to dinner, so we drove into town and met him and his wife at their hotel and went out to Texas Roadhouse. We had a great time visiting. We didn’t have time to stop home between the park and dinner, I felt a bit awkward showing up in my hiking gear and had major hat-hair, but they didn’t seem to mind. I brought a few rolls home for Josh; they’re his all time favorite.

On another note, I put the freezer on a timer last month and got the electric bill today, it dropped by eight dollars, to the lowest since we moved in. I’m going to take it down another notch and see how it goes. I haven’t noticed a change in the hardness of the frozen food, so it was a good move. And, I’ve been running the blower on the wood burner sometimes day and night non stop or it would have been lower yet. I have yet to turn the furnace on this year, even though it got down to 18 a couple of nights ago with a light dusting of snow. I’m trying to holdout till Dec 1st to run it. My original goal was Nov 1st, but it’s been a mild winter so far, so I challenged myself to Dec 1st instead. The wood burner has made it more than comfortable so far. Steve has been asking, a little fearfully I think, if I make it to December 1st will I have a new goal of January first? I had to laugh, that’s not my plan. But, then again, maybe warm weather is just over the horizon.