For the last two weeks of July and the first week of August, my wife wanted to "Take me on a retirement vacation".
I am not really retiring. But I am going part time after 24 1/2 years at the Big Orange Box.
She loves Colorado. We have a week every other year at the Grand Lodge on Peak 7 in Breckenridge. I bought that for her because she would want to go there as much as possible. This year, to increase the excitement, we invited my son, his wife and our two year old granddaughter. AND she decided to drive the whole way in her Equinox. She drove the entire way. Said I didn't know how to drive her car. Was pissed at me when I wasn't the chatty copilot she normally is. I like quiet. I don't need to talk incessantly. If I express an opinion, it is usually the start of a discussion as to how wrong I am and have always been. So, in self defense, I try to avoid talking.
We stopped in Buena Vista, Colorado, at the Cottonwood Hot Springs. She loves hot springs for some reason. The water was naturally hotter than normal bath water and the second pool was too cool and the third was acceptably warm. The place also believes in minimizing light pollution at night and we were able to see the billions of stars up above. The Milky Way galaxy was very evident. As we saw a plane moving across the stationary field of points of light, she remarked that it might also be a radioactive condor looking to lead its people home. Yeah. I took the opportunity to acknowledge that, because of their distance from us, most of the stars we saw have probably moved or in some cases are no longer in existence. "Well, for not being there, they have been doing a good job guiding men's lives and movements for a long time". Okay, got it.
Moving along through Leadville to Breckenridge, we stopped at the Golden Burro café. Food sort of okay, service shitty. That's about all I have to say on that.
Got to Breckenridge, we were early and we knew that. SO Kathy took me to the Breckenridge distillery and then to the Broken Compass brewery. I see a pattern there. Then we found a quiet place in the local graveyard to take a nap in the car until we were called by GL7.
Grand Lodge on Peak 7 is a wonderful place. It is a series of condos or apartments that have been sold as timeshares. A very expensive way to vacation unless you use it every year. And even then not cheap. But the place is magnificent, the staff congenial and super helpful. The facility is entirely first class.
The only thing they don't have up there at 9500 feet is oxygen, air, the stuff we try to fill our lungs with. I suffered the whole week with altitude sickness of one sort or another. Anxiety, apnea, confusion, sleeplessness, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. At one time I felt like I was having a heart attack, there was a feeling of iron bands around my chest and a baseball jammed next to my heart. I also think I was dehydrating, because I peed very little.
My son and his wife and daughter were our guests. I hope they had a memorable time. I do remember we had a discussion that no one was communicating what we were doing. I made the mistake of saying that I never had any plans and was just waiting for someone to tell me what to do. The lid came off the pot! I was told by both wives that I was supposed to be making the decisions and I was supposed to tell everyone what was happening next. The other mistake was in trying to leave the room while I was being taken to task. By the way, I never make plans while vacationing, I like to surprise myself.
The rest of the week sort of went okay. Kathy cooked most of the meals, and I had no appetite. I took son and DIL whitewater rafting. Jill had never been before and the rapids were about class two. Son said it was quite a workout, I guess pushing computer buttons has softened him up a little.
Fortunately, I brought my notebook computer. Every night the granddaughter wanted to see the pictures of family and the dogs. It was a bonding time, and I didn't have to exert myself.
The week ended fairly well. Baby grew two inches after drinking a gallon and a half of milk. Everybody got along all right. We ate almost everything the wives bought at the local grocery.
The kids got to their airplane on time and Kathy and I headed off for Part 2 of the retirement tour.
(To be Continued........)
