First Road Trip in the Car Completed

So, I took my first road trip in the new sports car. I went up and visited Dad, then took a drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. Evidently the toll station is closed at night and I can “please proceed” for free. So J and I went up to Long’s Peak and may very well have been the two most high-and-mighty people in Colorado for a few minutes.

While I was on Long’s Peak, looking down upon the general population, I stopped for a high-altitude smoke break. People tell me cigarettes are much stronger at 11,000+ feet, so I sat down. I gotta tell you, I was disappointed; all I got was the same feeling you get when smoking after a physical workout (which I had, having had to walk up 2,000 feet of poorly-engineered log stairs).

Highway 34 is down to one shared lane for about half a mile just East of the Visitors’ Center at Long’s Peak. They have one of those green/red light turn-based systems in place. Sucks to be the guys who have to work up there.

So we went back to Estes Park and got on US36 Eastbound, figuring we’d take that to I-25. I never got off the highway, but 20 miles later I was on Highway 7 Westbound and 30 miles away from Estes Park. I have yet to figure that out out - So I just took Hwy 34 to I-25 instead.

Looking on the map, it looks like I must have turned right at Lyons — Though that sounds entirely unfamiliar. Oh man, if that’s right, I was really close. All I had to do was not turn; how did this happen? Bah, so I lost six bucks in gas.

I suppose the most amusing part of the ordeal is that driving from the base/entrance of RMNP to Long’s Peak consumed 1.4 gallons of gas, while the trip back down consumed zero. I had forgotten how fun costing downhill can be.