Colorado

November 30, 2020

Colorado

While Kathy is home now and has been for almost two weeks already, prior to that she spent five weeks away from Key West, mostly at our home in Colorado. It was the first time either of us had visited the place in almost a year and Kathy wanted to check it out and prepare it for new tenants who will be moving in at some time in the near future. Wanting to limit her exposure to the coronavirus, and also to return our Colorado vehicle to its place, she opted to drive, taking a few leisurely days to head out west.

She didn’t make many stops other than to get food, gas and sleep but she did visit Fort Phantom Hill, an old frontier outpost in Brazos, Texas where she was able to explore the place, remain outside and away from people and get a break from driving. Her next stop was a planned one in Clovis, New Mexico at our good friends Dakota and Andy and their daughter Sloane. They are like family to us and Sloane is the closest thing we will have to a grandchild so Kathy really wanted to spend a few days with them as it had been a lot of time since either of us had seen them as well.

Kathy had a great visit and was able to spend time enjoying the company of people we truly love before driving the final six hours to our home in Colorado Springs. All was well at our home there and Kathy would spend the next month, hanging out. Her brother Chris and his wife Kari and son James all still live nearby and she was able to spend some quality time with them doing fun fall activities such as pumpkin carving and taking advantage of the bright and brisk fall weather.

The beautiful Garden of the Gods is basically a block down the street from our home and trailheads are easily accessible out of our back door, so Kathy takes full advantage of it by going hiking through the incredible red rock formations on an almost daily basis while she is in Colorado. Their picturesque beauty never seems to disappoint and there is always something beautiful and interesting to see. 

Kathy also managed to hike some other areas around the Colorado Springs/ Manitou Springs area while she was there, she went hiking with her brother Chris and sometimes alone, enjoying the beauty and relative safety from the virus threat by being outside. The area sits at the base of the Rocky Mountains and the entire place is filled with beautiful hiking and outdoor options.

It was also sort of a good thing that Kathy was in the Springs during this time as our friend Kerry, who lives in Estes Park and owns the wonderful Rock Inn Mountain Tavern was forced along with the entire population of Estes Park to evacuate due to the threat of the terrible East Troublesome wildfire that raged through Rocky Mountain National Park and came within a mile or so of the city of Estes. Kerry evacuated along with her dogs Willow and Cedar to our place and was able to spend a few days with Kathy.

Thankfully the fire did not reach Estes Park directly due to the wonderful efforts of firefighters who used her restaurant parking lot as their base of operations. Kerry returned as soon as it was safe and had her restaurant preparing food for the firefighters working on battling the blaze. Kathy and Kerry (and the dogs) got to enjoy some snow while she was there. It is old hat for Kerry but a much rarer and enjoyable diversion for Kathy.

Our friend Stephanie, who recently moved to Colorado from Key West also stopped by for a visit at our house and a hike in the Garden of the Gods and Dakota came up for a long weekend to stay with Kathy in her first time alone away from her daughter Sloane. Kathy really enjoyed getting some time to interact with a few selected people in what she calls her bubble besides me. I missed her for sure but remained in Key West maintaining the house and keeping the plants and pets alive and doing thankfully unneeded hurricane prep.

Kathy flew home, leaving one of our cars in Colorado. The flights were scary full, especially the one into Key West, which was packed with tourists in spite of the spiking new surge of Covid-19 cases here and around the country. It continues to break records almost daily and we currently have 13,383,321 confirmed cases in the United States with 266,873 who have dies from the virus. Here in Monroe County we are now up to 3,321 total cases with 1,895 of those being in Key West and 27 deaths.  It is the scariest time since the pandemic started. Kathy was tested (negative) as soon as she arrived home in case she may have been exposed while traveling.