Cripple Creek

I must say that today has been one hell of a day. One of the days that I will probably remeber about this trip for the rest of my life. The day started out with a few drops of rain and was looking pretty somber. I made my way up to the National fossil monument, which was mostly petrified trees and a huge area where they have found tons of fossils, which are kept at various museums and a few held in the gift shop. I followed a park ranger guided tour and was just amazed at the amount of history stored in this one little area perfectly preserved by seemingly random geological events. Then it was time to head into gold county to take some tours of the mines. I made it to the town of Cripple Creek and went through the town museum which took a few hours. So much history here and they still produce about 900 ounces of gold a day out of the main mine. I lot of history meets the present time gold mines, you can see the remarkable movement from old to new in one small little town. After the museum I decided to grab some food and found a little joint that wasn't connected to the many casino hotels here and orderd a calzone. While I started to eat this delicios lunch prepared by the owner I started up a conversation with Chris, the owner. After a few minuets it started to absolutly pour rain so I stayed at the bar just waiting out the rain storm and discussing my options with Chris who is an extreamly nice guy and a very giving individual. At first he was giving me info on where the nice cheaper places to stay were then he said he takes care of a house for a friend and I could stay there. He drove me up to the house and I was hesitant to stay there because I didn't want to impose or feel like a free loader but he was very insistant that it was all good and the house was built for people to hang out there. So we made it to the house down a dirt road and it has a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains and I said why not. The owner of the house Todd was already there and very much welcomed me to his house. We drove back to the bar grabbed a few supplies and then headed back to the house. On the way there though I hit a very slick spot of clay and laided the bike down at about 20 MPH. The worst crash I have had yet and I just got the bike muddy tweeked my bad ankel and burned my leg on the exhaust, so all in all not too bad at all.

I made it to the house and we started drinking beers and bullshitting getting to know eachother and Chris cooked an amazing dinner of several fish he caught when he was in Canada and some beans, corn, and a salad. I can't say enough about how generious these guys are and welcomed me to stay at the house for several days and eat what ever I want out of the pantry.

So tomorrow I am gonna head down with Chris and work off the hospitality helping him clean up the bar and get it ready for the day then I am gonna finally get to take the gold mine tours. I am unsure if I am going to stay longer or just keep on trucking. The ever nagging feeling that I need to get a job grows stronger every day. Thats the price you pay when you start to get older I guess.