Another travel day. We drove 320 miles from Dodge City to Colorado Springs. Big change in elevation and temperature! Finally, we are in the cool climates. The Goldfield RV Park is in a busy part of Colorado Springs, right off of I-25 so it is very convenient for what we needed. A place to stay the night and hit the road again the next day. Also, as a private park, we were packed in..very close quarters. We are neophytes at this travel trailer business so moving around in very tight quarters gets our attention. We had an early dinner, watched a movie, walked Maggie and went to bed.
On Monday, we took off for Estes Park, our destination in Colorado. But, first, we wanted to stop at the Air Force Academy and pay our respects at the grave of an old friend, Jeffrey Baker. Jeff and Shirley lived next door to us when we were in Arizona. Jeff graduated from the Air Force Academy and had just finished duty in Viet Nam when the AF sent him back to school at Arizona State to get a master's in economics. Jeff and Shirley had, at that time, two little children, Christine and Craig. They became dear friends. Jeff would often knock on our door to announce "Shirley has hot cookies!" Lib and I could never turn down Shirl's hot, homemade cookies. We bonded and when the family was on the way to the University of North Carolina, where the Air Force sent Jeff to get a Ph.D., they stopped and stayed with us when we were in Oxford, MS at Ole Miss. They had a new baby, Christopher. Jeff finished a career as an Economics Professor at the Air Force Academy and later became president of a Lutheran university in Iowa. Jeff died young with lung cancer and is buried in the Air Force Academy cemetery. Shirley is doing well and lives in Montana.
After our Air Force Academy stop we were back on I-25 headed North. When we drove through Denver we made a phone call to one of our close friends, Paul Solomon. Paul and Jill live in Tampa and Paul is a Professor at the University of South Florida. Solly was one of the first people to visit us when we bought Creme Puff in Tampa last February. We thought of Solly when we were in Denver because he went to school at the University of Denver. Solly and I were classmates all through the Ph.D. program at Arizona State and we were together almost every day for over three years. We were pleased to learn he and Jill are doing great and enjoying their new home on Davis Island in Tampa.
We drove by Mile High Stadium and thought Peyton Manning would come out to say "hi." But, I guess he is busy practicing for the Bronco's next game. Rhonda, our GPS-lady, did a great job of getting us through the traffic through Denver and soon we were right in the middle of the University of Colorado campus in Boulder and then up the mountain to Estes Park.
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