Anyone Game? 2 Castles and a Road Trip TR! Last Day and TR Wrap Up! #2796; 10/01

[jedijill]

Yum! I'm putting a weekend trip to Pagosa Springs on my docket for this year!

Jill in CO

 

[ACDSNY]

The Choke Cherry Tree looks awesome and I've already bookmarked their website and the micro brewery looked great too.

It's funny you mentioned A & W root beer as it's usually the only one I like.

 

[dgbg100106]

All of the goodies look and sound wonderful...

The Wind and Willow brand that I saw in a couple of the shots... My SIL works at the place where that is manufactured. She used to send the seconds to us, we never knew what it was until we opened it... Total surprise, they never had names on them...

The brewery looks amazing... I would have had to try the Chili Verde and the Stout, with maybe sharing that Peach with DH as desert

 

[Pluto0809]

Man both of those places look yummy! Now I'm hungry and it's hours yet till lunch.

 

[mvf-m11c]

The Choke Cherry Tree and Pagosa Brewing Co. look like very nice places to stop on the way when in Pagosa Springs.

 

[Leshaface]

Wow look at all those yummy jams, spreads and butters! I'm sure, I would go broke in there. Homemade caramels?! fuggedaboutit!

What a great selection of beers. I would definitely like to try one of each...with a root beer in between each beer please

 

[dolphingirl47]

You culinary tour sounded interesting. I am surprised you could still move after this little lot.

Corinna

 

[PrincessInOz]

These are the only ones I have even experienced, but no photographic evidence. Cheesy or not.

3. 6. 8. 10. 12. 15. 17. I don't even think the I Amsterdam sign was there when I visited that museum.

That Amsterdam sign was definitely not there when I visited. It was a clear run at the back of the Rijks.

That's a cool list, but it's made me feel quite inadequate

I have none of those photos and have only been to a few of those exact locations (despite visiting most of the countries).
I feel particularly inadequate that I lived in London and never once visited that Abbey Rd crossing.

By the way, I think you get bonus points for number 2.

You need to plan a return to London!

I've made it to a few of those exact locations but not gotten 'the' shot. Silly. me. ! I guess I have to plan return trips.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Insert drooling smilie here! Yum!!!

Okay. Here you go.

Hey.

I thought we were looking at rocks???



Jud

You boys are so attached to your rocks!!!

Me? I cannot live by rocks alone.....I need food.


But wait! There's more.






(But my time on the road trip is coming to an end.)

Well both of those stops sound like wonderful places to spend the rest of your morning! I tend to buy that stuff like jams and jellies and keep saving it for a special occasion and then it never comes!

I would have liked to try the unoaked Chardonnay, that sounded right up my alley!



Cynthia is eandesmom, she just got back from her NYE trip to the World, she has a HUGE following. I think she's on page 4 of her TR and she has only posted the first installment! I couldn't keep up with the replies if it were me!

I thought of you at that Micro Brewery.


Yes, that's an awesome TR that eandesmom has got going.

Yum! I'm putting a weekend trip to Pagosa Springs on my docket for this year!

Jill in CO

Great location for a weekend.

The Choke Cherry Tree looks awesome and I've already bookmarked their website and the micro brewery looked great too.

It's funny you mentioned A & W root beer as it's usually the only one I like.

Next time we DisMeet, we need to do it over an A&W root beer float.

All of the goodies look and sound wonderful...

The Wind and Willow brand that I saw in a couple of the shots... My SIL works at the place where that is manufactured. She used to send the seconds to us, we never knew what it was until we opened it... Total surprise, they never had names on them...

The brewery looks amazing... I would have had to try the Chili Verde and the Stout, with maybe sharing that Peach with DH as desert

I'm pretty sure my DH got the Stout after the first round. Did you enjoy your samples?

Man both of those places look yummy! Now I'm hungry and it's hours yet till lunch.

Hope you got to eat something yummy!

The Choke Cherry Tree and Pagosa Brewing Co. look like very nice places to stop on the way when in Pagosa Springs.

They were. But then the locals knew exactly where to go.

Wow look at all those yummy jams, spreads and butters! I'm sure, I would go broke in there. Homemade caramels?! fuggedaboutit!

What a great selection of beers. I would definitely like to try one of each...with a root beer in between each beer please

The caramels were fantastic! Not too sweet and nice and chewy.

You culinary tour sounded interesting. I am surprised you could still move after this little lot.

Corinna

So. was. I.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Now I think I would have passed out from pleasure overload at this stage. How I just adore jam and jelly! I look for unusual flavours I was curious at 'hot apricot' what a wonderful store I could move right in! Caramel is my favourite candy!

Yum re salmon taco with peach omg! And....( did I dream this post ) the microbrew...oh how I love my beers! But proper brewed beers not larger like Bud. Yum stout! And super yum at proper root beer! In EPCOT UK they have Bass beer ( proper draft beer in England is not the same as larger ) it's yum. Is this the same in Australia? We would class Bud as a larger not a beer.

Proper stout in Ireland like Guinness the nectar of the gods ( how I love my black velvet ) takes over 20 minutes to pour. If you have ever been to Ireland they line half filled pint glasses behind the bar in preparation before the pub opens.

I like this X & Y!

 

[eandesmom]

I heard my ears should be burning... so I have braved a VERY long thread (someday I'll get in on the beginning) to post.

You think Cynthia's husband can fly us there in the seaplane he is building?

Jill in CO

It only seats 2...



And can't go that far...

There's a pretty fun book, Travels with Puff, about a guy (the one who wrote Johnathan Livingston Seagull) who flew one (exact same kind Jeff is building) from FL back to Seattle...Took a few weeks.

Airfares are crazy spendy. Spare a thought for us poor Aussies that live on an island continent and have to spendy crazy airfares to get anywhere.

Said Jeff and I keep trying to plan a couples trip there but...OY the airfare!

I don't know Cynthia. If I did, I'd have a chance of getting to know Cynthia's husband.....and jumping in that seaplane he's building.

Get in line

(Continued from Previous Post)


Pagosa Brewery



X and Y were giving us the micro cook’s tour today on Pagosa Springs and doing the town proud!




For a little town with a Census population count of about 1700, Pagosa Springs sure knows what the important things in life are.




There really is a microbrewery in here. It is a serious 7-year young business; and going strong.




Their philosophy and passion is to "produce the best, freshest, and exceptionally smooth-drinking microbrews, Homemade Root Beer Soda, along with tasty Local, Regional and Wild-Caught Pub Food."




The beers are hand-crafted in small batches and then allowed to settle for 2 weeks to assure the highest quality. Most other microbreweries would filter out the sediment rather than allow natural gravity to do its job.




I'm going to assume that this is the root beer. DS and I got one each. I love A&W root beer; but this one just left A&W in it’s wake. And as it was considered a craft brew, we were apologetically advised that there would be no refills. Superb. It was so good that I was happy to order a second one.

Ah, that is our kind of place. Too bad it is in the middle of nowhere! We are likely to visit Co Springs again one of these days but that's a pretty big side trip.

Loving the cheesy photo bucket list

I've got 1,2,12 and 16 for photos that I know of. I have been to 3,4,6,8,14 and 15 but am not sure about the status of photos.

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[jedijill]

To paraphrase Jaws, "We're gonna need a bigger plane!"

Jill in CO

 

[eandesmom]

To paraphrase Jaws, "We're gonna need a bigger plane!"

Jill in CO

NO! Bigger won't fit in the garage...

 

[PrincessInOz]

Now I think I would have passed out from pleasure overload at this stage. How I just adore jam and jelly! I look for unusual flavours I was curious at 'hot apricot' what a wonderful store I could move right in! Caramel is my favourite candy!

Yum re salmon taco with peach omg! And....( did I dream this post ) the microbrew...oh how I love my beers! But proper brewed beers not larger like Bud. Yum stout! And super yum at proper root beer! In EPCOT UK they have Bass beer ( proper draft beer in England is not the same as larger ) it's yum. Is this the same in Australia? We would class Bud as a larger not a beer.

Proper stout in Ireland like Guinness the nectar of the gods ( how I love my black velvet ) takes over 20 minutes to pour. If you have ever been to Ireland they line half filled pint glasses behind the bar in preparation before the pub opens.

I like this X & Y!

Our beer has an alcohol content of about 4 - 4.5%. I think it's the same in the UK; only we serve our beer cold.

I think Bud has an alcoholic content around 3%.

I think Ale, Bass, Stout and Lager are used on the basis of the type of grain used in Australia.

I also think that Bud is classed as a lager; but I'm not really sure. We don't really drink Bud much.

I don't know if we have Bass beer here either. Can't say I've seen it much; but that could be me.

I have friends that own and run a microbrewery (commercial and rather successful). Their premises are about 10 - 20 minutes away from me. If you ever come visit, let me know. We can head there.

I heard my ears should be burning... so I have braved a VERY long thread (someday I'll get in on the beginning) to post.

OOH! Welcome to the thread!





You must have very sensitive ears! Either that.....or a little birdie or two whispered in your ear.


I think you and I have communicated before....last year or so by PM; about Manntra.


BTW - Not a bad time to join this thread. I've only got another 2 days or so of this road trip and then we will be in WDW.

It only seats 2...



And can't go that far...

There's a pretty fun book, Travels with Puff, about a guy (the one who wrote Johnathan Livingston Seagull) who flew one (exact same kind Jeff is building) from FL back to Seattle...Took a few weeks.

WOW! That's some boy toy. How cool.

I love JLS (Richard Bach?) and will have to look out for Travels with Puff.

Remind me never to complain about my DH and his boy toy collection of guitars and instruments. I would not know where to store a plane.

Said Jeff and I keep trying to plan a couples trip there but...OY the airfare!

Yes. That airfare barrier is a real barrier to entry, isn't it?

Get in line

Marking my space in line. You'll have to remember when my turn comes. I definitely want a ride in that toy!

Ah, that is our kind of place. Too bad it is in the middle of nowhere! We are likely to visit Co Springs again one of these days but that's a pretty big side trip.

Yup. It if weren't in the middle of nowhere, I suspect it might be overrun by tourists. It's a cool little town.

Loving the cheesy photo bucket list

I've got 1,2,12 and 16 for photos that I know of. I have been to 3,4,6,8,14 and 15 but am not sure about the status of photos.

Looks like you've got a number of re-do's on your list as well.

Great update!

Thanks!

To paraphrase Jaws, "We're gonna need a bigger plane!"

Jill in CO

NO! Bigger won't fit in the garage...

Looks like you need a bigger garage.

A bigger plane means more passengers.

 

[scottny]

Hi,
Great trip report and pics. I am really loving your photos.

This makes me want to go to the Grand canyon (I have been twice already) and see it all over again and venture out into other areas of the states.

I am looking forward to reading more.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hi,
Great trip report and pics. I am really loving your photos.

This makes me want to go to the Grand canyon (I have been twice already) and see it all over again and venture out into other areas of the states.

I am looking forward to reading more.

Hello!


Welcome to the thread.




Looks like I'll have to head to the DVC section of the boards and sign up to a couple of TRs myself.

 

[PrincessInOz]

An Extraordinary Ordinary Mountain Pass



In this ordinary world we live, so very few of us are chosen to do extraordinary things. Extraordinary individuals like Da Vinci, Newton, Einstein, Matsushi-ta, Disney. What would it have been to have lived life as an extraordinary individual?

Not that I consider myself or anyone else ordinary....we all live extraordinary lives. It's just no one else wonders what it would be like to be us. And there is nothing wrong with that. I'm happy living my extraordinary ordinary life in comparative obscurity. But it is sometimes fun to wonder about what it would feel like to be one of those high profile extraordinary individuals.



I don't know about you but I tend to forget that ordinary people can do extraordinary things right under our noses. Things that I take for granted; things that are so apparent that I wonder at how blind I can be in day-to-day living.


Today, after lunch, we decided that we needed to take a drive across the Great Continental Divide of America. After all, we were right there and it seemed appropriate for us to take DS across it. X decided to come along and Y headed back home.

The Continental Divide of the Americas is the mountainous hydrological divide that runs north/south from the Bering Strait up in Alaska down to the Strait of Magellan, Chile. Effectively, it follows "a line of peaks" along the Rocky Mountains and down the Andes. On one side of the mountain range, all the waterways will run and drain into the Pacific Ocean. On the other side, the rivers will drain into the Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. When you do spend time along the Divide, it is kinda cool to look at the water run from left to right on one side, cross the divide and see the water run from right to left. Every continent, except for Antartica, has a continental divide.



X said that we would hit about 10,800 feet crossing the Divide here and it suddenly dawned on me that this road we were driving on must have been something of a feat to have built. I wondered how many ordinary people it would have taken to build this ordinary looking extraordinary road that crosses the Continental Divide?


The Wolf Creek Pass road looks like any other road we would drive on. According to X, it is one of the easiest access points to Southwest Colorado from the rest of the state.






After the reds of the Arizona, the greys, blues and greens of Colorado were a stark contrast to what we had seen. But it was equally as stunning in its own way.






X pointed out the gate here of the Boot Jack Ranch. This was the entrance to 3000 acre, 50 room house that sold for $46.5 Million in 2010. It was apparently the single most expensive residential house sold in that year and made the national news.






We kept driving for a few more miles along the 160. X had mentioned a couple of things that we could find along the road and there was one stop I was keen to make.






Treasure Falls is a 105 feet cascade that flows into the San Juan River. The view from the turnout along the 160 wasn't too bad.






The 3 boys were keen to keep going up the Divide (and then head back to the house); but I convinced them that a walk might be in order. I had spied the trail heading up and it looked beautiful walking through the forest.






For a short trail, we climbed the equivalent of about 200 - 300 feet. Short, but the switchback trail was rather steep.






DH and I were happy. We spent some time taking in the view and grabbing some shots of the falls from here.






The name Treasure Falls came from Treasure Mountain, which as the legends goes, holds buried gold. In the late 1700s about 300 Frenchmen secretly entered the San Juan Mountains, which was Spanish turf. They struck it rich near the mountain, but were faced with brutal winters, Indian attacks and disease. Only two Frenchmen returned east to tell the tale.

I think I'll leave the treasure hunting to others. I'm just happy to enjoy the treasure of looking at the falls.






The path did head up higher but by this stage, the boys had regrouped and I was completely outvoted this time. So, we got back in the car and headed up Wolf Creek Pass.

It didn't take us long to crossing the Divide. Just on the other side, we found Wolf Creek Ski Resort. These couple of pictures are from DH's collection.











For this Aussie, I was just so envious at how accessible and easy to drive to the ski resorts are in the US. That's the turnoff from the 160 into the resort area.






Me? I was too busy looking eastward here to pay any attention to taking a picture of the ski resort behind me. I thought I had taken a picture of the water flowing in that direction; but it seems to be missing from my collection. But DS did think it was rather cool.






Notice those dead trees? Sadly, those are spruce fir trees. There is an infestation of the Spruce Beetle in the area and they are decimating the spruce trees. I found it so distressing to see these trees. X said that the beetle outbreak had started 2 - 3 years prior and their spread and pace of destruction was unbelievably quick. He didn't know what, if anything, could be done to stop them. For now, they were on the East side and had just gotten to the West.

As we drove back along the Pass, we stopped at the overlook and looked westward.






If you look to the lefthand side of the picture, you can make out the dead trees. It will be sad to think that these beautiful trees will be brown and dead shortly.






BTW - you’ll be able to spot Treasure Falls in the above picture as well.



We found some local residents here at the lookout.






No red nose; so it must be Chip.






With the Continental Divide crossing completed, we headed on back home.






To anyone....we had driven along a fairly ordinary looking road, constructed by ordinary people as part of a standard routine work. But by my account - it had been an extraordinary drive on an extraordinary road to see some spectacular scenery.




(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)



The Cabin at Pagosa Springs, Part 2




For those of you that know me, you may be wondering why I didn't insist on taking a longer drive, walk, look-around along Wolf Creek Pass and the Great Divide.



Simple.



X and Y wanted to take us for a walk around the cabin and see their environment.


They had bought a parcel of land within Pagosa and are keeping it as pristine as possible. Aside from the construction of the house, the rest of the property is left as wilderness.






Before we set out, I had time to admire some of the garden decorations first.

















We spent a bit of time meandering around the various spots. There were a number of lookout points and I was really pleased to see that it wasn't all flat land here; they had gullies and ravines to enjoy as well.






We had walked down a gentle slope and somewhere along the walk, we decided it would be fun to scramble up the rocks.






I really do like looking at plants; and there was an abundance of carpet lichen on the rocks and tree trunks out here.






At the top of that rock face, X and Y had put in a contemplation bench.






It was a wonderful spot to locate this bench. There was a lovely view to the west from this vantage point.







Seems like their neighbour next door agrees. They also had a spot to sit and admire the sunset. Appropriate, isn't it?







Sunset?




The view to the West looked like this on this day.













(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)



The Second Sunset - Mountain Glow and Red




Sunset, looking to the east, turned out to be all golden and yellow as well.






Come to think of it....I don’t think that Colorado knows how to do sunset other than in full yellow technicolour.






We'd retreated to the east decking and Y brought some crudités out. Actually, they turned out to include the rest of our road trip supplies which we had unpacked and left them in the kitchen for all of us to share. I guess it's a real sign that we are coming to the end of the road trip part of this trip.


We spent the time noshing and just comparing family war stories, whilst watching the sunset. They also shared with us some of 'their' names of the peaks we could see. To give you an idea, see if you can spot Nipple Peak.






We were getting closer to Mountain Glow on this day. The peaks were turning pinky and the lower sections were heading towards purples and blues. I thought it lovely; but the expert locals still were a little disappointed. Go figure!







To my mind, we've had two days of great sunsets so far from their deck.







And despite enjoying yellows, pinks, purples and blues of the Mountain Glow sunset, there was one other colour that contributed to our viewing pleasure.






Red.








(Continued in Next Post)