Mike & Kris - Enjoying The Ride

Red Rocks Amphitheatre is the bomb.  Actually it is a geological phenomenon- the only naturally occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater in the world.  The two, three hundred-foot monoliths on each side provide the acoustic perfection.  They also serve as a history book of the plant and animal life that existed over the last 250 million years.  It is an unbelievable site with the city of Denver in the background serving as the icing on the cake.  The concert was unlike anything Mike and I had ever been to.  The band was called Widespread Panic and the played Rock music.  Although we had never before heard one of their songs, it didn’t even matter.  They had a cult-like following with most of the 9,500 people buying tickets for all three of their shows.  Although we had never been to a Grateful Dead concert, I feel like this must have been what it would be like.  They played from 7:30 until 11:45 with just one break.  Everyone stood and danced the entire time.  They may or may not have been aided by all the alcohol and marijuana being consumed–wink, wink!  Seriously everyone was so friendly and when they found out we had never been to a Panic concert, they hugged us and even offered drinks or “whatever”–what a night.  And we weren’t the oldest people there because the couple sitting next to us had traveled from New York to attend all three days and they were in their 60’s, but we were in the oldest 5% of the people there!  It was fun reliving our youth and we will make another trip to Denver to go back to this place.

Before the concert, we stopped by Golden, Colorado for lunch and a tour through the Coors Brewery.  I guess the idea of three, free 10 ounce beers at the end of the tour is quite appealing to people because the wait to get in was 2 1/2 hours long.  Needless to say, we will have to try for the tour on the next trip.  But we did enjoy walking around Golden, it is a small, quaint little town with a lot of restaurants.

Today started with Mike getting our pickup tire repaired–never fun but necessary.  Then we spent the afternoon driving the Peak to Peak scenic route that travels through the mountains.  We enjoyed the beautiful scenery  but wish there weren’t so many clouds blocking the snow-capped peaks.  We did enjoy driving along the Boulder Creek and the town of Boulder was great too.  After dinner we discovered a wonderful bike path right behind our trailer site that went for miles along Clear creek-what a treasure for the town of Wheat Ridge.  Safe to say, we loved our time in Denver and tomorrow we are on to Kansas.