Our last night in Colorado, we stayed in Estes Park. Lovely area! There was a herd of 15 bull elk on the golf course. The course had fences protecting the putting greens from the delicate hooves of the elk. But what about the rest of the course? Were the hoof prints just considered natural hazards — and heaven help the golfer whose ball strayed down into a hoof hole?
We stayed in an interesting motel which shall remain nameless. In the picture below, notice the room’s data/business center with the overhead lighting, the kitchenette, and the personal armoire. My favorite was the ergonomic chair. (Click on the picture to see a larger view.)
The bathroom was just as modern as the business center. (Sorry, but I didn’t get a picture of it.) If you were daydreaming as you stepped out of the shower, you could land in the toilet if you weren’t careful.
The base of the vanity consisted of a 2″ X 2″ board covered in white Formica flecked with gold swirls (a pattern similar to the one my parents selected when they built their house in 1956) and a whitewashed peg board.
There were a whopping 3 inches of counter space on the right side of the sink and a whopping 10 inches on the left side. Plenty of room for my blow dryer, curling iron, hair brush, comb, hand mirror, make-up remover, facial cleanser, moisturizer, make up, tooth brush, and toothpaste. Craig had to go elsewhere for his beauty routine.
The TV rested on a metal stand. A dark-brown metal stand. A low, dark-brown, metal stand. A low, dark-brown, metal stand that was so low that you couldn’t watch TV if you were laying down on the bed.
There was a ‘lounge’ chair in the room — a chair consisting of fabric stretched across wood. A picnic bench in the park is more cozy and comfortable than this chair!
The room reminded me of a motel we stayed in once in Montana where the nicest thing about that place was that it had 2-ply toilet paper. While not quite the same level of elegance, this place did have really nice sink faucet fixtures.
However, my all-time favorite was the sign on the door. The essence of all the legal-ese was that if we procured food or accommodations with intent of fraud, we could be sentenced up to life imprisonment at the state penitentiary. Really a quite endearing welcome-and-stay-a-long-time-and-come-back-to-visit-soon message for customers. I wonder what my sentence would be for a crime more serious than food fraud. . .
From Estes Park, we drove to the Rocky Mountain National Park. It had snowed recently.
Here are some pictures of the summit where the growing season lasts from 6-12 weeks, snow is on the ground for 8 months out of the year, and winds could get up to 150 miles per hour. It’s a place where I’d be sure to retire . . .
