Golden, CO - June 5-12, 2006

After spending time in so many small towns, we were anxious to sample a taste of urban living again. Golden is a suburb of Denver and we stayed in a small RV park on Clear Creek just a few blocks walk from downtown Golden. This spot is real popular with Golden residents who stroll and walk their pets in the nearby park and on the path along the creek. We had fun watching all the kayakers who practiced their skills in the rapids along this section of the creek.

We had several places we were looking forward to visiting in the Denver area – Costco, Camping World, and Home Depot were on our list. I wanted to get to Nordstroms, but had to settle for a trip to Foleys Department Store to stock up on my favorite lotions and potions. We made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Coors Brewery to sample their products and actually developed a taste for Blue Moon, the Coors version of a microbrew. We took a tour of the Molly Brown Mansion in a lovely old area of downtown Denver where they lived in over 5000 feet of luxury with only one bathroom!!

We crossed paths with our friends Mike and Florence again. Mike is a real railroad buff – he had an elaborate G scale train set in the backyard of their home in Massachusetts – so we went with them to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum. We also spent time with our niece Jana and her family who live in Aurora One evening we watched her son Casey, who’ll be on his high school varsity basketball team next year, play a couple of practice games at a local gym. Casey is in with some pretty talented company – three of the players are the sons of former professional athletes, including John Elway’s son! Jana and Paul also took us to some downtown Denver hot spots, including a comedy club. Needless to say, this was the most sophisticated entertainment we’d experienced in a long time. .

On the last day of our visit we walked to downtown Golden where they’d blocked off the main streets for a classic car show. It was a glorious day and we wandered among the crowd looking at all the vintage cars we can’t afford! Of special interest – a perfectly restored travel trailer from the 1940’s! It as very cool and had all the bells and whistles from that time, but certainly a lot different from what we’re traveling in. .


Getting around the Denver area means spending a lot of time on freeways, so although we had mixed feelings about leaving the advantages of city living, we were glad to head back to the less traveled roads. Next stop – Wyoming!