Colorado Trip

It was a quick trip to Colorado these past few days.  Samuel was a great traveling partner, charming the woman he sat beside on the plane, navigating us through the streets of Denver in search of a Whole Foods Market for lunch on Monday, exploring the Garden of the Gods and getting some good photos for me.  It was a joy to be with him.

Samuel in front of
Siamese Twins in the Garden of the Gods.

In fron of Balanced Rock

The purpose of our trip was to take him to a ranch in southeast Colorado where he'll spend a few weeks.  It was about 4:00 Tuesday when I was ready to start my 3-hour drive back to Denver, so, to avoid rush hour traffic, a couple of the women there suggested I go up State Highway 71.  It was 84 miles of two-lane highway, nicely paved, and straight as an arrow, beautiful ranch country with absolutely no services or other major intersecting roads.  Occasionally I would see an outcropping of big trees and realize that a ranch family had a house there, but otherwise there was little sign of human life.  I connected to I-70 at Limon, traveling another 70 miles, where signs of civilization increased until I began to see the airport lights.

Before I left Samuel, he found a Christian radio station out of Colorado Springs that I could listen to on the drive back to Denver.  It was 102.7, KBIQ, the same call letters that Praise 105.3 was called when I was Samuel's age, and, just like Praise 105.3's slogan, this station was "Safe for the whole family."  How wonderful that, even though I didn't have my riding partner with me, I had his favorite kind of music on the radio.

I miss you, buddy boy.