Day 3

We packed up early and got a good start out of Colorado Springs. The plan was to stop on the way through Denver at the Denver zoo. This was a risky proposition, as driving a large trailer through the downtown streets can be tricky. There is also a question of parking at a busy zoo like the Denver zoo. We got there about an hour after it opened. It was a bit squirrelly maneuvering into the park area. We were lucky and a police officer directed us to a side street where we were able to park the trailer. We spent a good while at the zoo. The Denver zoo is a large zoo with quite a large variety of animals with very nice exhibits. It is set up in a loop pattern so it lends itself well to walking it with small children. The children enjoyed it but soon became tired about ¾ ways around. Grant as usual, made his crop of new friends and wanted to follow them around. We left the zoo around 3pm and planned to stop at a downtown burger joint called Hamburger Mary’s. We had eaten here before and they have some truly delicious hamburgers. This stop would require trickier downtown maneuvering. We looked at the map and charted a course that required the least amount of turns. Everything along the way seemed to be going as planned until I turned onto the last street. It was a narrow street between townhomes with parked cars and both sides. It was narrow but negotiable. It was negotiable until a large moving truck in front of us simply parked in the middle of the street. The mover got out, looked at me and went into one of the townhomes. He simply left the truck there idling. There was only a narrow pass on one side to try and get through. I tried, but it was impassible by a few inches. The man never returned. We were stuck on a narrow street with cars on both sides and a long trailer. People that tried to pass on the street jimmied their way past us, cursing and gesturing. There was only one way out. The trailer would have to be reversed out from this narrow street onto a busy main road. If you have ever driven with a long trailer, this isn’t exactly an easy proposition. I was not comfortable doing it, but Amy has some serious skill at backing up a trailer. She has the nickname “master helmsman”. She hopped into the seat and we grabbed our 2 way radios we use to communicate when maneuvering the trailer. Amy slowly backed the trailer up and I stopped traffic in a lane while she deftly backed the trailer into a single lane of traffic with one pass. I pumped my fists and ran up and hopped into the vehicle and off we went. We grabbed our to-go order of tasty burgers after taking a circuitous route and off we headed to the mountains. We arrived in Estes Park that evening at our campsite. Estes park is a little tourist type town at the foothills of the mountains that make up Rocky Mountain National Park. The campsite we stayed at was outside town and was a quant little place with a trout pond and stream that run alongside. We set up and let the kids play on the playground, while we watched other campers perform karaoke as it was the campground activity for the night. Tomorrow would be a day to unwind a bit.