St Elmo, Colorado

Another early rise and by 10am we were on the road again. This time we were heading back to Colorado Springs, then continuing up Highway 24 to Buena Vista. As we drove up the mountain we were able to get some stunning vistas of Pikes Peak. Just incredible, Pikes' is surrounded by a few 13000 ft peaks and there are trails all around them. FYI the tallest peak in Australia is of course Mt Kosciusko, and its 7310 ft high. Mt Hotham is 6105 ft and Mt Buller is 5921 ft and the tallest peak near Adelaide is Mt Lofty at a grand 2329 ft. Jenee managed to make it up to Woodland Park and then she passed into the land of dreams. Later on the return trip she said, " I don't remember this part?" to which my reply was, "Thats because you were asleep." Mum, she would make you proud, although she can make it out of the driveway before she nods off.

We met up with the Cravens (Carl, Lisa, Mary Nelle, Edie and Coleman) in Buena Vista and then followed them to St Elmo. St Elmo is an old mining town that was abruptly abandoned in the 1920’s. Apparently Colorado is famous for its "Ghost Towns" which buzzed during the gold rush and were abandoned when the gold ran out. Years after they were abandoned, a few fortunate people bought up some of the old town structures in St Elmo somewhere in the mid to late 30’s. Carl’s grand father was one of these people and he bought two beautiful log cabins and some land. Over the years they lovingly restored these homes and have been serving the Cravens family as year round vacation homes. Carl showed us around our cabin and I was amazed. The original owners of these homes left everything behind: Silverware, cookware, beds, stoves, letters, share certificates, photographs and more. It was really interesting to go through some of the folders and read them.

Once we had settled in Carl wanted to show us around town. We climbed into an original Willy's Jeep and drove to "downtown". There is a crystal clear river running through town, the old general store is still a general store but under newer management, and a pile of old wooden planks that is now called the "Chipmunk Pile". After looking around, we drove up to Ed and Shellee's new cabin. Carl has known Ed and Shellee since high school and they have 2 boys, Garrett and Dillon, and one daughter, Trinity. It was apparent that these were boys boys and we were going to get along just fine.

After meeting the Carters we went back to the Cravens, picked up Lisa and the kids and went down to the Chipmunk pile. I have never experienced anything like this. There were chipmunks all over us trying to get their share of sunflower seeds. To add to this, there were also prairie dogs, squirrel/chipmunk mixes and black squirrels. It was a blast, there were critters going everywhere, kids sqealing with delight and plenty of laughs.

Later we went back to Ed and Shellee's for a BBQ. I went to hang out with the boys. They were shooting cans with their slingshots. I finally got a turn (after much begging - j/k) and managed to hit one of the cans first try. Dillon looked up at me and informed me that what I did wasn't fair. I looked down at him and told him that it was fair and he needed to tough it up, hahaha. That impressed them so, and we were buds from then on. I made them a deal, if they could hit 2 cans, I would buy them a chocolate bar and 5 cans them a soft drink too. It took a few days but they eventually did it.

What a great day, we couldn't wait for tomorrow to see what St Elmo has to offer.