HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB Thursday 25 June Steamboat Springs

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB, LOVE OF MY LIFE. and our Little Bella turned 7 today as well.
Today was a fun and crazy day. 
We sat outside with a propane fire sipping our coffee until 9am.  Then we went to Steamboat Springs Golf Course for a quick 9 holes. It wasn’t all that quick actually. We got there about 20 minutes early and instead of letting us go they made us wait for the people who were scheduled to go in front of us. They were a threesome (we were a twosome), a woman riding in a cart and two gentlemen walking. They were slow as molasses. Not only did we have to wait 20 min. For them to arrive and get their acts together, but then we had to wait for them on every hole. Rob was in good spirits about it and just played two balls.  After all, it’s his birthday. 
The course was pretty and pretty easy.  The only pictures I took of it were of the various wood carvings. There were three of them. 

They were all a bit weathered, but fun to see out there.  We finished the course pretty quickly. 
We went to Walmart and then the grocery store then came back to the RV park to change clothes 
Next we went on an awesome mountain bike ride up the Emerald Mountain.

First we rode up the Lupin Trail to Morning Glory

From Lupine we turned onto Morning Glory and climbed further up the mountain. There were some pretty valley views up there

At the top of Morning glory we turned onto Quarry Mountain.  There were more pretty views of the valley on the other side.  The valley that Steamboat springs is located in.

Those dark clouds in the back ground are thunder bumpers. And it did start thundering and lightning.  It wasn’t real far away, so we started high-tailing it.

We continued on the Quarry Mtn. trail for about .4 miles and it was a lot of downhill, but then we hit the NPR trail. NPR stands for “No Pedal Required”.  And it was all that. There were Whoop T Doos and curves and roller coasters.

And to top it all off, it started to rain along with the thunder and lightning.  I was praying that we wouldn’t get Struck by lightning and that we would beat the rain down so that the trail didn’t get wet, slippery and dangerous. 

Part way down the trail I came upon a curve and there was a moose standing on the trail. It was huge.  Rob said it was a youngster and he was afraid Mom was nearby.  Needless to say, I stopped dead in my track. We stared at each other and then it started walking toward me.  I remember that moose are dangerous and will charge people.  I was like “Oh shit”, and started backing up.  All the while I was calling out for Rob who was somewhere behind me.  When he saw it he was like “ come back here”. I was saying “ I am”, and he was saying “ faster, off the trail”.  We backed up and off the trail.  The moose turned before it got to us and wandered through the brush and away from us. Phew!  I wish we had taken a picture, but my phone was in my pack and Rob was to concerned for our safety to take a picture. 

We continued on down through the the thunder, lightning, and rain and I added...”no more moose encounters” to my prayers.

We made it! We got to the truck before it really started pouring and got the bikes safely loaded in the truck with out getting struck.

We went back to the campground and Rob prepared for the next phase of his Birthday Celebration.....

He went and got a Massage. I stayed back with Bella. I was concerned about her being back in the RV with the thunder and lightning and us not being there.  Would she be scared, worried? What. She was just happy to see us.

While Rob was gone I showered and got ready for dinner.  I was just taking Bella out for a walk when he got back so he walked with us.

We went to Mountain Tap Brewery for dinner.  They are in a converted Auto mechanic garage. So, they have big rolling doors that go up and even though you are sitting inside, you feel like you are outside. We had to wear masks while being shown to our table as well as any time we left our table, i.e. to the rest room or leaving the restaurant.  All the wait staff wore masks.

We had some interesting food. A watermelon, cucumber, feta, mint salad, a potato dish with Chopped up potato, prosciutto, and all the dinner veggies from the week; peas, green beans, asparagus, tomatoes all roasted together.  It was good.  We had lasagna and som garlic bread rolls that had some kind of a creamy cheese on the inside and roasted minced garlic on the outside served with an Italian red tomato-dipping sauce. it was a bit to rich for me. We also had a couple yummy 3 oz taster beers. It was a fun eve and nice ending to Rob’s Birthday celebration.  We waddled our way back to the Jeep and drove ourselves back to the RV.  We took Bella out for her pre-bedtime pee and went to bed.