Good morning Dad....

While visiting my dad when he was in a carehome, we often talked about all the wonderful trips we took together. Two he mentioned over and over, was the trip to Arizona where my dad showed me all the places he grew up, played, lived and...., the other one was the trip to Colorado.

That trip took us over the famous Wolf Creek Pass, we took a wonderful train ride, seeing where my dad went to bootcamp for the army, Pikes Peak, a hamfest, Rocky Mountain national Park, zigzagging all across the beautiful state of Colorado. The only thing we didn't do was Mount Evans as the road closed just one week prior to us getting there. We both wanted to come back again another day.

About two months before he passed away, he asked me when we were going back there. (he had a few good days over the mostly bad). I told him as soon as he got better, that would be the first trip we would take. I don't know if he thought he could get better, I don't know if he really understood what he was saying, I don't know if he realized... what I do know is I made a promise to him to see Mount Evans someday.

I would need 5 days time to do the trip but life had always gotten in the way of things. With so much going on I decided to take the 5 days and do the trip. Getting time off before hand - due to injury - wasn't in that plan, and I really should have rested at home, but I needed this - personally. In three days time I have driven 2047 miles and I have a day and a half to get home..

I had thought about going up the mountain yesterday but my heart and gut said no. I found out that at 16:00 on Sunday, it started to snow. At 16:30, they closed the pass - it was past nightfall when they got everyone safely out.

I planned this morning like my dad and I would. Up early, went to a fast food place, drove up to the gate - and was 90 minutes early - but saw lots of wildlife and talked to many wonderful other people waiting for the road to open. Sure enough, it was a nice twisty road, skinny with 1000 foot drop offs - no guardrail, badly damaged in areas, icy and snowy too... but I made it with traction control going on just a few times. It seemed the world lifted off my shoulders as I felt my dad looking down.

The main photo is out the front window. The extras are a big critter I saw, a mountain goat, the hummingbird breakfast club and a cute chippy.