Visting old mining towns

When I wake up in the morning I see it’s 4AM again. I seem to be quite consistent in my waking up time here so far. Unfortunately I’m not feeling well. My body has to get accustomed to the high altitude here in Colorado. We’re at 8500ft here, that’s about 2,5km above sea level. It’s about twice as high as Helena, Montana where I more often go. Quite different than in the Netherlands where we are below sea level. Last night I had a few nose bleedings and right now I have a headache and feel nauseous. I hope it’ll get better soon and in any case I’ll be driving to Arizona later this week where the altitude is lower again. After writing for a while, I go back to sleep and wake up again at 7.30AM when some light is entering my room. I quickly get up so I can say goodbye to Amy before she leaves for work. I feel quite a lot better than a couple of hours ago and I’m full of energy again.

After I said goodbye to Amy, I have breakfast with Wes and together we look at my map and the route I’ve planned out. He gives me some recommendations for places to see and I adjust the route. We find some more National Parks to add to the map and some towns to visit. After planning the road trip for the coming days, I take a shower and I start thinking about maybe staying here for one more day. Amy and Wes are great people and I enjoy being with them. I ask Wes if it’s okay if I stay another day and of course it is. He has some errands to do this morning and I’ve got some work for my business, so we keep busy until noon. Then we go outside to see some interesting places in the area.

Wes takes me to an old miners town called Cripple Creek, build in 1896. Now most of it is turned into casinos, but the old buildings are still very nice to see from the outside. In the middle of the town is an ice cream store and of course we need to go inside for a moment. I order an ice cream with three flavours, but apparently that means something else here than back home. Instead of just three scoops I get about ten scoops in a huge wafel. I think it’s the biggest ice cream I’ve ever had. The lady behind the counter already looked a bit surprised when I ordered it. Wes takes a normal ice cream and we walk back outside. At a bench in front of the store we enjoy our ice creams in the sun. Half way I’m thinking I might not be able to finish it, but I manage. I think I’ve had enough ice cream for a while. We then drive a bit further to another small mining town called Victor where friends of Wes have a store. Inside the store Wes his friend is using an old ink press to create postcards and the store is filled with vintage stuff. We talk for a while with them and walk further through town. The weather turned out very nice this afternoon, blue skies and sunshine and not too cold anymore.

In the evening we have dinner together and Wes and Amy show me some great music videos they discovered a while ago. It’s made by two guys who traveled the world and brought together street musicians by letting them play the same song and combining it. It’s very beautiful you can see one of the videos here: Playing For Change – Stand By Me. I’m glad I stayed another day with Wes and Amy, it’s a nice relaxed day. Tomorrow morning early I’ll continue the road trip to the south-west of Colorado in the direction of Utah and Arizona, where many National Parks are.