Four letter words..........

FALL,    KIDS,   JEEP,    VIEW,    GOLF.....   maybe I should have chosen longer words to describe our week.....

Becca and Lizzie drove over the mountains and through the woods to grandmother's house this week.....Lizzie, still on a high from getting excepted into her first and only choice college (Northern State Colorado) AND a scholarship,  (obviously Grandmother genes ), spent part of her fall break driving the 5 hours from the Front Range to our Western Slope.    Aside from catching up and enjoying these special girls, we took the Jeep road to Telluride.    Color is fading but still worth the views to get out in this beautiful back country.   

Dogs are welcome most places but when their not, there's always a fence or post to let them wait by.

We saw political signs around touting the reasons why you should vote for "Glider Bob" but not all thought this was a good idea.   

A 'must do' when in Telluride is to ride the free gondola from the valley up to Mountain Village.    It's like taking the bus and saves on congestion, parking, gas and pollution by connecting the villages, the ski areas and Telluride.    It accepts bikes, ski's snowboards, strollers, dogs and old people.   It is smooth and quiet and each gondola will hold about 6-8 seated.    

This is the only picture I took of Becca and Lizzie....we thought about having a group pic taken while eating on the patio of the TomBoy (best vegan burger ever) but I failed at that as well.    

This is the view descending into Telluride...

They made the long drive back home the next day but we'll see them again soonly in Denver.

I actually played golf this week.....not well, not pretty but so good to get back out again.    The weather has been just glorious,   Colorado blue skies, near 80 and snow on the mountains for that added amazing touch to our favorite mountains.      But, all good things change and yesterday, the real fall weather showed up.     Snow in the high country and rainy predictions for the week ahead.

Our hiking group met in Ridgeway yesterday and Bonnie, who has great connections to the movie "True Grit",  showed us the scenes from the movie that were filmed there back in 1968.   Many buildings, now repurposed, are still alive and well.     It was chilly, windy and drizzly so we skipped the walk around town after hearing all about the movie and it's making in the town park under the gazebo.    Then it was to the True Grit Cafe.   Built after the movie, it contains memorabilia
 from  many of the John Wayne movies and Dennis Weaver TV shows.    Weaver had a home nearby and generously donated a large area for a beautiful park with sculptures and trails along the Uncompaghre River ( say that 3 times fast and then spell it ).      Anyway, it is a popular watering hole and we ate our fill..............Then it was off to Bonnie and Bud's beautiful home overlooking the San Juan's for a viewing of the original movie.     Never having seen it, I had no idea it was so violent or that the horses seemed to suffer injuries and great falls.   JW won an Oscar for the movie but I really couldn't see why......, Jeremy Slade, Robert Duval, Glenn Campbell in their younger years also were in it.   John Wayne wanted Karen Carpenter to play the female lead after hearing her sing...??  We enjoyed calling out mountain peaks and familiar distant hiking  areas and roads.    It was filmed in Sept and Oct and they weren't very consistent with their choices of backgrounds.    Starting out in aspen groves with few leaves, the next scene showed them in fully green aspens and then back to falling leaves again.     Some scenes were also filmed in California.      A fun evening.  

We're off in a few days for our annual hiking trip to Capitol Reef in Utah.    Weather is looking iffy with rain and much cooler temps so we'll see how much hiking we do and how much Jeeping we opt for.    But always a good time with friends.