Colorado - Day Three

Day three was whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River! Shout out to Roberto our river guide - coolest guide ever. I didn't have a picture so I stole the below pic from their website.



Anyway - it was so much fun to survive The Spinner, Kamikaze and especially Satan's Suckhole. It should be noted that after we made it thru Satan's Suckhole Roberto pointed out a backboard that was tied to a tree next to the river - this is utilized for the rafters who aren't so lucky in Satan's Suckhole.

Sheesh.

Anyway - Big D and I were in front and I didn't fall out! At one point all of a sudden I was knocked into her lap though. Better than the suckhole. We saw some real Colorado rams along the way and Big D took a dip in the river when it was calm because she couldn't let the 12-year-old show her up. Just ask her about it.

Afterwards we made our way to the Royal Gorge which is really just a big gorge with a bridge over it. And you know why they made this bridge? For tourists. There are fair rides and they charge you just to walk across. Big D and I decided we'd rather spend that money on wine and not some bridge that we could walk over in Washington for free.

The Bridge. This is my "free" view.

If you squint you can see a raft from our rafting company in the gorge below. It's quite the drop. This inspires me to do skydiving next.

So after skipping out on the Royal Gorge we decided to check out the Colorado Prison Museum nearby - which was super interesting. We were able to go into a gas chamber, see weapons confiscated, learn about past riots, criminals who stayed there - and our favorite part? The gift shop. A lot of gifts were made by prisoners from the nearby prison. Some of them had a lot of artistic talent when it came to toilet paper sculptures!

A bad man of Colorado.

After the prison museum God steered us to Holy Cross Abbey for some wine tasting. This wine was soooo stinking good that we bought some bottles for the rest of our trip. What seemed fitting was when lightening struck the building zapping out the power temporarily. Thanks God.

Memories from our 20s:

Krista: In my early 20s (not sure of age again) I went white water rafting for the first time with Monica and Marketa. I of course fell into the river and was rescued by Marketa's husband Will. Today I did not fall in. YES!

Big D: The rams we saw along the river reminded Big D of her backpacking trip thru The Enchantments when she was 28. A group of mountain goats had invaded her campsite! Bill Gruff's goat just doesn't know when to quit....