DAY 35: Manitou Springs, CO: Charlie's In Love......

Sunday, July 5: Manitou Springs, CO

Yep, my Charlie's in love........with a Llama.  Actually, he likes to think its an Alpaca....he's always wanted an Alpaca....thought the Alpaca was the cutest animals on earth... has talked non-stop about getting an Alpaca; no one knows why, but he has.  So today, as we were driving, we came across a field of Llama's.  In his mind, they were all Alpaca's.  We now have more pictures and video of these Llama's than anything else on this trip.   He felt they were "communicating" with him by shaking their rear ends and winking at him.  I'm not making this stuff up, folks.  And yes, I am worried about him.....

But prior to the Llama field, we headed up the neatest, curviest, best motorcycle road ever.  It was the road up to Winds in the Cave or Cave Winds or Cave of the Winds; I don't know, we didn't go in we just drove up the road.  Check out the video on YouTube once I get it on there.  Those are the kind of roads I like; 26% grade with turns every 100 feet......awesome!  So Chuck loves Llama aka Alpaca's and I love curvy roads!  Who knew!!!??

We headed up to Cripple Creek, Colorado which is the neatest little town.  First off, you drive forever in the middle of nowhere on the west side of Pikes Peak, top a hill and  WHALLAA.....there is this great little town that has EVERYTHING.  It truly is in the middle of nowhere.  Remember that old motto, "If you build it, they will come"??  Well, this little town built some CASINO'S.........and boy-howdy, did they come!  People everywhere; stores everywhere; cars everywhere......  When we first drove into the town, we just saw a bunch of cars parked along the road.  We thought maybe they were having a church bizarre or something.  But nope, it was just people everywhere hoping to get lucky (get your mind out of the gutter; you know what I meant!).   

And yes, we got soaked again today.......riding back from Cripple Creek, it poured on us while on the motorcycle AGAIN.  We could see it coming.  It doesn't help that we're at an altitude of 9000 feet which means the rain gets to us quicker than it would back home.  I have decided, from experiences throughout this trip, that I am going to develop windshield wipers for motorcycles.......& helmets.  Why has no one done this yet??  I know Harley riders are too cool to have windshield wipers on theirs, but this could be a huge seller at the Wing Ding next year for us Honda riders.  I'm going to get right on that as soon as I get home!  (BTW, a Wing Ding is a Honda Goldwing Rally........do you know why they call it a "Wing Ding???")

Anyway, made it back to the RV in time to dry off and head into downtown Manitou Springs to shop a little.  Such a neat little town.  Murphy went with us, of course, cause Colorado is a very dog-friendly state and you can take that little mutt with you pretty much anywhere.  He prefers, when riding on the motorcycle, to have his back feet on Chuck's lap; his front legs on my shoulders (I'm driving); and looking cool while heading down the road, especially with his cute little sweatshirt on that says, "I Only Bite Ugly People"....(his definition of "ugly" is "mean").  Anyway, he was quite a hit!

The coolest thing happened after we got home to the RV.  I took Murphy for a long walk to the park and as we were walking along, we see a deer grazing on the grass over by the pool.  Now, out here, you see deer, fox's and all kinds of animals everywhere.  But this deer wasn't the least bit afraid of us.  Murphy even barked at him as we approached him, but he simply looked up from eating the grass, made eye to eye contact with Murphy, which caused Murphy to stop barking and actually shy away from the deer.  I don't know what that deer said to Murphy with his eyes, but I'd like to "can" some of it  and take it home with me.  We sat down on the sidewalk, about 20 feet away from the deer, and watched him for a few minutes.   Amazing!  

So, let's see.  Charlie's in love with a Llama; I'm going to patent windshield wipers for the motorcycle & helmet and Murphy met his match with a deer.  Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good day!!

Hey James, Talked Ellen Into the RV Lifestyle Yet????