Denver, Colorado

It's now Friday night and we've been out pretty much all day. As I'd said during our time here we've managed to fit quite a bit in! Quick recap with pictures here:

After we got off the plane we went to this ghost town museum





After a look around the exhibits we went outside to try our hand at "Gold Panning". Now Im not 100% but i think its what they pilgrims did when they first came to America trying to find their fortunes. Basically it involves taking a bowl and scooping some sand and water from a river (In our case a little trough) and shaking it to let the heavy sand and gold settle. Then you shake it a bit and get the gravel out gradually until your left with black sand which you then shake a bit untill you can spot some gold.

After half an hour or so of panning we all managed to get a few pieces

Iain hard at work

Lauren working away while Tucker supervises! (The guy had a really good knack of making friends with the people who found the most gold....)

Some of the kids were having some trouble so me and iain decided to donate our gold to the kids, although I think letting tucker dish it out between the rest of them might have been a bad idea...




After that we went headed back to the Log cabins we were staying in (I'll get some pictures of that tomorrow) and dropped our stuff off. It was then time to head out for some horse riding. Having never really ridden a horse myself the nerves were there however I was soon calmed by the air of panic surrounding Iain started to swell like a ballon. After trying to escape with the other half of the family who were going up Pike's Peak we managed to get him to the stables. We were greeted by Britney and Keyna (not sure of the spelling) who were the "wranglers". They sized us up and assigned us our mounts for the 2 hour trek.

Notice Iain struggling to look at the horses...

Iain, not unlike a leaf at this point, was first up and tentatively approached the little stand as Britney chose his horse - Troy. After a few nervous glances and some steadying of the hands Iain got on.
After getting his stirrups adjusted and riding around a little he seemed quite happy, claiming it was like a 1 Ton motorbike with attitude :). I was next and believe I got a horse with quite an appropriate name - Showgirl :D. Only when sitting atop one of these things do you realise just how much power they have, fantastic stuff. The rest got saddled up and we got our little safety talk. While this was going Showgirl was edging towards Britney's horse Duke. Britney later informed me that showgirl had a bit of a crush on Duke and thus she'd likely just follow him! We got underway and headed off into the pastures next to the stables. I was about half way down the line with lauren and her sisters in front then Iain and Stu in the back. For the most part there were no issues however Troy was quite strong willed and would take Iain for little wanders off the trail here and there regardless of what Iain tried to do which was much to the enjoyment of the rest of us :) Meanwhile up front Showgirl seemed to be looking for Duke and whenever a gap appeared beside the horse in front she'd trot a little to get a better position. This would have been fine with me if I'd had a little warning however she had the tendency to wait till I was looking around and then pick up the pace :P. Towards the end of the trek Showgirl pretty much pushed passed every other horse to be right behind Duke, women eh?

Showgirl

The trek was great fun though and definitely something I'd do again. For those of you have read any of the Dark Tower novels (Jamie, Lorenzo?) it felt every bit like being Roland :D

That evening we had a big bonfire and BBQ with the rest of Laurens family which was a good laugh. We'll need to crash family reunions more often! The next day was white water rafting which again was great. Don't have any pictures of it for obvious reasons but it was pretty tame. With rapids like "Piglets Nightmare" and "Pokemon Falls" you get the idea that it was more aimed for the kids of the group :) Was good fun all the same followed by some pizza which is never a bad thing!

Today was another fantastic day. We caught this cog railway to the top of Pikes Peak which is 14,000 odd feat high! The air was so thin on top that jogging a few steps resulted in heavy breathing for about a minute! I took loads of pictures and videos however the camera SD card has spat the dummy out so I'll need to get a copy of some of Iain and Stu's and stick them up. Some great views from the top of the mountain that you'll be able to see if you Google the name for images. Anyway that's us pretty much packed and ready to leave for Yellowstone tomorrow so more adventures to be had.

More pictures may arrive at some point but until we get to Boseman (Where we're staying for a day before heading to Yellowstone) this will be the last post. Got 11 hours of driving ahead of us tomorrow which should be interesting considering it'd take me less time to fly home.

Let the adventures continue.......