When we pulled into our campsite last night it was pretty late, easily 10:45. But even in the dark I could see that Difficult Campground is a truly lovely place. We’ve parked ourselves at the end of the main loop in lot 24. Near our spot a small river flows and the wind rustles the leaves just slightly. It is the beginning of the next adventure and an end of a wonderful weekend.
On Sunday the kids woke a bit tired even though they slept in as late as possible, but up in time to get the hotel breakfast that they love. I must say, Comfort Inn in Salida does have a great hotel breakfast. There are so many options. Had I not known it, I would not have suspected that they had planned for a more laid back day than those before it. After packing up and checking out, they were off on their bikes to go to the river in hopes of hooking up with biking friends again. Salida is such a bike friendly place that I did not have to worry about them. Once we all arrived we found that we were the first ones. Davis, Ellie and Skyler busied themselves a casual game of Nerf football and running around while I stitched up the front of Davis’ jersey since his zipper was broken. Scott, Davis’ and Skyler’s dad, showed up and made them happy. You could see that they had really missed him. We hung out at the river and went to the grocery store to purchase stuff for a picnic lunch. Eventually the older kids rode over to the race at the end of town so that they could see the pros. Scott and Skyler did a bit of fishing and I tried to knit, but could not really get focused.
Once we were all assembled at the race location things were not exactly ideal. Due to the problem from the day before, Davis could not take off his back wheel and use his trainer as is his habit. Skyler appeared to be a bit overwhelmed since it is a hard, hilly course. She had only driven it in the car and not done it on her bike yet. All three kids were tired. Some of them had sore necks from playing Chicken in the pool. Ellie was exhausted from going full speed for so many days in a row. To top it off it seems like she broke her pinky while playing in the park. We had to tape it to her ring finger and hope that she could ride well enough. There was also a new, local and unknown girl in her line up. Ellie geared herself up for her race. I was a bit nervous because she seemed to have so many things that were not ideal. However, once the race started that all melted away and they were off. Ellie had a much stronger ride than I had anticipated and won her even, coming in about 7 minutes ahead of the second place rider.
By the time the awards were handed out the sky had a threatening look. We had the option to stay at George’s and Joan’s house in Salida for the night, but Ellie really wanted to go to the camping site so off we went. Although it was dark, I could still see that it was a lovely drive up over Independence Pass. Ellie was in a chatty mood and so we talked the whole way from Salida to Difficult Campground in Aspen. At one point she told me that she was glad that there were other cars behind us and that she was creeped out when she saw people by the side of the road at night. It reminded her of a scary movie she had once seen. Just as we crested the top of the pass there was a person, standing by the side of the road. However, this person had a headlamp on and so was not reminiscent of a horror movie hitch hiker. A few yards later we were treated to the sight of a few deer taking a sip from a large puddle. Down the road a little farther we spied a fox. I was growing tired and was happy to pull into our camping site. We were both ready for rest.
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