Colorado Days, June 3, 2007

We arrived in Colorado before Memorial Day. We are staying in a city campground in Lyons. It is quite pleasant with a creek bubbling and gurgling behind us --- of course, I can’t hear it, but I have been assured that it is pleasant. Madeline says it lulls her to sleep.

We are visiting my daughter, Debbie, who lives in Boulder. Over Memorial Day weekend, my daughter, Diana, who lives in Los Vegas, flew out to visit us and her sister. So all in all we has a festive weekend, and a chance to do a lot of family visiting.

In Boulder, there is an annual 10-kilometer race walk on Memorial Day. There were 50,000 people participating in the event this year, so as you can guess, this was a pretty big thing. It was lots of fun. This year, Debbie, Diana, Madeline and I walked, while Debbie’s husband, who likes to run, ran the event. Along the course, there were people playing in little bands –there was an Elvis impersonator and belly dancers. Some people set their lawn sprinklers along the road, so you could get cooled off. Every mile or two there were people handing out water and Gator-Aid.

The “race” finishes in the University of Colorado football stadium. There, a box of snacks (power bars, cookies made from organic foodstuffs, etc) and a bottle of soda or a can of beer are handed out. Then two real races are started inside the stadium with several teams of women and then men from countries such as China, Japan, Kenya, and Mexico race a 10 kilometer race. The race starts and ends in the stadium, with the main course outside in the streets. At the mid-point, the runners come into the stadium and circle the track once. The whole race is televised on to two screens in the stadium, so it is possible to sit there and watch the entire race start, develop and finish! Lots of fun.

There is also a 3-day Craft Fair in Boulder, which we went to on the day preceding Memorial Day. In addition to crafts, there is a small midway, also lots of music, and venders selling lots of stuff, but also handing out enough free food samples, to feed you for a day!

We are getting lots of chores done, in preparation for our trip to the Klondike and the Alaskan panhandle. Not very exciting stuff to talk about.