Riding the Rockies

We are handling meals for this segment of the trip by assigning three or four people to a meal, and these people are then responsible for preparation and clean-up for their assigned meal.  As it worked out, we had enough people so that each group had only one meal for the entire time.

Our meal was this morning’s breakfast.  Since I was the one who set up the shared spreadsheet which tracked who did what and when, I assigned our meal to be the first breakfast.  That way we were done right away and would not have to think about it for the remainder of the time.

We did some of the preparation the night before.  In the midst of the chaos of everyone coming in and finding places for all their stuff, we were frying up two pounds of bacon.  Made for a rather busy kitchen.

This morning we were all up at 6:15 to finish the breakfast casserole.  One thing we discovered a few days ago is that high-elevation cooking takes longer.  Instead of 45 minutes at 350 degrees, it took over an hour at 400 to fully cook the casserole.  In addition, we made biscuits and had to use the oven in the other condo (our large group is spread out in two adjacent condos), so it was running back and forth to manage that also.  But it worked out well and everyone came away satisfied.

Today was an unstructured day, as many had just arrived and needed to acclimate to the elevation.  A couple of the group were already feeling the effects, with one having rather severe headaches and skipping breakfast.  Several of us decided to rent electric bikes and do some of the bike trails in the area. So we all trooped into Breckenridge and descended on a bike shop.  14 of us, all at once.  There was one guy in the bike shop and he was just sending out a group of 6 on bikes.  That took a while.  Then he had to get us all ready to go.  The process took over an hour.  He could have used some help but when Terry offered to help get some of the bikes ready, that seemed to really wig him out.  He had to do everything in a set order, by himself.  It was rather painful to watch.

The ride, however, was fantastic.  33 miles total.  We rode from Breckenridge 8 miles into Fresco where some of us found a park and had lunch.  By this time the group had separated into two groups, with one group rallying around one member, who was feeling dizzy from the elevation and actually spilled a few times.  The rest of us continued to Copper Mountain, another 8 miles.

On electric bikes, the climb into Copper Mountain didn’t seem all that significant.  It was a scenic ride, with the mountain peaks all around us and Tenmile Creek right next to the bike trail.  But the nearly 700 feet in elevation gain really made its presence known on the way down.  It was an 8-mile coast, having to use the brakes occasionally to keep the speed in check.  A couple of the faster members of the group mentioned hitting speeds of 35 miles per hour.

When we got back, a few of us took a dip in the hot tub for a while, then joined everyone else for a Lasagna dinner.  Dinner is always great when someone else prepares it.

After dinner we all sat down and watched a slide show of all the participating families.  Some of these cousins I haven’t seen in decades and some of their kids I have never met so it was good to reconnect.  Then it was more pictures from Aunt Nancy’s vast collection.  Aunt Nancy was a wonderful, colorful lady and some of the unique and humorous stories about her are already starting to come out.

I made it partway through these pictures, then had to go to bed.  Lack of sleep and the lingering effects of a cold had drained me to the point of exhaustion.