Are You Really Hitchhiking? (Colorado Vacay)

The SUV slowed down as it crossed the dusty parking lot
and the window came down. I tried so hard to pin on a winning smile.
"Are you really hitchhiking?" Asked the cute young brunette,
who might not be used to seeing sixty year old ladies thumbing it.
"I sure am." I said. "My feet won't go one more foot since
we hiked the whole Perimeter Trail."
I heard the two young gals and older lady in the back exclaim to each other.
"If ya'll don't mind a cuddle, climb in back with the baby."
I climbed in with baby Carter and told them how we missed a turn
on the "easy" trail and ended up following a goat trail a thousand
feet straight up a cliff and the extra six vertical miles of terror ruined me.
They were sympathetic to my plight and took me to Main Street.
I pointed at the three block hill to Brenny's and thanked them for the ride.
Well, those ladies from Mustang Island Texas would have none of that
and dropped me off right at Brenda's door. They said the town by them
was called, "Hitch-Up" because so few people had cars to start with.
I went to watch the convention with Tom and Brenda and Terry showed up
a few minutes later. He got lost on another trail after I bailed out on him.
He joined us in the TV room and Bren and I couldn't believe it.
Hillary Clinton had won the candidacy so we snuck out to the
front porch and started banging pots and pans as hard as we could.
They live on a hill so we were certain the entire town of Ouray heard us.
They weren't the only ones. Tom and Terry ran out to find out what was
happening and couldn't believe would would cause such a ruckus.
Well, duh...
The next day Tom fired up the tiny Toyota 4X4 and Bren and I poured
our considerable selves into the miniscule jump seats behind them
and off we went. The only thing scarier than hiking vertically
is driving vertically. I thought I might throw up down the back
of Terry's shirt and ended up holding hands with Bren most of the
way since it seemed clear to me that it would be my last chance.
Bullion King Lake is at 12,000 feet elevation and the parking lot
was at 9,000. We stilled needed to hike that last thin-air mile
but I was fairly inspired by being able to throw snow balls at Terry.
Tom caught all the fish caught and I felt bad for Terry but
he wasn't riding the jump seat like a pretzel, so not too bad.
Terry and I went over to Silverton the next day with the thought
of taking the steam train down to Durango, but we got sidetracked
driving up Mineral Creek Valley and staring at campgrounds.
It was so pretty, we stopped to take a picture, which was
huge mistake. The minute we opened the doors,
we were swarmed by horseflies, mosquitoes and No-see-ums.
Many bites later, we arrived in Silverton only to see the train
on its way to Durango. We decided to tour the world's biggest
mining museum cut our losses.
The equipment for drilling holes to insert
the dynamite was impressive and I said to Terry,
"Hold that thing between your legs like you know what to do with it."
I snapped a cute picture of Terry pretending to operate the drill.
After three days at Tom and Brenda's we moved over to the
Wiesbaden resort in downtown so we wouldn't wear out our welcome.
We decided to pick up some food for Tom and Brenda
to replenish what we had blasted through while staying with them.
The town of Ridgeway, which has the only store near Telluride,
reflected that Ralph Lauren shopped there.
Terry's face turned so pale and I thought he was having a heart attack,
but it was only Price Shock. He held up a can of coffee which was $18.00!
(We buy the same thing at Kookmore Grocery Outlet for six dollars)
The Wiesbaden was idyllic except instead of a wall clock we had a
giant thermometer. We never knew what time it was,
and we didn't care.