Day 11: First Day Off

I had big plans today.

The first thing I did was attempt to sleep until 7 AM. I failed and ended up waking up at 5:40 and sort of laying in bed until 6:40. When I got frustrated enough, I jumped out of bed and immediately did my laundry. Oh man did I need to do my laundry. Eleven days of mud and dust and sweat and almost all of my clothes were dirty and I had worn the same four long-sleeved tops at least twice each. So laundry was at the TOP of my list.

While my laundry was washing, I had a bagel for breakfast and watched some TV on my computer to get caught up on my shows. I finished my laundry, took a shower and got dressed. Then I found Michele and we drove downtown to walk around and look at the shops. Estes Park has a really cute downtown that has this (slightly fake) small town feel. There are a bunch of cute shops and ice cream stores and we walked around for two hours, window shopping. I bought a pair of turquoise stud earrings to wear since the stud earrings I brought are boring. Around 11:30, we stopped by Safeway on our way back to the ranch so I could get some things I needed like hand soap, conditioner, hair ties and carrots to snack on while in the office. Then we headed back to the ranch for lunch.

Lunch was elk burgers and we ate quickly and got back on the road to go visit Allenspark, another Sombrero Ranches location about 30 minutes away in the mountains. We got there and it was dead. There was no one in sight--especially no tourists looking for a ride. Luckily, we found Compass, the manager of the Allenspark location and she had one of her boys take us out on a ride. The country up there was just GORGEOUS. The terrain in Estes Park is mountainous high desert so it's dry and there isn't much flat land to ride on. Most of our trails are steep up-and-down and it's hard to look around you while you ride. At Allenspark, it was wide and open but also forested. There were rivers and rocks and mountains but it was all so much more beautiful. I was jealous. We had an awesome ride and came back just as a big storm was hitting. Michele and I said goodbye and thank you and then hurried back to the ranch.

While it was raining, I relaxed and watched a little more TV. After about 20 minutes, the storm stopped and Michele and I went on ANOTHER ride. This time we went out on the Estes Park trails by ourselves and did some exploring. We took out two of our favorite horses, Mijo and Rueger, and had a great time.

Now I'm sitting in my bed watching some more TV before I go to find out what everyone else is up to. All in all, it was a great day off. Next Monday I plan on asking Lauren if I can borrow her car so I can go down to Longmont and get some more clothes. I feel really limited by my 8 tops... So that will be yet another adventure. Tomorrow it's business as usual!