After we left Colorado Springs, we packed Mike's mom up with her belongings and headed to Colette's in Lone Tree. Lone Tree is a suburb of Denver. We stayed outside of Colette's in our motorhome from Monday, June 25th through Thursday, June 28th.
Tuesday, Colette played the part of the perfect tour guide. She took us to see Red Rock. Wow! Yes, indeed it is red rocks, but the formations that Mother Nature created are phenomenal. We couldn't drive in to see the amphitheatre because they were getting it set up for a concert that evening. So we opted for the git shop instead. From there she drove us to Mother Cabrini's Shrine. Mother Cabrini was a Catholic nun who opened an orphanage outside of Denver. The shrine is really something else. Mike and I climbed the 373 steps to the top. One really finds out that they are in very bad shape when they attempt something such as this on a day that is 105 degrees in addition to the Denver altitude!!!!!! We made it and we highly recommend this as a site to see when you are in the Denver area. The views from the top are spectacular!!!
Just as we were coming out of the gift shop it began to rain. So we decided to skip going to Buffalo Bills' gravesite. After we made our decision Colette let us know that we would have had more climbing on winding trails to get up to his gravesite. Boy were we glad we made to decision to wait and see it the next time we come through the area! Phew!!!! Someone might have had to call the paramedics to come to the aid of these two old retirees!
Wednesday we went to the Hammond Candy Factory and toured the facility. This was so fascinating because Mike and I have seen a few episodes on television programs (Unwrapped on the Food Channel and How's It Made on the Science Channel) where this factory has been featured. Hammonds' specialties are candy canes, the large candy swirled Christmas trees, the hard candies with the flowers, flags, and other designs in the middle of the candy, and the traditional ribbon candy. They also make many other candies, but they specialize in these areas. Of course we couldn't leave without buying some candy, even though they had plenty of free samples all over the place. From the candy factory we went to the Denver Cathedral. Mom Hoerner really wanted to see it. So we went and she was lucky enough to be able to attend mass there as well. The cathedral is just beautiful! The stained glass windows are truly breathtaking.
Thursday morning we packed up the motorhome, hooked up the car to the back to be towed and headed out for North Dakota. We drove north out of Denver to Cheyenne, Wyoming and then on to Gillette, Wyoming where we stopped for the night. Talk about hot and muggy!!!!! One could almost imagine that they were in Florida and not in the middle of a northern plains state! It was a bit uncomfortable for sleeping for a bit and then cooled off quite nicely.
Friday morning we headed out to complete the last lag of our trip with Mike's mom on board with us. Bismarck, North Dakota here we come.
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