little old houses, Dad, and George

As planned, Chaco, Meego, and I headed down for a little hometown visit with my dad over the weekend.  It was a nice getaway.

It's a little over a 2-hour drive to get there, so not bad.  I'm not big on driving (puts me to sleep, even if I'm the driver!), but I typically make the trip down and back in one day.  I thought we'd take a little more time to spread the drive over two days this time and not feel in a rush during our visit.  Problem is, the whole town fills up with tourists all summer long.  Mostly obnoxious Texans.

I worked at a local hotel for the last four years I lived there.  We'd be full-up well in advance every weekend of summer.  Weary travelers would come in looking for a room, and we'd have to break the news that the next available hotel rooms were about 100 miles to our  north.

First they would laugh, because, surely we were joking.  Why would so many people fill up our podunk little mining town?!  Certainly, they couldn't all be getting sex changes!  Truth is, hometown is the first town you hit when entering Colorado from the southern border on the main interstate.  You make it to Trinidad, and you have ARRIVED!  Little podunk  sex change/mining town, yes, but highly desirable nonetheless.

ANYWAY, my point is, hotels are still booked through summer.  I couldn't get a room.  Hometown girl status or no.  Airbnb.com to the rescue.  Have you heard of it?  I found us an old house to stay in.  It was built in the 1890s and really gave a feel of how little people were back then.

As we navigated the narrow and steep staircase to the upper level of the house, Chaco noted, "Gee, I've heard stories of people in the past dying from a fall down a flight of stairs and wondered how could that even happen.  We could totally die from falling down these stairs!"

True.  But we didn't...

Not my photo, I stole it off facebook

So we had a nice visit with Dad and took in a little scenic time.  This is "Simpson's Rest", a bluff that overlooks the town and has a well-known "Trinidad" sign.

It's the burial site of pioneer, George Simpson (hence the name).

So, in the morning, the three of us took a hike.

The peak in the background is Trinidad's most prominent feature - Fisher's Peak.  It's about 9600 ft. in altitude and has about a bazillion depictions - paintings, photos.

It's practically a crime to hike to the Trinidad sign and not get a photo of the view of Fisher's Peak and Trinidad, so...

It was a beautiful morning for our little adventure.  When we arrived at the base of Simpson's Rest, we noticed a series of toppled garbage cans.  Evidence of bears.  I hoped they were resting after their night of garbage partying, and apparently they were.  

Of course, we were really there to visit Dad, who's doing well.  He turned 91 last week.  I took this pic which demonstrates my poor photography skillz.  Dad's eyes are closed and I failed to notice that there was a gentleman sleeping in a chair in the background.  I blur-smudged the sleeping man out, and now he looks like a ghostly presence.  

Poor photography aside, it was a nice little getaway.  Had a nice visit with Dad, didn't land in a bloody heap at the bottom of a Victorian staircase, and weren't mauled by bears.

Win!

.