Canon City, Crested Butte, CO Part 1

This was another one of those trips where we did so much, I’ll have to break it into many more easily digestible posts.

This post, I will be talking about our departure and our visit to Canon City and will lead us up to the end of week number one when we depart for Crested Butte.

All of the preparation I did leading up to our departure helped a little, but we quickly ran out of room in the car. Seeing how much we were taking with us on a 2 week trip makes me wonder how much we would need if we were leaving for months at a time. We definitely need a truck – having a pickup bed would afford us so much more room than the cargo area of a Ford Edge.

In the late hours of Friday the 16th, I packed up the car with as much of the stuff as was ready. The next morning, I finished up the packing with what Brandy had packed up the night before then, while Brandy got ready, I left to get gas and get coffee. When I got back, we leashed up Ash and at 7:45 am, we hit the road.

Leg 1

The first leg of our trip started with us driving 442 miles to Phillipsburg, KS. Brandy had booked us a room at the Cottonwood Inn on US highway 36.

The drive was pretty uneventful, seeing us make an initial stop in Osceola for some breakfast from Casey’s, then south on I-35. We followed the interstate to US highway 36 and headed west for the rest of the first day of the trip. We made a stop in Hiawatha, KS, for gas, then another stop in Belleville, KS, for a chicken strip basket lunch from DQ.

One (or, some?) of the sights we managed to glimpse were the Black Squirrels on Parade in Marysville, KS. As you drive down the highway through the small town, you’ll catch glimpses of 5 foot tall fiberglass statues of black squirrels that have been painted in differing themes by local artists. In total there are over 50 scattered throughout the town, but I actively noticed about half that number.

Also on our route, we skirted right past the geographic center of the lower 48 United States, ceremoniously declared in Lebanon, KS, although the true exact center is in a state of constant flux due to shifting shorelines.

We also passed just north of the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, housed in Cawker City, Kansas. Making this a stop would have detoured us about half an hour or so, definitely not something I would have deviated that much to see.

Upon our arrival at the Cottonwood Inn, I unloaded our overnight stuff then made a quick trip to White’s Foodliner for some groceries for the night. I then headed back to the Inn to have a light dinner before doing some reading and calling it a night.

Sunday, I woke up nice and early and went to get gas before Brandy got up. We had some time to kill before leaving so Brandy took a nice, long soak in the whirlpool tub in our room, then I warmed up a breakfast burrito that I had brought from home, we lackadaisically got our things together and we headed out.

We made our first stop in Colby, KS, to grab a bite to eat. We hit the drive through at Taco John’s then continued on to Seibert, CO, where we topped off with gas. We drove on through Colorado Springs where road construction slowed us to 45 MPH on Colorado State Highway 115. The construction persisted for nearly 20 miles before letting up just before I turn onto familiar highway 50. We stayed on the 50 for a few miles before getting into Canon City.

Skyline Drive

We had a little time to kill before we were able to check in to our AirBnB so we took a quick drive around the corner to Skyline Drive. The scenic byway is a short drive over a hogback on the west side of town. To read about that drive, and my subsequent solo trip on Saturday, click here.

Once our knuckles had turned back to their normal color, we headed on to the AirBnB to check in.

Home… For a Week

Our home for the week was a cute 2 bedroom, 1 bath house very near historic downtown Canon City. The property has a driveway that leads into the back yard. We parked in the back, closed the gates and were able to unload through the back door.

Once the car was emptied, I headed out to the nearby Walmart for some of the perishable groceries I opted to hold off on until we got to Colorado, as well as a GoPro Hero 10.

A GoPro has been on my wish list for quite some time. The Hero 10, at the time, was 2 generations old so was fairly reasonably priced at $250. Between that, and the suction cup mount I got for it, I spent less than $300.

I got back to the AirBnB and was beat. Two days of driving, especially into elevation, had taken its toll. Pushing through, I made a pot of chili and a pan of cornbread for dinner. We ate, watched a movie together and quickly retired for the night.

Garden of the Gods – A BUST!

To read about our trip to Garden of the Gods on Monday, click here.

Tuesday

Tuesday, we worked and had leftover chili for dinner. That was about it. Nothing exciting.

Wednesday

Wednesday, we decided to take the first of many early morning walks on the nearby Arkansas Riverwalk Trail. To read about it, and the follow-up hikes, click here.

Wednesday’s Hike # 2

Once my work day ended, at about 2:00, I leashed Ash up and we headed out to the Redemption Trailhead. I’d read about an awesome slot canyon that was just BEGGING to be hiked. Click here to read about the efforts.

Dinner

Brandy felt like something besides the abundance of leftovers for dinner so when I got back, we wrestled with the few places around that felt suitable for her. We settled on Fremont Provisions, a nearby restaurant just up Main St. from where I’d gotten coffee that morning. After a too-long discussion about what she wanted, I phoned in our order: a blacked chicken Caesar salad and an order of jalapeno poppers for her, and a Tropical Big Pig and a cup of green chili pork for me. (Notice, they spelled “chili” wrong…)

I left as soon as the order was placed as I was tasked with finding a magnet for our growing collection at home. I found nearby Gift Chateau and headed in that direction.

There was ample street parking right in front of the gift shop. I walked in and was immediately struck by the odor of pot. Not to say someone was smoking it in there, but there was absolutely plenty of marijuana-infused product in there.

I quickly found a magnet, picked up a very small sticker for my current tumbler and picked out a postcard to mail to my parents, did a bit of browsing around, checked out then made the two-block drive to the restaurant to pick up our food.

I stood at the podium where a sign requested visitors to wait to be seated. I waited and waited and waited before the hostess finally noticed me from the back room and came to assist. We went to the bar where my food was waiting, she cashed me out and I took the bag back to the AirBnB when I realized they’d forgotten my green chili pork. I got back into the car, made the drive back, waited at the podium again, this time a large gentleman came up to assist and I told him I’d missed part of my order. He went to the back, and a moment later, the girl from earlier came out with a nice, hot takeout cup of chili.

Housemade pulled pork, bacon, onion ring, pineapple
and BBQ sauce served on a brioche bun.

The Tropical Big PIg as described on the Fremont Provisions menu

The sandwich was really good, but unfortunately, by the time I got back from picking up the forgotten item, the fries were cold. The green chili pork was really good, it had whole cloves of roasted garlic floating in it, it was vary flavorful without being overly spicy and was served with tortilla chips for the dippin’.

By the time we were done eating, I was bushed from all the activity so we quickly called it a night.

Thursday

On Thursday, I had some time to kill before Brandy got off work so I headed out to a couple of museums very close to the AirBnB- a perfect opportunity since Brandy was working and doesn’t like museums. To read about my visits to the Royal Gorge Regional Museum and the Colorado Museum of Prisons, click here.

I got pulled away from the prison museum before I’d gone through it completely- Brandy had messaged me saying she was ready to go to dinner. Once I got back, I set up Ash’s kennel and put him up in it, then we headed out to the official trailhead of the Arkansas Riverwalk Trail. We had planned on taking a short walk before dinner but by the time we got to the trailhead, which, incidentally, was to be our destination the following day where we boarded the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, it was uncomfortably windy and cold. We opted to hold off on the walk for the time being and we headed across the street to Pizza Madness.

The place was situated right next door to Fremont Provisions, where we’d had dinner from the night before. We walked in to an eclectically decorated place that was part pizza parlor, part sports bar. They did have a short bar that was full by the time we got there off to one side, straight back from the front doors was the open kitchen where the food was being made, and in between it all was a large, open dining area with well-spaced tables, hardly any of which were occupied when we arrived.

We were greeted with a “Seat Yourself” sign right inside the door so we opted for a lone table parked right in front of one of the windows flanking the door. We sat for a considerable amount of time before we were greeted by a server. She finally approached, threw a couple of menus at us and rattled off the drink options. Brandy ordered an iced tea and I got a Pepsi and our server scampered away to retrieve them.

We finally decided on our order, a dozen teriyaki wings to split, Brandy ordered spaghetti and I got a small “Big One” pizza:

Garlic-Olive Oil, Meatball, Onion, Pineapple, Gr. Pepper, Green Chili & Bacon

Pizza Madness Menu

We waited forEVER for our wings, but when they finally showed up, boy, was it worth the wait. The teriyaki sauce was superb and the chicken was prepared well and they were still nice and hot.

Our entrees showed up shortly after and we dug into those. Brandy was not impressed with her spaghetti but my pizza was pretty good, even if it did have inferior Colorado green chili (with an ‘i’???) on it.

We finished our dinner, paid the bill and headed out to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert that we took back and enjoyed at the AirBnB

We stayed up for a bit then called it an early night for our big day Friday.

Friday

We had tickets for the Royal Gorge Route Railroad already purchased and waiting for a noon departure. We wanted to get some energy out of Ash before we kenneled him for the hours we’d be gone, so we took our last walk on the Arkansas Riverwalk Trail before heading back to the AirBnB to get ready for the ride.

To read all about that trip, click here.

After the ride, we headed back to the AirBnB and started packing up for our next leg of the trip, to Crested Butte.

Up Next

Our time in Canon City was pretty amazing. We did a lot, experienced a lot of new things, and got lots of exercise. I’m so grateful for the life that I live that allows us to be able to travel like this.

Pictures from Canon City, including from all of the adventures we went on, are over on my Photo Diary.

Stay Tuned for part two of this amazing two week adventure where I will be talking about the the drive to and our time in Crested Butte.

-Phil