And Then We Were There!

(see previous post if you're new)
Where were we? Oh yes. We drove all day and into the night. The best part, of course, was actually getting into the mountains. Even at night, it's a wonderful thing. Because you'll be driving along, heading uphill, going around curves, when suddenly -you realize you're on top of a friggin' mountain! And there's a sign that reads, "3 to 7 degree slope next 11 miles. Trucks use low gear" And then you're dropping into a valley on a road just as curvy as the last stretch, only this time you seem to be going much faster.

We turned off the highway at Bailey and cruised into the Pike National Forest. Every once in a while we came across boulders the size of a house, that had rolled down the mountain at some time in the past. We didn't actually see any of those that night, but they're there nontheless. We saw them on the way home, and L thought that was pretty darn cool.
*science question of the day -What kind of forces can move mountains? Answer -simple ice and gravity*

Anyway, we got there and parked on the road behind the pagans who had arrived before us. All two of them. Then we tried to find a comfy place to sleep. You see, D-Fest opens it's gates at 10:00 am. It being 1:00 am at the time, we had a while to wait. L stretched out across the back seats, and Buck and I tried sleep in the front seats. The ones we couldn't recline because our son slept behind us in the lap of luxury. 20 minutes later, Buck climbed out of the truck, snagged a sleeping bag, and slept on the ground behind the truck. (startled the heck out of the next person to drive up) I got to stretch out across the front seats and discovered that the seat belt buckles stick up and poke you.
A restless eternity later, I figured out a way to sleep around the belt buckles. Upright, with a pillow behind my back, and twisted onto my left hip. Hey, it worked.

I awoke to this:

Ah, glorious coffee made by my glorious husband. What a way to start the day!

Yes, the shiny thing behind the sleeping bags is indeed a beer keg. Do we know how to camp, or what? Actually, it's full of water. I highly recommend the keg-O-water© method. We didn't have to make a water run at all. You may also have noticed the hunk of land rising upwards in the background. That culminates in this:

sunrise on Castle Rock

Here's what is likely to be the only embarrassing photo I ever post on this blog:

L sleeping through coffee, drumming, morning greetings and everything.