We headed straight to Colorado on May 7 and left about 6:30 a.m.
The skies were gloomy and foreboding, but we saw light at the edge!
I loved the drive through Wyoming - love Wyoming! - though it was very windy!! The windmills that we passed made perfect sense.
Dad and I had been listening to my massive Spotify playlist on our trip. I had difficulty getting it synched up with the truck for a couple hours but finally connected somewhere in Wyoming. The list was set to play randomly as we drove so what happened next seemed like pure Mom Intervention.
As we drove across the
Colorado-Wyoming border and saw the Rockies for the first time, already an emotional moment for us, I noticed a
song had randomly come up on the Spotify playlist… Rocky Mountain High by John Denver. I kid you not. Mom was definitely on this road trip. Dad and I both teared up in that homecoming moment with the perfect soundtrack.
We stopped at the school my friend Lynda teaches at in Denver, a fabulous CEC Early College facility for high school students. Lynda teaches in their nursing program. We had a fun and spirited and heart-filling visit with Lynda and her wonderful students. A crazy coincidence - Mom Intervention? - was that Lynda's student had started singing Landslide during their class break just before we arrived. Not many teens know that song, and that song has a long history in my life that continues today. Some of the girls overcame their shyness and sang some of it for us.
We then headed to Castle Rock and our hotel to settle in. I caught a glimpse of the namesake rock on our way in - the first time I've seen it in decades.
The town of Castle Rock stunned us. We knew that it had grown from its 1,500 population 50 years ago when we moved away from the area, but were unprepared for the explosion of houses and shops and a population of over 83,000. I had been surprised to learn they had a grocery store (the nearest had been Denver, 30 miles away), but that they also have an outlet mall!
Mom made her presence known again when The Little Old Lady from Pasadena started playing over the hotel's intercom while we started checking in. It was a favorite song of Mom's when we lived in Southern California and while it's on my playlist, it is a rare song that I would not expect to be playing at a hotel. Dad and I noticed it at the same time and just looked at each other and smiled.
Dad could not be so close to Franktown and not go, so we headed out. We were shocked by the developments all over what used to be open prairie land.
We drove by our old house – missed the turn the first time – and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant next to what used to be our friend's welding shop where Dad helped build a trailer he designed to carry live trees for transplant. We are spoiled for good Mexican food in California, though it was good enough.
We were spent by the long drive and emotional day and Dad fell asleep as soon as we got back into the room. He woke up in time to get ready for bed proper.
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