Colorado Day 12

The color theme of today is green. Aspens, birch, alder and other deciduous trees paint the countryside in bright, light greens, offset with the darker green of the evergreens. Pine in the lower elevations, giving way to spruce at altitude to keep the trip interesting. The lower areas feature scrub and grasses, and once again the passes are blanketed with snow. A sign warns of avalanche danger, and mounds of snow chopped in half with a snowplow give testament to the fact.
In our typical fashion, we broke camp and hit the road late. That and poor planning (Read: Poor planning with spontaneous changes) led us to abandon the search tonight for a campground and settle for a motel.
The change of direction came from me, detouring us 'a few miles' to Vail. This place is beautiful. Paver sidewalks, a river running through town, shops and stores in a country motif, and cars in absence. Yep, you park in a parking garage and walk or take public transit to get around the place. Or of course, ride the bike. The bicycle is the state bird, I believe. Or the state flag has a bike on it, something like that.
We skipped lunch in Vail and had a late lunch in Leadville. The Mexican restaurant was nothing short of... well, bad. With a town named Leadville, what would you expect? Who was the marketing genius that named this town?
The irony of this trip is every single lake or reservoir is super low (like up to half full) and every single stream, creek, or river is swoolen and flooding. With 240% snowpack, Colorado is steadily recovering from a long drought.
Poor Aspen. Because we were hurried, we simply rode through it. It seems more permanent than Vail, and a bit less snooty. While Vail wears it's stock portfolio around it's shoulders and tied casually in front, Aspen seems to wear cargo pants.
Finally with the sun setting, we settled in at Glenwood Springs, along I-70 and pointing (at least somewhat) toward home.
Thanks to all of you and your kind birthday wishes. 58...ain't it great?
One more day, one more adventure.