Day 3: Georgetown

Georgetown Rail Loop

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Today started with a small sleep in, and we were out the door by about 10:30am. Everyone is still a little jet lagged, and Billy is not sleeping properly through the night, so sleeps in during the morning.

We decided to head towards the mountains to a town called Georgetown which has a steam train to ride on. Negotiating Denver using the tourist maps is very hard, for some reason they are very poor and hard to follow, plus the signage can be confusing even on major roads. Mind you, although I’m now feeling comfortable driving on the right hand side of the road, I did run through an ‘All-way stop’ (following behind another vehicle who had stopped), another great idea by the US driving authorities making everyone stop and wait for everyone else...totally confusing. Striped pedestrian crossings are great, because it appears cars have right of way…which makes them completely pointless. Lastly there is pedestrians crossing at red lights, where all cars have a red light and all pedestrians are allowed to walk…maybe they think they need more traffic congestion. On the positive side, the one way streets (although meaning occasionally a trip around the block) do mean traffic moves smoothly, and being allowed to turn right on a red light if it’s clear is a great idea.

Eating at the Red Ram

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While driving through the areas where the road had been cut into the mountains, occasionally you would see a strong netting draped up the entire cliff face to prevent falling rocks from landing on the road. We had a brief stop at Starbucks for breakfast and then made our way to Georgetown. We did tend to get lost numerous times, not that there was often a choice with regards to which way you could go, but the attractions on the tourist maps failed to point out how to get there, and we planned to stop at the Buffalo Bill museum on the way, but took the wrong route to Georgetown. Anyhow, once we did get there we stopped for a quick lunch at the ‘Red Ram’ – Buffalo burgers for Kim and I, and chips for the little guy, not bad for a quick feed.

We then headed to the train, by this stage it had actually got cold, which was particularly bizarre as it hadn’t been an hour earlier we were sweating over a coffee at Starbucks. Dressed in a tank top and shorts I had to cave-in and buy a hooded sweater, Kim tending to plan for every eventuality had brought a jumper for herself and Billy. The train trip was great apart from initially sitting outside and getting soaked from a heavy downpour. It was relatively quick and good fun as we went across the ‘Devils Canyon’ bridge. We all really enjoyed it. We had seen a chipmonk and on the way back to the car I quipped that 'We had better hurry or the chipmonk may steal his chips from the car' - this set off a hasty dash to the car.

Buffalo Will and Calamity Kim

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Then on the way home we managed to make it to Buffalo Bill’s museum, only to have it close as we arrived (right on 5pm). We did get to see his grave and the gift shop was open. The view was very nice as it was situated on the top of ‘Lookout Mountain’.

When we left we decided to head to the ‘Buffalo Herd Overview’, but managed to not only get lost, but go in the wrong direction about 5 miles, before turning around and heading back. We narrowly missed seeing the Buffalo Herd thanks to the signage (or our stupidity), a sign read ‘Buffalo Herd Overview 2^nd Exit’ – we went past the immediate exit, the next exit was a truck run-off (which we took and it went nowhere), and the exit after that wasn’t for about 2 miles with no further signs. In hindsight the first exit was the one we were supposed to take (probably?).

American Patriotism - Georgetown

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We got back to the hotel about 7pm and Billy jumped into a cold swimming pool and is having a great time. Kids are strange creatures, they complain about walking 50 meters and are happy to swim in a freezing pool for 2 hours!

Tool of the Day

I managed to accidentally run a red light, while pointing out the Mile High Stadium to Kim as we drove past (myself and a friend broke into the stadium many years ago after it had just been built to take a look around, it’s quite impressive...though I believe they have tours).