Wait. Wrong commercial. I am sure there is one about water and Coors. Guess I should have gone with my alternate title: "My Life As A Carny".

Actually, the picture above is for my dad. While he is no longer with us, he lives forever in our hearts. In my dad's heart was Coors. I grew up seeing a Coors can in my dad's hand, and strategically placed (or nailed) can appeared in everything that he ever built. It was his trademark.

Love you, dad. Here is a picture of The Mothership for you.

More about beer, mountains, and my life as a carny on the click...

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Ang and I took a little trip to downtown Golden this afternoon for some beer and snacks. We walked around downtown a bit, and stopped into the Golden Hotel. The hotel sits right on the river, and it was great watching the world go by from a patio table right next to the action. There were kayaks and inner tubes and bikes and dogs - and people! Quite a bit of activity for a relatively quiet place. It made a great backdrop for a bucket o beers from the New Belgium Brewery (in Fort Collins).

After some more walking, we took a drive up to Central City and Blackhawk - two old towns that were granted low stakes gambling back when I was living out here. The two towns have grown a lot, and there was a ton of people up there. The greatest thing was that there was a fifteen degree temperature drop once we got up there! It was a nice change from the sweltering front range.

The "carny" part of the story comes from the fact that we have been living at the fairgrounds this week. After our two week stay at Chatfield, we searched for a place to stay in the Denver area so we could be close to the kids. Then we looked for ANY place in Denver to stay. I was reminded at the complete shortage of campgrounds in this area. Cherry Creek is booked for the summer, Flying Saucer is a little scary, Denver Meadows is a big parking lot, and Dakota Ridge in Golden didn't have openings when we needed a site. Slim pickins.

So, we ended up at the Jefferson County Fair Grounds in Golden. Other than feeling like a carny hanging around the fair grounds, and the occasional whiff of horsey business from the horse barns, this place isn't too bad. It is a little closer to Zach and Arins, and just a bit farther to Dust and Misty and Ian's. The most attractive thing is that it is very cheap to stay here! We are at a 50A site with water, but no sewer. No big - we can make it a week without dumping, and we are right next door to the showers, which is a very nice, clean place. Ang and I have been using it for our daily showers.

Our primary reason for wanting to be in Golden is because we are still waiting for some repairs to our house before we head back west. We still are dealing with an ailing A/C unit, which has been quite a chore in mid-90 degree weather. We are tough, and the rear A/C (where my office and bedroom is) works fine. We have a service appointment for this Monday, where they will hopefully be able to replace the A/C and re-connect our main air inlet tube for the engine. The tube was the victim of some very rough Colorado roads, and I would much rather them mess with it them me.

We are looking forward to getting back on the road - mostly to escape this heat. It comes at the price of leaving the kids, however. We have been able to hang out with them quite a bit, and we have plans this weekend to do more things. They are all growing up to be such fine young adults. I am so proud of all of them, and I miss them so much when I am not here. Just makes me want to come back very soon.

But, life as a carny allows you such things.

Wait - just realized that our next two destinations are fairgrounds - Salem, OR and Redmond, OR. Truly the life of the traveling carnival called RVing

--kev