We drove all of 20 miles into Crested Butte where my daughter Michelle and her family live. Her husband John was in Copenhagen training some athletes for the Olympics so it was just us and my 13 year old granddaughter Maile and of course Jacque, the French Bulldog.

We arrived and I was able to back the Airstream up her driveway where we had electric but no sewer or water. Not to matter as they had just finished building a guest house over John's gym so that is where we stayed.

You can walk into town from their house so we did that several times a day. CB is a cool little town with strict architectural restrictions. If you have a property with an old falling down shed, you are not allowed to demo it, you have to preserve it. It's good as the town is really cute and it was packed with locals and visitors.

Penny and Michelle wanted to go on a long hike so we took her car and my car out to Rustlers Roost trail which you needed 4 wheel drive to get to the trail head. We had to ford a river which covered my license plate as I watched Penny drive my car behind Michelle's in which I was riding. Then when we got there Maile and I took my car back to town but we picked up a young guy that was walking to town from the research station. He was 19 and just 1st year of college and he was studying the local chipmunks! Anyway he was nice and very informative about the local chipmunks so Maile and I learned something while being good samaritans. I usually don't pick up hitchhikers but this guy looked ok.

We hung around in town and then got a text from Penny telling us that they were home but Michelle's car wouldn't start and they were lucky and got a ride. Probably my karma working because I picked up the hitchhiker otherwise they would be stuck out there. Michelle called AAA and the guy came and picked us up at her house and off we went for another off road adventure. He didn't bring the tow truck and hopefully was going to be able to jump start it. We got there and Michelle was saying that there was a quick disconnect on the battery as that car never leaves CB. Well we got to the car and looked under the hood and the guy disconnected the quick disconnect and reconnected and guess what- it started right up. Kinda like turning the on/off switch off and on and resetting. So we headed home and I think the river that we forded was higher but we made it anyway.

We took the chair lift at the ski resort to the top as you could then hike to the summit. It was a great view of the town and the valley but at 11,000 feet I elected not to summit and left that for the younger folks.

We had a great time and were treated to a dance recital that Maile and her friends were in. On Friday night there was a big art street fair that started and since we were leaving Saturday morning we took it in. It was pretty good but I lost Penny and it turned out to be expensive. Look for the picture of the cactus in the photo gallery. We should get it in a few weeks.

We said goodbye and headed for Canyon de Chelle and the Grand Canyon.