Food, nice weather, great company.

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We started out with lunch in Frisco. There’s a great place on Main Street which isn’t going to be around for long, I’m afraid, because it ended up being very – ahem – exclusive.  There were a few others eating there, but not many.  Then over Hoosier Pass to Fairplay and down to visit Dan and Tess Niemann, Georgia’s cousins, in Pueblo.

Dan has the most incredible collection of model tractors and cars that I’ve ever seen and thanks to the internet and eBay, (which I introduced him to) he has been able to refine and expand his collection.  It’s a little scary; he has more Dale Earnhart cars, Hudson Hornets, tractors and model toys, and American Flyer trains than I’ve ever seen, and he can tell you about how he acquired every one.  On our next trip, I’ve promised both of him to introduce him to the flip side of buying:  selling!

Dan and I also had lunch at the worlds best dive bar, the justly famous Gray’s Coors Tavern, which was one of the first establishments licensed after then end of Prohibition in 1933, and hasn’t changed one iota since.  We had Sloppers, a  Pueblo classic hamburger with homemade green chili, onions and oyster crackers.  It sounds – and looks – terrible but the taste is sublime.

We finished the day off by finding three Munzees; they’re an alternative to Geocaching, which requires a smartphone and isn’t very popular, and Tess’ home cooked lobster.

We left the next morning for Santa Fe, and drove along the almost deserted – and decrepit – US 64 to Taos.  My mother loved that place, and we always stayed at the Taos Inn.  It’s also a place where time stood still; it doesn’t look much different than it did the last time I ate there some 50 years ago.  The food is equally good.