Driving at Elevation of 11,300 Feet

Peaceful night's sleep at Walmart and an early start this morning.  Drove 60 miles to St. Joseph Church for 10:30 mass and watched seven children receive their first communion.  After church we had a hankering for a hearty breakfast and we were in luck finding a local diner just a few minutes down the road.  I prefer local diners to franchise-type restaurants and this diner was a great choice.  We paid under $20 for our breakfast and had enough left overs for dinner.

The church was very pretty

He made his first communion today - I love the way he's dressed

This is where we ate breakfast - small local diner in Salida

This breakfast is not for "light" eaters

Thankfully, we had a filling breakfast because the next 180 miles through the Rocky Mountains were very exciting.  Now remember, we drive a 2006 GAS 36' coach with a tow vehicle.  Yes, we have a Workhorse chassis, an Allison transmission and 8.1 V-8 engine but those mountains kept going up, up, up until we reached an elevation of over 11,000 feet.  That coach was screaming and straining at no more than 30 MPH.  I'm happy to report that the Commander survived and so did we.

The snow-capped mountains were beautiful - we haven't seen snow in a very long time

Yes, we were at an Elevation of 11,312 feet

You know I've been on the lookout for bighorn sheep and praise the Lord we got to see herds of them up close and personal.  I was so excited and took a zillion pictures, well, maybe not a zillion but I took a lot.  Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

They were just as interested in us as we were in them

This is my favorite shot  

Many of the sheep were tagged with what looks like radio collars

I wonder if the fur always looks like this or if they're shedding their winter coats

Our drive followed along the Arkansas River and we saw people fly fishing and rafting.  Whitewater rafting was by far the most popular adventure in places like Bighorn Canyon, Royal Gorge and Brown's Canyon.

We were lucky to catch this couple in action

Pretty calm waters here but the dog seems to be enjoying himself

It was a long day with plenty of ups and downs but we arrived safely at our destination in Monument, Colorado.

 Thanks for stopping in.