I'm just afraid The Big Guy is going to give me a swift kick in the pants (if I make it up there, I think I should, I think I should) for not paying attention earlier. I got the part about the looking after me when the multiple docs told me the now x2 was not playing with the full deck, but I didn't understand (too scared then) when the red head was placed back into my life. It's a little different not having to "duck and cover" every second. And come to think of it, over the last several years with red, haven't had to hit the ditch ever. OK, on to the important stuff - petting a moose (#1: u don't want a pet moose) I suggest flying into Denver, rent a car, drive up I 25, and hang a left at Fort Collins onto CO #14. Take CO#14 along side the "Cache La Poudre" river (named after the silly frenchmen that hid their black powder in piles near the river, prior to learning how to throw cows properly in the US). When you get to about 10,000 feet up, there is a little group of houses, a closed filling station (that used to be the post office also), but on the left there is a bar/resturaunt/post office/general store. This little place is known as Gould, CO. Next to the store, down the dirt road there are some multi room cabins to rent, was $29 per night, but with inflation they're probably up to $32 by now. Down mattresses and pillows on the beds, bring climbing gear to get out of them in the morning. In the AM, go further west on 14, to the national forest/ state park (there's a KOA there also with really fancy cabins and such). Got your fly fishing gear? Have at it in the mountain stream. A little further up, in the flat beyond the small damn in the stream, open meadow. You'll find many a moose you can probably pet if you approach slowly. Colorado moose are much smaller by a couple hundred pounds than Maine moose (both are equally dumber than a box of rocks). If you don't spot one, enjoy the snow shoe rabbits scampering about, the red foxes and an occasional herd of antelope. There's also an open meadow by the cabins, but never spotted a moose there (but spectacular when the sun sets and turns the meadow into hughes of gold from the sun setting) Timber trail from the cabins, but all I heard was a moose with a big rack hitting the trees. Never saw him , me thinks just a well. If that's too relaxing, get back down to the Poudre, and take a raft ride (down stream, you'll get exhausted quickly trying to go up in that current and won't get anywhere). Note: drink lots of water because of the altitude. We didn't have a problem because we were well aware of it before hand. I could press on above the tree line (around 11,000 feet, hint: Akron is only about 1,000 feet above sea level) without a problem scampering past a few folks several decades my juniors. Summer is a good time, temps are cool. Life's too short Tom, go pet a moose.
