Turner Times: Off the beaten path...

Saturday was amazing. For those of you that don't know, John and I are in Colorado! Colorado is part of my territory for work, which is why I'm here. However, it happened to work out where John could come with me! So...we decided to head out a day early to enjoy this beautiful state!

The Lord started blessing our trip from the very beginning. I made a horrible mistake when I booked our tickets for 9:50PM instead of AM! To try and fix the mistake we got up at 4:00am to drive to Minneapolis and try to fly standby on the 7:00am flight. When we got there the computer said we could fly standby for $50 extra, but the lady said it didn't look good. However, for some reason it said we could get on the 9AM flight as "confirmed" not standby (so it guaranteed us a seat on the flight) for FREE! The lady at the counter had no clue why it was allowing us to do that, but we're so thankful for that blessing! It allowed us to arrive in Denver 11 hours earlier than expected! The second blessing was that we got an upgrade at the car rental place & they allowed us to add John as a second driver for FREE! Then, we were upgraded to a king room instead of doubles. He really did look out for us!

Since I had been so busy planning this trip for work and John had been in Minneapolis for the previous 2 weeks for Thrivent training, neither of us had looked up things to do in CO. Luckily John had heard about a wildlife sanctuary that rescues bears, wolves, lions, tigers, bobcats & leopards not too far from where we were. He knows me so well doesn't he? We decided to check it out and then just drive after that. The big cat reserve was amazing. The stories behind why each cat is there is unreal. Who in their right mind thinks they can actually have a Bengal tiger as a pet!? Really people!? Some of them had been beaten, teeth flied down and claws removed to be more "pet friendly." Some had been rescued from a hunting club that planned to set them free only to hunt them down. The coolest part was that we got to hear one of the huge male lions roar. It doesn't sound cool, but trust me it was....you could feel it in your chest!

There are 2-3 tigers in each cage...eventually they get moved to plots of land.

If you'll notice, her tail is missing. She couldn't walk when first rescued b/c she had been in such a small cage for so long and her body created fluid sacks around her joints to create padding from the concrete.

It was so fun to just get out a big map and say, "let's head there." We made it our goal to stay off the interstates and only take roads our map marked as "scenic routes." I'm so glad we did! We went through national forests, state parks and the cutest small towns. For those of you that enjoy knowing exactly where we went (Mike Davis) we went from Aurora to Keensburg then over West through Boulder & then down through Denver to get back to Aurora. All back roads if possible.

The best part was finding a little mountain town called Nederland, 8,236 ft. elevation. We ate dinner at a local BBQ restaurant. This was the most laid back, hippy town I've even been in! The food was amazing & the people were beyond friendly. We decided this was a mountain version of a small southern town. We saw a bumper sicker that kinda sums up the town..."Nederland were there's a dog in ever subaru." They weren't lying! There were dogs everywhere & they weren't abandoned. Everyone just walks around and their dogs hang out right beside them...go inside the stores and everything. Would Jax like a new home!? :) John & I are convinced if he and Davis were to run a town somewhere, it would be just like this! Everyone had a mt. bike, kayak or some sort of water equipment strapped to their car. The restaurant we ate at was so informal & our dinner was a Davis creation if we had ever seen it! You choose one meat and two sides, but they came mixed together in one bowl. haha! I've included a picture of what John said was his, Chris' and Monty's future homes

The best restaurant ever!

Dogs tied out on the porch of the restaurant.

The three houses that will someday belong to John, Chris & Monty.

Here are some more pictures to commemorate out first day in CO. It was so relaxing to just see a indigenous place or pretty waterfall and just stop...no agenda. We hardly saw other cars, but did see signs saying 19% grade.