Getting to Golden

We left Santa Fe at 5:00 this morning headed to Golden, CO to attend the Golden Treasures Gathering. It was drizzling a little but I was hopeful that it wouldn't last long, and it didn't. I also woke this morning with terrible allergies and pretty much spent the entire day with itchy and watery eyes, sneezing like crazy and a runny nose. Finally the medicine clicked in and I am feeling much better except that my nose is pretty sore from all the sneezing. Looks like the rest of the weekend should be allergy free.

The plan was to stop in Las Vegas, NM and Raton, NM to get boxes. But since we left so early we missed those areas. It was still dark when we got to Las Vegas and the place we needed to go to in Raton wasn't open yet. So we drove straight through to Colorado Springs. The last time we were in the area (May 2007) we attempted a box - we were unable to get it due to the fact that the river was rushing over the bridge we needed to cross. We decided to try again today - still no luck - the bridge is still covered in water and it was moving too fast for me to take the chance to cross. So I checked my list of boxes and found some that we could look for as we made our way to Golden.

Our first stop was a mystery box. I had worked on this one (with some help from my letterboxing buddy - AstroD) and really wanted to find it. I was about 95% sure I knew where this one was hiding. And WOOOOHOOOO!!!!! I found it. The box hadn't been visitied since May 2006, so I am glad I found it so that it didn't get too lonely out there in the middle of nowhere. Our next stop to look for boxes was Bailey, CO. We found Magic Maggie and The Dragon's Lair. We really enjoyed the hikes and the boxes. Now we were getting closer to Golden. Another stop, this time in Conifer, CO. We headed to Reynolds Park to find Packin' It In and then continued on that road to find PlaTe and Fork Included - both boxes were placed by Fork Finders and were in nice locations. It was very quiet and peaceful and a beautiful drive. It was starting to get late and we had been on the road for 12 hours now, but we still wanted to find another box, so we made our way to this mystery location to make our grand total of six letterboxes found today. All in all an absolutely great day (except for the allergy thing).

After finding a hotel and checking in, we went for a quick dinner. Now that I am showered and medicated (for the allergies) I feel rejuvenated. Thankfully! I really wanted to get my finds logged in and get this blog started. Well that is the start of our trip and I probably won't write again until Sunday night (after the event is over).