SyneRyder - journal

USA Trip 2005 - Part 10

August 2005

Lyons, Colorado

The last few days were spent in a small town in Colorado called Lyons. It was one of my favorite places on the whole trip. The town and surrounding areas are stunningly picturesque, and the people were the friendliest we'd come across. Well, with the exception of the guy who runs the Antiques store, but we can allow the town one resident crank.

Outback Steakhouse

The Oskar Blues Bar & Grill was our first stop for food, and it was fabulous. It had a great atmosphere, great music, and the food was delicious. So much so, that I just had to make room to try their Fried Ice Cream - which was also very good.

Much of my time was spent at the Lyons Pinball Parlour. It's open in the evenings, and features a range of classic arcade and pinball machines. Some of my favorite games were there, including the Battlezone video game I used to play as a kid. But I put most of my quarters into a pinball game called Joust. It's a very rare pinball machine, with two players playing against each other simultaneously, and up to 10 pinballs on the playing field at any one time.

Sleepy Lion Trail

The highlight was the Sleepy Lion Trail, part of the Button Rock Preserve. It was the most picturesque trail I've ever been on. The trail climbs around the side of a mountain, all the way to the top, giving a stunning view of the surrounding area. I could look across to the other mountains, or over the lake & dam below. Somewhere near the top another Geocache was hidden, that I was able to find using my GPS unit (and this time I was able to take a souvenir).

Lyons was my last stop before going to the airport. But in the last two hours before my flight left, the car's battery died. The plan had been to drive from Lyons to the airport (a 1-hour trip). So rather than spending the last hour relaxing and chatting, it was instead very frantic - trying to jump start the car, finding a nearby repair place, even calling the airline to see if I could change my flight to the next day (but it was too late to do so). We tried calling a taxi, but most taxi services refused to make the 45 mile trip out to Lyons. Luckily, we found a taxi at the last minute, and I was able to get to Denver International on time... at a cost of $120 USD. Geez.