Up early again, cleared up, and had our most substantial breakfast so far – 2 bowls of cereal, a boiled egg, and bread and butter. We had planned to go straight to Boulder to meet Eric + Debbie, but Val persuaded me to go up Trail Ridge first, so we rode out to the Park entrance with Lou and hitched from there. We got one lift quite quickly, tho’ it was only 4 or 5 miles. Soon after got a lift up to the top of Trail Ridge – what was more, he was coming back down again very quickly, so it was perfect. At the top we went for a 20 min walk – it was very cold, but worth it – the surrounding peaks, tundra and lakes were superb. He drove us back down to where he’d picked us up, so we were back where we started, having fulfilled our purpose – perfect. Next was another short lift, in a camper, and from there we walked down into and thro’ Estes Park, to hitch to Boulder. Once again, we got two lifts, the first from a guy called Rick. He drove a pick-up, without a dog in the back, and was a nice guy. He took us down to a private rock-pool, just for the use of himself + his neighbours. It was a beautiful place, even tho’ Val nearly slid down on her belly into the water. He also bought us an apple nectar drink, which was thick, rich, sweet and tasty. He dropped us off when he turned off the road, and we quickly got another lift, this time with a girl on her own. She was driving into Boulder itself, so offered to take us right to E + D’s door. It proved more difficult than it seemed tho’, since we got hopelessly lost, and finally entered Boulder from completely the opposite side. E + D weren’t in, but Joan and Nancy, their room-mates, were, so we were able to go in, and sit and recover from our exertions. In the evening, we went out with E + D to a bar, where we drank white Russians and strawberry daiquiris. They were nice, and enough to have a slight alcoholic effect. We listened to a jazz band for a few mins, then walked back thro’ the Mall, ate chocolate chip cookies, and home to bed.
Notably, no reference whatever to an incident that both Val and I remember as memorable (and extremely embarrassing. We had spotted that “Not The Nine O’Clock News” was showing that evening on local TV, and both Val and I enthused about it, so Eric suggested we went round to his parents’ house to watch it. So there we all were – the whole family, including younger sister and elderly granny… and of course it turned out to have been stripped of its satirical and topical side, leaving just the particularly crude and blatant material. The atmosphere was at first warm and interested, but quickly, as the off-colour jokes came out one by one, it turned icy. We somehow managed to stumble through a clumsy apology, and left.
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