A Chance Encounter
 

Saturday, we attended the Rocky Mountain Car Show and Swap Meet. Sponsored by the Colorado Collector Car Council, and held at the Broomfield Airport. Kind of a long'ish drive for us, but worth it. Saw some pretty cool cars, and a couple of interesting aircraft.

IMO, the best looking car Ford ever built.
https://i.imgur.com/eMB65kK.jpg

After the show, we decided to drive up to Estes Park, CO, for the rest of the week end. We always enjoy visiting there. Rocky Mountain National Park is a very special place. Up on Trail Ridge Road, well above 11,000' ASL, we ran across these guys hanging out in the snow. Yes, snow. In August.
https://i.imgur.com/G4UP9Ta.jpg

Then we met a cousin!
https://i.imgur.com/ll5sYwT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oWKV2u8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DTFW7LX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CnL4j1A.jpg

The owner, Steve, purchased the car in 1977. It has had a number of changes over the years. But it still sports the original engine and toploader 4 speed. He lives near by, and visits the park often.

On our way home on Sunday, we drove through a little rain and some wet streets on the Peak to Peak Highway. An annoyance, but no big deal. However, just outside of Nederland, CO, we hit a deluge. Or, I guess it should say a deluge hit us. The wipers worked fine, but I had to use a glove to wipe off the inside of windshield. And then the hail hit. That was kinda painful. :)
https://i.imgur.com/xY87E15.jpg

And this storm chased us out of Golden, CO.
https://i.imgur.com/8AtxVVH.jpg

All in all, a great Cobra week end!

You probably drove through Lyons on the way to Estes. We lived there for almost 20 years. They call it the "Gateway To The Rockies".

Nederland is a cool town too. Once the home of the world famous Caribou Ranch recording studio, made the town of Nederland and its bars and cafes hangouts for the artists of the 70s like Joe Walsh, Stevie Nicks, Elton John (his Caribou album recorded there) and frequented a small Mexican restaurant in Lyons.

Caribou Ranch was a working ranch. Boulder County bought most of it as open space a few years ago. The ranch's winter space was around Lyons between Hwy 36 and Longmont. The ranch crew in their unmistakable Caribou trucks were regulars at the Lyons watering holes.

My Cobra was carefully selected to be hail resistant! Aluminum was out of the question, and fiberglass was known to check (from other owners) so I got carbon fiber. I was on the way home from one of the Good Guys shows and started home just as the rain blew in - it literally took only minutes from spotting the front to when it arrived. I started south on I25 and it was a mess - splash from other cars so I got off on Hwy 34 (the other road to Estes Park through Big Thompson Canyon) and started heading west and south. Looked like I was out of it and then a hail storm hit. Couldn't see anything and they were big - larger than a nickel but smaller than a quarter. Boy did they hurt. I was wearing a baseball cap so my bald spot didn't get hurt but my ears were bloody. Parked under a tree next to another car show refugee. The storm moved on and lo and behold, if we'd have driven about 500 yards further we would have been out of it (the hail, probably not the rain). When I got home I scooped hail out of the passenger side floor and seat, 3-4" collected there while sat under the tonneau cover.

Car came through like a champ although there were some sizeable dents in the aluminum mirrors.

Cobras are like motorcycles - one rarely deliberately heads into the center of a thunderstorm :) But in Colorado they come very fast. My experience with the windshield is similar. Rain flows over your head but seems to weep over and then back down the inside. The defroster was useless. Back of my hand wiping rain drops off the inside. The winter grounds were later sold to a developer, Normally the land would have been divided into 40 acre parcels each with its own house and well. He got a "transfer of development rights" to cluster the homes on 5 acre parcels and the remainder placed under a conservation easement (never to be developed) and the ranch still grazes winter there.

I owned a 1970 Boss 302 while in High School. I love the shape of that car.
Love the color of your Cobra!

Yes, we usually go through Boulder, and turn west at Lyons. :) One of my favorite routes.

The recording studio was used in a Stephen King story, "Revival". Although he called it something else.

That pretty much sums it up. In CO, it can rain very hard. Sleet, snow, and hail can move in very quickly and unexpectedly. But it rarely precipitates for very long. Keep driving, and you'll be out of it in a couple of minutes. Stop to put on rain gear (or a top) and you're soaked.

There are two roads from Lyons. Highway 36 continues to the west and north. it was a really fun mountain drive full of twisty turns and several passing areas that cars like Cobras and Ford GTs can make more than adequate use of. Portions of the road were washed out during the flood and they widened and straightened out some portions, not as much fun any more.

Highway 7 turns left at the end of main and takes a twisty turny route to Allenspark and then to the Peak-to-Peak. The first portion is a good drive, but not many passing areas so if you get stuck behind a little old lady you're going to wait. The Peak-to-Peak is good with lots of scenery but the highway cops watch it pretty close so it's hard to wind things up on it.

I did an early morning trip one fall day in my Mustang. Started the GPS when I left, headed up 36, got behind another sporty driver to Estes and then headed back on 7 where I got behind someone in an Audi R8. At the end the GPS average speed was 58. That included the slow downs for the trips through towns and the touristy areas on P-P so there were intervals of "more than that". Fun drive.