What a difference a day makes

Our last day in the Denver area was spent hiking.  We hiked a looped that took us past several lakes.  Two of them were absolutely beautiful.  In Rocky Mtn National Park, you're not really allowed to swim in the lakes and rivers- the water is too cold (I can vouch for that) and too swift.  It was pretty warm though, so I did poke my feet in the water of Mills Lake, which is where we stopped to have lunch.  While there we watched an elk approach the lake on the other side, and take her calf  for  a swim.  It was incredible to watch! 
   After lunch, we continued on our way, coming to Haiyaha Lake, which is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen.  We had to climb over boulders to get to really see it, and we didn't take the time to go around the other side so we could get close to the water. Thats ok though, we sat on the boulders and just enjoyed.
The total hike was about 7.5 miles, but it started at 9500 ft and went up over 10,000 ft.  I had adjusted pretty well to the altitude so although I was breathing heavy, at least I could do the hike.
After taking the shuttle back to our truck we headed into Estes Park for a well deserved ice cream. We wandered the River walk for a bit before heading home to a very light dinner.

Friday brought some changes and was not so fun.  Three weeks ago we had the Everest axles aligned and had to replace one of the tires- Friday we went to another alignment shop because Paul noticed that it seemed out of alignment again and he wanted to make sure it was ok.  We spent most of the day there, trying to figure out the best way to fix the trailer, since according to this place, not only is it out of alignment again already, the axles aren't big enough for the trailer.  We called the  manufacturer, and they will take a look at it when we bring it in this August.  A very frustrating and long day.  The only good part was that they had private waiting rooms, so the cat could have his own room to wander around in, complete with reclining chair. This all delayed our leaving, and we ended up making it as far as Seibert, CO, headed towards Branson MO. 
      Today was all driving, and another frustrating day. We left this morning and had a lot of miles to go.  In the early afternoon we heard a huge "pop", which turned out to be one of our trailer tires bursting.  Paul handled it all calmly- the truck didn't even lurch, so we were pretty impressed with that. The other tires held, so that was great, but we had to limp a half mile down the highway because there was very little shoulder and it was too dangerous to try and change the tire there.  We got it to a safer place and Paul braved the 104 degree heat to put on the spare and we were on our way.  We lost the fender to the trailer as well, so we'll have to see about getting a new one.
Tonight we are in Topeka Kansas, debating buying a second A/C unit for the trailer. We've never felt the need for it until now, but at 8 pm it was still 97 outside and when we arrived, the inside temperature of the trailer was 102.  It's taken hours to get it to a reasonable temperature.  Of course, we spent one of those hours in the campground pool, relaxing, so it hasn't been all bad.