1600 Miles, 12000 ft Elevation, 1 Diamond Ring

Well, friends, vacation '08 has come and gone, and I think you could call it a success.

The Drive:
Normally, I wouldn't include the details of the mind-numbing, not to mention butt-numbing, drive across the vast wasteland of Kansas. Lindsey and I set off from KC to Limon, CO after church on Sunday and, on the way, experienced the most exciting thing Kansas has to offer-tornados. You know that storm that destroyed towns in Iowa last week? Well, we drove through it. Even pulled off the road and parked under a bridge, because that's what all the cars with KS plates were doing. Under the bridge, we were aided by a nice and nervous young KS man who really took us under his wing, updating us about the status of the tornado, scaring the heck out of us with his nervous energy, telling Lindsey to "put the notebook down 'cause hell on earth is coming our way", and then relaying that his Mom said if we were driving west we'd be ok. We did, and we were

Day One:
Thanks to Mom and Dad for the recommendation of Grand Lake, CO for our pre-National Park day. Ignoring that suggestion, we instead decided upon Winter Park, which, as it turns out, is pretty much dead when the ski resort closes. The locals call this time of year "mud season", which is aptly named, but to us it was "cheap and private season." We had the Vintage Hotel, the resort hotel of Winter Park, absolutely all to ourselves. Nobody even at the desk. Highlights: Hernando's Pizza with over 20,000 dollar bills with messages written on them taped to the walls and tables and great pizza. Then, drinks and cigars in the outdoor hot tub as the cold rain sprinkled our heads. Oh, and a very informative sign on our hike that explained, complete with bronzed representations, the difference between moose, elk and deer scat (poop).

Day Two:
Into the wild. Instead of going around, we went to our campsite at Moraine Park campground in Rocky Mountain National Park, by taking the highway through the park and over the pass. It was a wonderful drive, complete with an up close, safe-in-car, sighting of a young bull moose and plenty of elk. We wound our way through the park, up to the continental divide and back down. We were driving through clouds for a while and then we broke through and could see most of the CO part of the range from the top. This is when we started to realize that in May, there's still A LOT of snow on the ground in the mountains. We got to our campsite, set up Andy's "no-trick-to-it" tent, finding out that the only trick was that it takes four adults to set up the thing easily. We had a perfect site, across from bathrooms but behind rocks as to hide us from other campers and back up against a valley that was full of elk. Elk 20-30 feet away. Well, that night was cold, a little wet, and cloudy. But we had a fire, the best one I've ever built by the way, cooked s'mores, played guitar, went to bed covered head to toe in sweatshirts, pants, socks, stocking hats and gloves. I have to say that through all of this, Lindsey was awesome. I love camping, and even I was pretty miserable. It was too cold. But she was a trooper.

Day Three:
I woke up on the ground. I went to sleep on an air matress. Aparently, 225lbs is the limit for this thing. To start our first full day in the park, we went to Estes Park for breakfast, shared an awesome omlet, brushed our teeth and washed our faces with a group of Korean vacationers in the McD's bathroom. Then we went to Bear Lake trailhead, where we spent most of the day. I can't really explain hiking across mounds of snow, but where it wasn't snow-covered the path was muddy from melt. But it was a beautiful morning, Bear Lake was gorgeous. We hiked to Alberta Falls, Nymph Lake and Dream Lake. This part of the park really could be the most beautiful place on earth. Dream Lake has a tree on the bank that is bent in such a way that it is the perfect chair and we spent a lot of time there. For those of you who know, we couldn't go to Emerald Lake because the entire trail was covered in snow and we couldn't even find it. As we got back to our camp, we made the difficult decision to not camp another night. FYI, Lindsey didn't wuss out, it was my suggestion. Rain was coming, I didn't want to wake up feeling fat on the deflated air matress again, and it was just too cold. So, we went back to Estes and got a little cabin. That night we enjoyed White Russians (THE DUDE ABIDES) and silver casserole, a dish introduced to me by my father of hamburger patties with carrots, potatoes and onions all wrapped up in foil (silver) and thrown on the fire. It was a wonderful night and we definately made the right choice.

Day Four:
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. We decided to hike to Bierstadt Lake in the morning, partly because it's called Beer Place and partly because I'd been there before and knew how beautiful it was. The hike was 1.2 miles, not a bad haul, but in those 1.2 miles we climbed 650 feet in elevation. Exhausted, we reached the top and took the wrong fork in the trial "around the lake". We figured that it would be around the banks of the lake, but it wasn't. Finally, we found the trail to the waters edge, broke through the trees and were standing 25 yards from a cow moose standing in the lake and walking toward us. We were awed and amazed by the closeness and size of her and then we saw her two kids following her in the lake and our amazment went to fear. A mother moose is one of the most dangerous animals on earth. I have to admit, I probably scared Lindsey more than the moose did, but I wanted to get out of there. So, with the moose moving in toward blocking the trail, we went off-trail keeping the lake to our left and pounded slowly through the forest getting away from the moose who had sensed our presence by then. It was stupid, we could've gotten lost, or hurt but it was better than encountering an angry mother moose. Eventually we found the trial again, and started back. Passing a few other hikers, and one family asking mysteriously "did you see two boys up ahead?" which we did not and one family from Nebraska that knew someone that Lindsey knows. On the way back down the switchbacks, as I looked across the valley to our left and up at four peaks to our right, an idea started to blossom in my head. About three/fifths up the mountain side, we stopped for a break, I saw a bottle dangerously off the trail down the slope and, of course, went to retrieve it. Pictures of my friend Justin sliding down the mountainside in Steamboat Springs came to my head, but only briefly. (He was fine, btw). I got the bottle and came back up with a smile on my face that Lindsey had never seen before. She said she almost cried at that moment, thinking that I just loved CO so much and was so proud of myself for getting the bottle. I put the bottle into the backpack, and brought back out a little red box with a diamond ring inside. And so, on the side of a mountain, with the valley to our left and the magestic Rocky peaks to our right, I got down on my knee and asked Lindsey to marry me. She giggled. And giggled. And teared up. And giggled. And said YES! At high noon, mountain time, Thursday the 29th of May, 2008, in one of the most beautiful places on earth, I asked the most beautiful girl on earth to be my wife and became the happiest guy on earth.

Day Five:
The rest of the trip really doesn't matter. We spent some time in Estes Park, then drove to Boulder, one of the coolest cities ever. We stayed at Boulder's waste-free hotel that produces, clearly, no waste and minimal carbon emissions. Our first meal as an engaged couple was at Walnut Brewery, steak and unbelievable asiogo cheese dip and a beer that was the perfect middle ground between Newcastle and Guniess, so yeah, I was in heaven. Spent the next morning on Pearl St. in Boulder, a world famous prominade and outdoor shopping/dining area. Then we decided to make the drive all the way from Boulder to KC. I highly recommend getting engaged a day before having to spend 9.5 hours in a car, 'cause we have a pretty freakin' awesome wedding planned already!

Well, there you have it. Bradley James Bryan and Lindsey are engaged! Pictures of the trip will be on Snapfish and Facebook if you have the time.

Next up, Mustoe's big day-June 21st!

Peace, Happiness, Colorado. B