Colorado Day 4

Wednesday morning we got up early and drove back to Buena Vista. There was a lookout point on the way back where we got this picture of the mountain range. It was really cool to think we were about 45-60 miles away and we could see the mountains where we were spending all of our time from afar. My parents were in Silverthorne (just a little bit outside of Breckenridge) that day, about 2-2 1/2 hours away from us, yet they were looking at the same mountains we were seeing. I think one of the peaks in this picture was Mount Elbert.

When we got back to Buena Vista, we met the rest of Andy's family to go fishing at a new lake. If you look at the 2 horizontal strips of snow on the right in this picture, that's the area where we were. I think it was on the way up the peak just to the left of it. I think that's Mount Elbert. Not much luck at that lake. It was a pretty long day and I was in a "pregnant hormonal mood". We didn't stay long. My fishing line got caught on something and broke the 1st time I threw it out. By the time I got it all ready again, I think I cast out about 4 or 5 times before we left. Very quick fishing trip. We decided to head on out because we weren't haveing any luck and I was getting frustrated. And then the real drama began...

We were heading down the highway back toward Salida when I deer ran out in front of us. We always see plenty of deer on the side of the road, but usually they're just standing on the side of the road and not crossing. I pointed the deer out to Andy and started to get the camera ready. Andy slowed down and looked at the deer for a quick second. When he did, and 2nd deer ran out and this time we were too close to her when she ran out and Andy hit her with the truck. I knew we were OK so my 1st thought was... "how's the deer?" We just hit her back hip and it didnt' do much damage to the truck. I didn't even feel us hit her. I thought maybe I heard something but wasn't sure until Andy slowed down to stop... then I knew. The deer ran off so I think she was OK. Those things are pretty strong animals so I'm sure she was fine. But of coarse this really shook me up.

I immediately started crying. With the high altitude, I had trouble crying and was almost hyperventillating. Andy was so good calming me down and getting me to breathe deep and slow until I was better. But at that point I was just ready for a hormonal meltdown. Andy and I stopped in Buena Vista at our favorite burger shop, K's, for chocolate milkshakes and went back to camp. I really wanted to be left alone for a while so he went fishing at a nearby pond for about 20-30 minutes. It was a very draining event!

In all the years we've been to Colorado (and especially Andy) we've never seen or known anyone who's actuallly hit a deer. We have seen wrecks though after a deer's been hit and they can do a LOT of damage. You can see in the 2 top pictures of Andy's truck that we were very lucky that we weren't hurt and that the damage was so minimal.