The Great Travelogue: Day Seven! Note: I've turned off the thing that made you have to register before commenting. Sorry, I didn't know it was on.

Today, we took it a little bit easier and hung out in the Roaring Fork Valley most of the day, visiting only three houses. It was nice to have a day to breathe before heading out at breakneck pace again!

Our first stop was at the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder's office in Aspen. Dan's dad used to do a lot of work at the courthouse in Aspen, and we visited his old friend, Lyndee.

Across the street, we found the new record high gas price: $3.72 for regular unleaded in Aspen!

Next on the agenda: we went over to the playground on the Aspen Mall to play on their spectacular spinny things. We all got dizzy and sick, and enjoyed the strange looks from the moms and little kids.

For our next sidetrip, we drove up to Ashcroft, an old ghost town 11 miles outside of Aspen. Everything was going well, and we were all enjoying the scenery, when this happened: A very large bird left us a very large present on our windshield. Ryan shook his fist and vowed to get back at birdkind.

The drive was still quite scenic and gorgeous, as long as we looked out the side windows.

Here's Ashcroft! A sign informed us that "Ashcroft was established early in 1880 as a mining camp. It was abandoned in the 1890's when the silver boom ended. The town was a stage station on the old Taylor Pass Toll Road." The sign also commanded us to "HELP PREVENT FOREST FIRES."

The town was still in amazing shape. This is Ashcroft's old hotel, restored in the 1970's, which you can now walk around inside!

Ryan played in the river.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the Garfield County Courthouse in Glenwood Springs (see photo below), and saw Dan's Aunt-but-not-really Judy! We also found that Glenwood Springs has quite an overabundance of helicopter seeds! (Right click and click Save As... 500KB WMV)

Next, we went to Eagle and saw Dan's friend Jamie. We didn't get a photo of her, but we got a photo of her car, which is nearly as good.

At the end of the day, we hiked up to Hanging Lake, near Glenwood Springs. All the snow was melting, and the water was really high!

Here's Nick watching... something?

At the top, we saw a cool lizard! Ryan was going to touch it, but chickened out because he thought it was poisonous. Wimp.

Finally, we reached the trail's namesake: Hanging Lake! This incredibly blue lake is perched hundreds of feet above a canyon, it's like a little oasis.

Ryan climbed up the rocks to get a closer look at the waterfall.

Here's the canyon the lake is located in. We hiked late in the day, so the canyon was all shaded. What a day!

We visited 3 courthouses today! Here's the proof:

Aspen, Pitkin County. We're all being Aspenites and talking on our cellphones!

Glenwood Springs, Garfield County

Eagle, Eagle County. Note our eagle poses (and Ryan's monkey pose?).

Our progress so far:

DAY SIX STATS:

Miles Traveled - 186
Total Miles Traveled - 2733
County Seats Visited - 49
Percent of counties done - 76.6%

Aspen (Pitkin County)	5/17/06	10:56 AM
Glenwood Springs (Garfield County)	5/17/06	2:11 PM
Eagle (Eagle County)	5/17/06	3:07 PM

Albums listened to:

• Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
• Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds
• Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast
• Best of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• Thelonious Monk - Riffin'