Day Nine: WE'RE FINISHED!

We pulled into Nick's driveway in Boulder at 7:20 PM on May 19th, after visiting every county seat in the state of Colorado! Ryan celebrated with this battle cry (70KB WAV file). Here's photos from the last day on the road:

Last night, after traveling further than we expected, we stayed at a condo owned by a coworker of Nick's dad's. It was incredible! Thanks for letting us stay, Dave.

We watched the classic film 12 Angry Men, to help get us in a justice-y sort of mood for the last day of visiting courthouses.

Ryan looked like some sort of larva in his sleeping bag.

Our first stop was in Leadville, where we saw this strange house with an eyeball for a window (in the upper left).

We drove up around Leadville's historic mining area and looked at all the old, abandoned mines.

There are all sorts of abandoned mining buildings in the area. We hiked up to this one, although we had no idea what it was for.

Leadville's altitude is above 10,000 feet, so there was still some deep snow. Hiking in this snow is hard, and we all sank in past our knees every other step we took.

Ryan decided to jump off this ledge into the deep snow below...

...and promptly got stuck up to his waist. I'm not quite sure what he expected to happen, but the outcome was humorous.

We spent a good part of ten minutes digging him out. You can't tell here, but Ryan was wearing shorts, and his normally-pasty legs turned a bright shade of pink.

This was the method of choice for sock-drying. We got some very strange looks from passers-by.

And this - Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs - was our sustenance following the mine-hiking. The pizza here is so thick, you feel like a mountain man when you eat it. It just makes you want to grunt.

We crossed the Continental Divide another two times today, marking our 7th and 8th times overall. Here's number seven on top of Fremont Pass...

...and number eight, inside Eisenhower Tunnel!

After a long day of driving, we finally reached Nick's house, and were faced with the daunting task of unpacking the car...

The Bradleys had these balloons waiting for us, though! Thanks, Bradleys!

And thanks to everyone who's been following this blog. It's been a kick and a half. I'll post a couple of final statistics and whatnot later on.

We visited 8 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Leadville, Lake County

Georgetown, Clear Creek County

Gambling on the steps in Central City, Gilpin County.

Picking our noses in Golden, Jefferson County.

Littleton, Arapahoe County.

Attempting to lick our elbows in Denver, Denver County.

Brighton, Adams County

Rocking out! Our last county courthouse in Broomfield, Broomfield County.

We felt like we had to return to Boulder, for our last photo. Huzzah! 64 counties in nine days!

Our progress so far:

DAY NINE STATS:

Miles Traveled - 269
Total Miles Traveled - 3434
County Seats Visited - 64
Percent of counties done - 100%

Leadville (Lake County)	5/19/06	8:39 AM
Georgetown (Clear Creek County)	5/19/06	11:02 AM
Central City (Gilpin County)	5/19/06	1:24 PM
Golden (Jefferson County)	5/19/06	2:15 PM
Littleton (Arapahoe County)	5/19/06	2:55 PM
Denver (Denver County)	5/19/06	4:01 PM
Brighton (Adams County)	5/19/06	4:58 PM
Broomfield (Broomfield County)	5/19/06	5:57 PM

Albums listened to:

• Rilo Kiley - Rilo Kiley
• Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
• Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
• Rush - Chronicles
• The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
• Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman
• Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

Day Eight: On the Road Again! We're ahead of schedule, and plan on finishing the trip tomorrow evening. Stay tuned tomorrow for the exciting conclusion! But first, today:

Last night was our second and last night at Dan's house. Thanks, Mary and Pete, for having us! ...why is that mayonnaise on the front porch?

We got up early this morning, so we did a lot of this in the car today. Note: Kristina does not like this photograph.

When we got to Meeker, Ryan and Nick woke up enough to have a shoulder-touch fight. They do this a lot. Whoever gets their shoulder touched is the loser. (In my humble opinion, they're both losers.)

Another shoulder-touch fight action shot. I just can't look at the expression on Ryan's face without laughing aloud.

Later, Kristina woke up for an excellent game of Hey Cow! (Right click and click Save As... 500KB WMV file)

This is another one of those photos where I'm not sure what's going on. I think Nick is getting trampled by some iron sheep, and we're encouraging them.

Another nice day of driving in the mountains: This is the view from Rabbit Ears Pass in Northeastern Colorado.

High altitude! There's still more than enough snow for a snowball fight on Rabbit Ears Pass.

These two rocks, which apparently look like a rabbit's ears, are the namesake of Rabbit Ears Pass. I think they look like two square rocks next to each other, but I suppose that name isn't as catchy.

At the top of Rabbit Ears Pass, we all piled out of the car. Ryan ran off into this forest, and we wondered if he was making some sort of attempt to commune with the woods. He eventually returned though: he'd received a call from nature of a different sort.

We hit 3000 miles on our trip odometer today!

One of many, many shots of Ryan with his head out the window at high speeds. At some point, one has to wonder just how much human DNA he actually has.

We crossed the Continental Divide another three times today, marking our fourth, fifth, and sixth times overall. Here's our fourth, at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass...

...our fifth, at the top of Willow Creek Pass...

...and our sixth time, at the top of Hoosier Pass.

We also saw this Continental Divide sign, and came within 50 feet of it, but we turned just before crossing the line, so it doesn't actually count.

We visited 7 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Meeker, Rio Blanco County

Craig, Moffat County. (Ryan? I'm not even going to ask.)

Steamboat Springs, Routt County. We're upside down! Note: we tried doing handstands, but this was the best we could manage.

Dead on the steps in Walden, Jackson County.

Hot Sulphur Springs, Grand County. For this photo, we tried to get all of us in midair. Out of more than 20 attempts, this was the best photo we got!

Breckenridge, Summit County

Fairplay, Park County. It was the end of the day, and we were getting a little goofy.

Our progress so far:

DAY EIGHT STATS:

Miles Traveled - 432
Total Miles Traveled - 3165
County Seats Visited - 56
Percent of counties done - 87.5%

Meeker (Rio Blanco County)	5/18/06	10:09 AM
Craig (Moffat County)	5/18/06	11:21 PM
Steamboat Springs (Routt County)	5/18/06	12:27 PM
Walden (Jackson County)	5/18/06	2:19 PM
Hot Sulphur Springs (Grand County)	5/18/06	3:44 PM
Breckenridge (Summit County)	5/18/06	5:34 PM
Fairplay (Park County)	5/18/06	6:23 PM

Albums listened to:

• Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy Soundrack
• Bishop Allen - Charm School
• Josh Rouse - Subtitulo
• Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon
• The Libertines - The Libertines
• Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA
• Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift
• The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
• Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
• Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus
• Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (1957)