There's no room at the Inn...

That was the theme for Day #2 - I wonder if Joseph enjoyed looking around Bethlehem for a place to stay?  Clay certainly did not find that fun in Estes Park.    Arrived in Estes mid-morning and took off for the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Spent the morning seeing beautiful scenery of snow-topped mountains in grey and white and gorgeous orange, red and yellow trees!   This was our first visit to the RMNP and one thing I quickly learned (doy) is that you don't find motels or cabins tucked away in the national parks.  After a nice drive up into the mountains - a few short walks around - and a lunch-served out of the back of the Edge - we headed back down to Estes.

(Sidebar:  Everywhere we go with our Boston Terrier we meet people who have Boston Terriers.  Today we found two.  The first man was on his 9th dog, had always had Bostons since he was a little boy.   Lost them all to cancer.   The second man had adopted his "Stubby" from Pet Finder.   He was on his second Boston.  Of course we shared that Dodger and Pepper were our Bostons.  And we share the same funny stories.)

This is when the search for THE INN began.  

We drove in and out of many little cabins along the Fall River and were greeted with a flashing NO VACANCY sign or a polite "We don't allow pets".  This went on for two hours.  Clay was not having fun. We learned it was the Estes Park Elk Festival.  No wonder!  We prayed for any place along the river that we could afford and God blessed us with Discovery Lodge.  It was not on the river but it had a mountain view from the back deck and was located near Lake Estes.  So we unpacked and headed for a walk around the lake - THE LOOP.  The loop turned out to be 3.75 miles around.  We kept moving and as my sister Tami says, sometimes you go far enough that to turn around and go back is no easier than just continuing on.  So we trekked on, with thinner air than we are used to and a doggie who is not very well leash trained, we finished our walk.  We calculated with the extra walk back to the lodge we had gone 4.75 miles.  We had another picnic supper in our room, showered, and headed to bed.  Vacation was wearing us out!  But in a good way!  Blessing for day #2 besides finding an INN was to find ELK on our lake walk.  Elk were everywhere, scattered all over the golf course.  What were they doing here?  Were they here for the Elk Festival??  Clay was thrilled to see them and it made his day!  We have a room reservation for tomorrow - we are getting smarter.