CO Road-trip 2012: Day 9

We woke up to a drizzle in Boulder and were in no rush to leave our hotel. When we finally did check out, we drove through Golden before heading west on I-70. We made a stop in Idaho Springs to take a look at Bridal Veil Falls and have lunch. After checking out the waterfall and waterwheel, we ate at Two Brothers Deli. Ironically, there were only women working in the cafe. We each had a breakfast wrap, which were very good. We especially liked their own chipotle sauce.We continued by heading west and following CO-91 and US-24 south through Leadville. While taking a detour, we got stuck behind a really slow moving car driven by someone who apparently didn't like to be passed. I tried to pass him in a 35 mph zone where he was going < 25 mph. As soon as he noticed me coming up on his left he sped up and swerved to cut me off. After slamming on my brakes I waited for another straight part of the road to pass him and he cut me off again. I proceeded to call him some colorful names as he waved his arms and hands emphatically at me from within his car. I have no idea what he was thinking but we came to the point where the detour continued to the left and he stayed to the right and was kind enough to point me in the right direction despite a large orange sign in the immediate vicinity making it obviously clear where I should go. I kindly saluted him and we continued on.Back on the road, we turned onto CO-82 and made a quick stop at Twin Lakes and walked down to the eastern beach. There was no one else here and we enjoyed a few minutes of running Penny around. We continued west on CO-82 and crossed over Independence Pass (over 12,000'). Driving up Independence Pass was nice and we stopped at an overlook. The views were okay. Signs at the start of the paved walk clearly state that dogs must be leashed and you and your dog(s) are not allowed to travel off of the paved walkway. Predictably, we ran into a group of people who were letting their two dogs run all over the fragile alpine tundra. I stopped them and reminded them of the rules that everyone else was following and in return I received, "my dog had to poop" and I'm sure a few snide remarks as soon as I was out of earshot. These are not difficult rules to follow. It is people like this that get dogs banned from public areas.We arrived in Aspen and checked into our hotel before going out for dinner at Little Annie's Eating House. We ordered atypical food for us (trout and salmon) and it was pretty good with a local feel. Back at the hotel, there was a pizza party on the bottom floor with a bunch of little dancer girls and their moms. Thank god we didn't have a bottom floor room. For the rest of the night we relaxed.