3/20/16 Sunday

Today is our last full day with Louise so we packed up our suitcases after breakfast and then asked Louise what she wanted to do today.  We ended up taking a ride up to Crestone, a small town at the foot of the mountains known for having a free-spirited atmosphere.  There are many different religions, magical thinkers and just plain grown-up hippies living here.  We drove through the small town, but as it was Sunday morning, nothing was open.  We did discover a Buddhist shrine (Stupa of Enlightenment) and stopped to take a picture. On the way back we stopped at an odd looking place called the UFO tower.  Apparently, people pay ($20/person) to come out here (in the middle of nowhere) to look for UFO sightings - a sucker is born every minute.  We then stopped at the Colorado Gator Farm as Louise had never seen them in the wild.  The place started as a tilapia (fish) farm because there is a hot spring on the property.  Eventually, the owners bought some baby alligators to clean up the fish waste.  Now it is still a tilapia farm and the filtered water is used to grow plants in the greenhouses, but they are also an alligator rescue place.  Some of the alligators are from New York and California, where people were keeping them in bathtubs and backyard swimming pools!  They also have snakes, turtles, tortoises, lizards, emus, and peacocks on display.  They have two albino alligators, one of which is named Mr. Bomangles.  We came back into town and stopped at the grocery store.  Louise is cooking tonight - pork chops with spiced apples with roasted Brussels sprout and barley salad - yum!