Saturday, June 25, 2011

Day two of the adventure

We settled into an RV Park near Garden of the G-ds in Colorado Springs and spent the first night recovering from the long day of driving.  This may be how I lose weight - just by sheer exhaustion...too tired to eat.




In the morning we set up the Coping Cabana and I straightened up the area a bit. 

She Devil celebrated by taking another nap.




Left Brain put together the new charcoal grill I purchased for use in the canned ham as it appeared to much narrower and the legs fold underneath, making it easier for storage.
It's nice to  have charcoal grilled food after a long day of relaxing.




We went out to find the Cog Railway for a trip to the top of Pike's Peak on Friday since the race to the top is on Sunday and it will be way too congested.  


We started out at the entrance to the road where you can drive up, but I encouraged him to turn around and we found the depot for the railway station instead.  




Not having reservations, we took a standby number and luckily got on the noon train.  


It's a really pretty, albeit steep, ascent to the top of Pike's Peak with lots of scenery to enjoy.  


Our guide pointed out the road the cars can drive on and the hairpin turn the Japanese driver took last year at 76 mph. 


He made the entire ascent in just over ten minutes.  Yikes!  I asked her if any the drivers go over the side during the race since there are no guard posts or anything and she just smiled and said "yes".


We only had a brief amount of time at the summit before we needed to reboard the train for the descent.  They made it very clear that if you were not there on time you would be walking down.  Thirteen miles at an extremely steep grade didn't appeal to me.  So, we went in and found the donuts I love up there first (they taste just like my Grandma's and this alone was worth the price of the trip), grabbed a soda and found a small booth.  We proceeded to inhale three donuts each, gulp our soda and get into line for the bathrooms. This was lunch.



I had a short span of time to snap some photos, one of which was this one.  Katharine Lee Bates (not to be confused with Kathy Bates) was inspired by the scenery at the top of Pike's Peak.  


It was interesting trying to photo things up there as I was weaving around like a drunk. 


The thin air really sent me for a loop.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!


Long Live the Queen of the Donuts

3 comments:

  1. Would've liked to have seen a picture of those donuts;)

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  2. Oh, I love that last photo of America The Beautiful. I've never been to Colorado, so I'm just loving your photos. I think I would have loved that ride up to Pike's Peak, but the road would have definitely gotten to me. I'm chicken. Keep having a great time!
    Hugs, Edna B.

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  3. Your walking abilities sound familiar - wanna do it 24/7? The Divine Miss M

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