Wednesday was a rest day of sorts. We were up early to get set up at Technology Driven Products in Loveland and help with the Kiwanis Club pancake breakfast. Dad, Margo, and I, along with 3 other Kiwanians served pancakes, sausage, coffee, and orange juice to 120 employees, all within abou 20-25 minutes, and then cleaned up afterwards. True to form, Margo finds it difficult to let go of her restaurant roots and was a little too gung-ho about cleaning the griddles - she was determined to make them sparkle! We loaded up the trailer and went back to the house to finish washing dishes and then worked in the garage for a while. Dad is building a wagon like Jayden's for cousin Katie, who is 9 months younger. We helped sand, prime, and paint the pieces and put some of it together, getting a lesson on how to use some of the tools we don't own in the process.
After dinner, a trip to Dairy Delite for ice cream was well overdue!
Thursday was a much busier day. Dad and Ellen and Steve and Gina teamed up to treat Margo and myself to a full day in Colorado Springs. We left the house at 8am for the 2 hour drive to the Air Force Academy. I drove the Prius the whole way, up to and through the guardhouse at the entrance - show ID, open the trunk, make sure you're not going to blow the place up - and then on to the Barry Goldwater Visitor's Center. We toured the exhibits, learning about the responsibilities of the cadets in each class and some of the history of the air force - I had no idea it was only formed in 1954, with the first graduating class in 1959. We walked the 1/3 mile to the air force chapel, a really stunning piece of architecture with the largest pipe organ I've ever seen, and watched some of the drills on the terazzo. Back at the visitor center there was a 14-minute movie about life as a student at the academy, and then we were back on the road to Manitou Springs and the Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak!
Although Pike's Peak is arguably the most well-known of the Colorado Rockies, it only ranks 31st in height out of the 54 Fourteeners, mountains over 14,000 feet in altitude, with Mount Elbert ranking 1st at 14,400 or so. Pike's Peak is only 14,110, less than half that of Mt. Everest. Still, it's high enough to make your head spin a little when you reach the summit. We had reservations for the 1:20 Aspen car to the top, with the trip taking 1 1/2 hours. The cog railway runs on a special track, with gears under the train that keep it locked in place as it ascends a 25% grade! A normal train can really only make it up a 9% grade, max. One cog railway in Switzerland ascends a 45% grade! I think that might be a bit much for me. It rained a bit on the ride up the mountain, but it wasn't coming in the windows so we could still get a good, clear look at everything outside - we saw deer, some big horn sheep, a few yellow bellied whistling marmots, and lots of deep snow higher up on the mountain. It is truly amazing that people had the fortitude to climb and build on this mountain before there were automobiles and trains to haul the goods needed.
Upon reaching the summit, we found the visitor center bathed in clouds, with visibility down to several dozen feet. We were only allotted 30 minutes at the peak to look around the gift shop, take pictures, and use the rest room before the 1 1/2 hour trip back down the mountain. I started to get a headache at the top, so I snoozed a little on the way down, sipping on some water as we went, to combat the effects of the altitude. You know, every year they have a half-marathon to the top, and a full marathon up and down the mountain, and all I have to say is, "WHY?!" Craziness! The record holder for both events did the half marathon in 2 hours, 1 minute, and in the same weekend did the full marathon in less than 3 1/2 hours!
Back at the foot of the mountain, we drove through lovely Manitou Springs and Old Colorado City before arriving at the Flying W Ranch for a chuckwagon supper and western cowboy music show. The Flying W is an actual working cattle ranch and replica western town, with multiple shops, a small church, a Navajo kiva, a train and mine entrance, and much more. With the rain, we were forced inside for the vening, but they also have an outdoor stage and seating area for when the weather is more cooperative. We sat at one of 117 picnic tables (each seating 12 adults) until we were called to enter the serving line. There you pick up a tin plate and collect your grub, Flying W beans, BBQ beef or chicken, a foil-wrapped baked potato, chunky applesauce, a biscuit and a piece of spice cake, and then a tin cup of iced tea, lemonade, or "boiled all day" strong coffee. So efficient are they that they feed 1400 people in about 30 minutes! All the while, one of the cowboys entertains the waiting crowd by asking which states everyone is from and announcing birthdays.
At 8pm, the show starts - 5 cowboys, the Flying W Wranglers - take the stage - a 5-time national grand champion fiddle, a 2-time Colorado state champion flat-pick guitar player, a mandolin, an upright bass, and a 2nd guitar played by a 5-octave range singer, and perform an hour's worth of western songs and jokes. Some of the songs I was not familiar with, but the music and the singing were fantastic. They did Ghost Riders in the Sky, Colorado, and a version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, except they modified it to tell the story of a possum that wandered in front of a truck and ended up in the skillet! "He's in my way, he's in my way" and "He's on my plate, he's on my plate" replace the more familiar "a-weem-a-way." Very funny and unexpected! They also performed Rawhide, from the old tv show, with a bit of a comedic twist. Overall, it was an extremely entertaining show. The only drawback was the 2-hour car ride home, which put us all up way past our bedtimes! Friday holds a possible ride to Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Trail Ridge Road, if the weather holds, or a shorter ride and another trip to Broomfield to see Jayden and the family.
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