August 29, 2017
It is a fresh morning.
I want to run! I want fly! I see my human’s paw… I must attack it! Is that a movement??? I must get it. I must fly because I am THUNDERPAWS, king of
the morning!
I hate this laptop…
argh…. Ok, got that off my chest.
This morning we walked into Old Colorado City and had
breakfast at the Bon Ton on their beautiful patio. I walked ahead to get some exercise. When Spouse showed up, he told me he bought
some Egg Mcmuffins for a homeless guy.
Soft heart… When he didn’t finish
his food, he had it boxed up and gave that to a homeless guy too. All through town, we see homeless, and
people begging on the streets. Looks
like quite the problem in this neck of the woods.
After breakfast, we headed up to Pike’s Peak. Once you enter through the kiosk, it is
roughly a 20 mile drive… up. The road is
windy and we are surrounded by woods; pines and aspens. As we climb, the vistas are quite
stunning. Then we start to climb. Did I mention that the road goes up? It gets windier, and there are few
guardrails, mainly for the downhill travelers at the hairpin turns. At about 11,000 feet, there is a kiosk where,
on your way down, they check your breaks.
If they are too hot, you have to stop at the store there and let them
cool. It is steep. We climb.
At 12,000 feet, we leave the treeline behind. It is a rocky landscape with what looks like
tundra as a ground cover. The road gets
smaller and even windier. The drop-offs
are steep and there are no guardrails.
If you are afraid of heights, this is not the road for you. Ultimately, we reach the summit at 14,115
feet. It was nearly 80 degrees when we
started. At the summit, it is 46
degrees. We are in shorts and tee
shirts. I have a long sleeve shirt and a
jacket. Spouse does not. There is a breeze making it feel even colder. The views are incredible as we wander the
top. If this is too much, there is
always the train that comes up from Manitou Springs. How bad can that be… the railroad is only 120
years old and hugs the side of cliffs.
What could possibly go wrong?
On the way down, we stopped to climb some rocks. It is slow going as the air is so thin. I guess we didn’t feel we got high
enough… Our breaks checked out cool and
we slowly descended. I thought it would
be scary coming down, but it wasn’t… thankfully!
We decided to drive by the Broadmoor Hotel. It is similar to the Banff Springs
Hotel. Beautiful homes surround the
area, but we didn’t go in. It was
amazing how our GPS sent us a real stupid way there, and a more sane way
back. Go figure…
Dinner tonite was with Tom and Sandy Yukman. I worked with Tom back in the 1980’s. We had so much in common. We went skiing in Banff, water skiing at Lake
Powell, and we golfed here and there. We
have kept in touch through the years and here we were again. Fabulous dinner of Greek food. Sandy retired 3 years ago, and Tom is just
about there too. They are selling it all
and going on the road, hoping to spend half the year in Alaska, then do time in
Kauai and Colorado. Life is good for
them. And for us for that matter. Another splendid evening. Tom deposited salmon, halibut, elk and
caribou in our freezer… We gave them
some of Spouse’s yellowtail. We got the
better end of the deal!
We have GOT to stop eating…
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