Last day in Colorado. It was a pretty good day, even though we were a bit disorganized. The weather wasn't looking good for the afternoon so we decided to do Pike's Peak in the morning. We really had never come to a conclusion as to whether we were going to do the Cog Rail or drive it. We took off were on the right road and then came to one of those crazy "turn abouts" That messed us up. We ended up going I don't know how far the wrong way. Turned around came back to the Cog Rail. Of course, since we had never decided for sure we were doing it we couldn't get tickets for the morning except on standby and with the weather forecast, we weren't willing to hang around on a chance. We ended up driving up Pikes Peak (which we were glad we did) but guess what, the entrance to start driving was 1/2 mile from where we had turned around the first time! Jim had never been to Pike's Peak and he was totally amazed and some what white knuckled even though I was driving. And we saw two Big Horn sheep along the side of the road. We kind of felt sorry for them because they just didn't seem to know where to go. We couldn't see over the edge of the road, but they didn't seem to want to go down there nor cross back over the road from where they came. They finally went down. At the top the temp was 41 and who knows what the wind chill was, well into the 30's it was blustery. Fog rolled in and out, mostly in. On the way back down they have a stop point where they check your brakes for temperature. 300 is too hot, ours was 244. We stopped at a gift shop to let the brakes rest and watched an info video. There is a marathon race up Pikes Peak (I can't imagine running up hill). The Marathon is uphill and back down and the record time is 3 hours 16 minutes. WOW! Someone has good lungs.
I forgot.....When we paid our fee to go up Pikes Peak, I was driving really slow as I approached the gate trying to figure out what the cost was (and whether I would be a senior today or not). No one was a senior today! Anyway the lady at the ticket both started yelling, Stop it, Stop it. I thought she was mad at me because I was driving slow. Turns out she was excited we were from Iowa State. Maybe she's never seen an ISU plate before. She graduated in 1976 and her mother lives in Eagle Grove. She bashed Nebraska for awhile and then we went on our way.
After Pikes Peak we ate lunch and headed for Cripple Creek. We had no idea what to expect there. Once again road map confusion. Jim was on the phone making dinner reservations for tonight and I went the wrong way. We traveled about 9 miles the wrong way when we decided this wasn't right and I did one of my famous three point turns. On the way home I looked for the signs to try and figure out what I had done wrong and I do understand now how I got confused. When we got to Cripple Creek it started raining really big drops straight down and then little itty bitty hail. Didn't last long, sun came out and it was in the 50's. Cripple Creek was a waste. We could have done a gold mine tour but we had both done that in South Dakota. It's pretty much a down of numerous casinos. We visited a few, left $24 and headed back to the motel.
Tonight we went to the Flying W Ranch for supper and a cowboy musical show. Both the food and the entertainment were very good. A person couldn't ask for a nicer night to sit outside, temps in the 60's no humidity and no bugs. I LOVE Colorado.
Tomorrow we start home through Kansas and at some point we will gain an hour back
Til tomorrow.........
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