2017--Long Colorado Weekend
Day One---Thursday, August 17, 2017
On Thursday morning Margo and I took our time getting underway. I had wanted to be on the road by 1 PM to arrive at The Black Canyon of the Gunnison by 7 PM. Margo had errands to run, taking her mother to the doctor as a follow up from her hospital stay. I had finalized these plans kind of at the last minute, so I was still throwing together “The Book”
The Book is a notebook I compile for every trip which contains all of the information that allows our trips to function like a carefully planned and finely executed plan crafted by the likes of Eisenhower at D-day. Okay, more like it gives me the illusion I have control over what is going to happen. But, it at least has all of the confirmation numbers, operating hours, and other such vital information.
Anyway, as of 8 AM when I woke up I still had plenty to do with the printing, hole punching, sorting, and inserting behind the right notebook folder. Margo was gone by then. She was off the day before and I finished her part of our vacations; the packing. It is amazing how those two little words don’t even come close to describing what she actually ends up doing, with all of the gathering, list making, arranging, folding, nagging, repackaging, and other such machinations all designed to make sure we have everything, and that it fits in the smallest possible space, all while leaving room to bring back remembrances of our trip. We each have our strengths.
On the road by 12:30, which included a lunch at McDonalds in Brighton, and a ten minute wait behind some guy at the bank, who I first had to wave through a non-existing stop sign putting him in front of me, and then cussed as he blocked my access to the drive up ATM to use the pneumatic tube, when there was another tube in the lane beside us. Maybe I’m paying forward with my Karma.
Our ultimate destination was, the aforementioned Black Canyon of the Gunnison, named for the river which runs through it and the fact that it is so narrow and deep that the sun has trouble reaching all areas. But, it was five and a half hours of drive time. Kretzer Rules for Travel #7 states that “when traveling by car, take breaks every two to three hours”. That used to be just for sanity. Now it is because one of us will have to the bathroom. With that in mind I was definitely planning on it taking longer. That was going to put us there early evening. I was not planning to rush through the park, so really the only thing on the must do list was seeing the sun set at the park. That left us time to stop if something caught our eye.
The first thing that caught our eye was a gas station in Buena Vista, CO. See Rule #7. But, it also had a very nice gift shop, so we stopped and looked around. We found two puzzle boxes that will make great Christmas presents for Jolene and Jessi. We have given them cash the last several years, and finding a creative way to give it to them is always a challenge. We spent about 20 minutes there and the stretching of our legs was of at least as much relief to my body as my trip to the bathroom.
We got back on Highway 24 and headed south to link up with Highway 50 at Poncha Springs. Highway 50 actually runs from Nevada to Kentucky and I would bet that the Colorado stretch is the prettiest in the nation. While we were not willing to drive the entire length to put that to a test, once we crested Monarch Pass (elevation 11,312 ft), we pulled into the combination, gift shop, restaurant, and aerial tram.
The Book is a notebook I compile for every trip which contains all of the information that allows our trips to function like a carefully planned and finely executed plan crafted by the likes of Eisenhower at D-day. Okay, more like it gives me the illusion I have control over what is going to happen. But, it at least has all of the confirmation numbers, operating hours, and other such vital information.
Anyway, as of 8 AM when I woke up I still had plenty to do with the printing, hole punching, sorting, and inserting behind the right notebook folder. Margo was gone by then. She was off the day before and I finished her part of our vacations; the packing. It is amazing how those two little words don’t even come close to describing what she actually ends up doing, with all of the gathering, list making, arranging, folding, nagging, repackaging, and other such machinations all designed to make sure we have everything, and that it fits in the smallest possible space, all while leaving room to bring back remembrances of our trip. We each have our strengths.
On the road by 12:30, which included a lunch at McDonalds in Brighton, and a ten minute wait behind some guy at the bank, who I first had to wave through a non-existing stop sign putting him in front of me, and then cussed as he blocked my access to the drive up ATM to use the pneumatic tube, when there was another tube in the lane beside us. Maybe I’m paying forward with my Karma.
Our ultimate destination was, the aforementioned Black Canyon of the Gunnison, named for the river which runs through it and the fact that it is so narrow and deep that the sun has trouble reaching all areas. But, it was five and a half hours of drive time. Kretzer Rules for Travel #7 states that “when traveling by car, take breaks every two to three hours”. That used to be just for sanity. Now it is because one of us will have to the bathroom. With that in mind I was definitely planning on it taking longer. That was going to put us there early evening. I was not planning to rush through the park, so really the only thing on the must do list was seeing the sun set at the park. That left us time to stop if something caught our eye.
The first thing that caught our eye was a gas station in Buena Vista, CO. See Rule #7. But, it also had a very nice gift shop, so we stopped and looked around. We found two puzzle boxes that will make great Christmas presents for Jolene and Jessi. We have given them cash the last several years, and finding a creative way to give it to them is always a challenge. We spent about 20 minutes there and the stretching of our legs was of at least as much relief to my body as my trip to the bathroom.
We got back on Highway 24 and headed south to link up with Highway 50 at Poncha Springs. Highway 50 actually runs from Nevada to Kentucky and I would bet that the Colorado stretch is the prettiest in the nation. While we were not willing to drive the entire length to put that to a test, once we crested Monarch Pass (elevation 11,312 ft), we pulled into the combination, gift shop, restaurant, and aerial tram.
Monarch Pass in addition to being some to prettiest scenery in Colorado, also holds the record for the fastest wind gust (147 MPH) in the state. That measurement was taken on top of the Monarch Ridge, where the tram was going to go. I did not know about the record until later, but it was easy to imagine, based on the conditions we found.
The tram was built in 1966 and its age shows. I wouldn’t save it looked unsafe, but it did look a bit adventurous. These were tiny tram cars, about twice the size of the back seat of a Pinto.(Yes, I have) The tram had perhaps a dozen cars spread out, and every time an occupied one reached the top or bottom the whole tram had to stop to let them load or unload. That left anyone in the middle, literally swinging in the breeze. Today the wind was only in 30s, but it did make for some interesting swaying and did make a few What If questions pop up. We reached the top without incident, and only stopped a couple of times each way. The wind was bad. They had two outside viewing areas, one, a concrete pad without guard rails or the conspicuously missing warning to stay away from the edge. We were not about to make the papers vying for a Darwin Award, but we did want pictures. A few pictures and even fewer minutes on the concrete pad and we were inside the indoor viewing area. About ten minutes later we had seen all that there was to be seen, and were on our way back down swinging to and fro. |
My plan was now to drive the remaining 104 miles and two hours to the park and see the sunset at the appropriately named Sunset View Overlook. However nature decided to intervene in the form of gurgling noises from Margo’s belly. Further adding drama to the situation was the sudden appearance of road signs advising us of the approaching road construction, and the promise of flagmen, one lane road, and delays.
A few miles, as the unwelcomed promise from the Colorado Dept of Transportation advised, we pulled up behind a long list of vehicles waiting for the guy at the front of the line to turn his sign from STOP to SLOW, so we could creep through. Luckily Margo’s stomach was behaving itself and we found in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, along the Blue Mesa Reservoir. While Margo took care of her business I discovered, via the conveniently placed signs, that the Blue Mesa Reservoir was created by damning the same Gunnison River we would soon be viewing from canyon edge, and is the largest body of water in Colorado. Who knew? I really need to spend more time exploring Colorado. The list of things I have not seen in my own backyard is endless.
A few miles, as the unwelcomed promise from the Colorado Dept of Transportation advised, we pulled up behind a long list of vehicles waiting for the guy at the front of the line to turn his sign from STOP to SLOW, so we could creep through. Luckily Margo’s stomach was behaving itself and we found in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, along the Blue Mesa Reservoir. While Margo took care of her business I discovered, via the conveniently placed signs, that the Blue Mesa Reservoir was created by damning the same Gunnison River we would soon be viewing from canyon edge, and is the largest body of water in Colorado. Who knew? I really need to spend more time exploring Colorado. The list of things I have not seen in my own backyard is endless.
Back on to Highway 50 and an hour later we were paying our $15 to be admitted into one of four National Parks in Colorado. I have been to Great Sand Dunes and Rocky Mountain, so after today (& tomorrow) that will leave only Mesa Verde. Some day. Vegetation continually blocked our complete view of the canyon, which was probably a good idea, as guard rails were in short supply. It took much more driving than I was expecting to get to the west end of the canyon, where we would be watching the sunset. We pulled in to the small parking lot, and within a minute got our first indication of how the Black Canyon got its name. With the angle of the sun and a bit of haze from distant wild fires the canyon was very dark and blurry. It made for a nice, but not great sunset. But I worked my camera hoping it would see something my eyes were missing. Even though the sunset was a bit disappointing, what we were seeing as we glimpsed the Black Canyon was not. Tomorrow looked like it was going to be very good as we walk the short trails to the various overlooks giving us different and unique looks. |
I was thinking that the “vacation” part of this day was over, and we would lapse back into the mundane chore of getting from place to place, checking into the hotel, and finding dinner. While checking into a hotel does have a certain thrill of discovery to go with it, it is hardly what I would call a high point.
But, back to our regularly scheduled program, we were on our way out of the part and I saw a deer grazing in the brush. I pointed without saying anything to Margo and she did not react, by the time I glanced over and saw that her eyes were closed, we were past it. We were in the middle to a discussion about the winding road making her queasy and keeping her eyes closed helped, when a baby bear burst out of the brush. I practically yelled “bear!” and pointed. It lasted all of five seconds before the black animal was back undercover, but we had both got to see it.
I have been to Yellowstone NP. No bear. I have been to Denali NP. No bear. I have been to Rocky Mt NP. No bear. I have been to Great Smokey Mt NP. No bear. I finally got to see a bear in the wild on the side of the read in Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. Yeah for me. It wasn’t any official item on my bucket list, but it probably should have been.
30 minutes later we pulled in the Holiday Inn Express in Montrose, CO. We were both tired and hungry. I checked us in, and we decided a view of your beds for the night was going to come in second to hunger. We walked a block down Townsend Ave to El Jimador for dinner.
El Jimador is not a chain, but the owners of this restaurant opened a branch in Brighton. We used to eat there all the time, but I liked it more than Margo, and the food has gone downhill. But the original location was still putting out the food like we remembered. We had a very good Mexican dinner, walked back to the hotel, unloaded, and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we officially do the Black Canyon.
But, back to our regularly scheduled program, we were on our way out of the part and I saw a deer grazing in the brush. I pointed without saying anything to Margo and she did not react, by the time I glanced over and saw that her eyes were closed, we were past it. We were in the middle to a discussion about the winding road making her queasy and keeping her eyes closed helped, when a baby bear burst out of the brush. I practically yelled “bear!” and pointed. It lasted all of five seconds before the black animal was back undercover, but we had both got to see it.
I have been to Yellowstone NP. No bear. I have been to Denali NP. No bear. I have been to Rocky Mt NP. No bear. I have been to Great Smokey Mt NP. No bear. I finally got to see a bear in the wild on the side of the read in Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. Yeah for me. It wasn’t any official item on my bucket list, but it probably should have been.
30 minutes later we pulled in the Holiday Inn Express in Montrose, CO. We were both tired and hungry. I checked us in, and we decided a view of your beds for the night was going to come in second to hunger. We walked a block down Townsend Ave to El Jimador for dinner.
El Jimador is not a chain, but the owners of this restaurant opened a branch in Brighton. We used to eat there all the time, but I liked it more than Margo, and the food has gone downhill. But the original location was still putting out the food like we remembered. We had a very good Mexican dinner, walked back to the hotel, unloaded, and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we officially do the Black Canyon.
Day Two—Friday, August 18, 2017
I got up somewhere around 7 AM, and Margo at least a half hour before then. She said that bed was too hard. Whereas I slept like a rock, so maybe it was the same. While I jumped in the shower Margo went downstairs to scout out the free breakfast. Usually hotel breakfasts are little more than cold cereal and some sort of Danish. But this Holiday Inn Express had a hot breakfast with bacon and scrambled eggs. They also had a pancake maker, and various other things. It was serviceable, but not great. But, it was free and you accept much less when you aren’t paying for it.
I wanted to be on the road to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park by 9 AM. We beat that by half an hour, but Margo decided she wanted a walking stick to take some pressure off her hip and knees. That meant a detour. The front desk was able to point us to a store that was only about a block out of our way. We were in an out in ten minutes.
It was still a half hour drive to the National Park, which for some reason kept annoying me. Didn’t God know how inconvenient it was for him to make the canyon so far away? Okay, maybe I was just sick of driving. It was seven hours on the road yesterday, which was dangerously close to violating Kretzer Rules for Travel #3; When traveling by car, 8 hours is enough. Either take an extra day or fly. Even with breaks, spending that much time in a car is mind (and butt) numbing.
We stopped a couple of miles shy of the Visitors Center, as that is where the park sign was. We try to take a picture in front of the sign when we go to a National Park. It’s our equivalent of the Junior Park Ranger program where the kid gets his book stamped. Big kids just have different toys.
I wanted to be on the road to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park by 9 AM. We beat that by half an hour, but Margo decided she wanted a walking stick to take some pressure off her hip and knees. That meant a detour. The front desk was able to point us to a store that was only about a block out of our way. We were in an out in ten minutes.
It was still a half hour drive to the National Park, which for some reason kept annoying me. Didn’t God know how inconvenient it was for him to make the canyon so far away? Okay, maybe I was just sick of driving. It was seven hours on the road yesterday, which was dangerously close to violating Kretzer Rules for Travel #3; When traveling by car, 8 hours is enough. Either take an extra day or fly. Even with breaks, spending that much time in a car is mind (and butt) numbing.
We stopped a couple of miles shy of the Visitors Center, as that is where the park sign was. We try to take a picture in front of the sign when we go to a National Park. It’s our equivalent of the Junior Park Ranger program where the kid gets his book stamped. Big kids just have different toys.
The Visitor’s Center also had a very nice overlook, Gunnison Point. We spent a few minutes in the building, which also housed the requisite gift shop, and went out the back to see the canyon. This was my first real view and literally my first word was “Wow”. The view was amazing. The canyon is narrow, relatively speaking, and deep. At this point the canyon depth is 1880 feet. The Empire State Building, if measured all the way to the tip is only 1454 feet.
Even before we could get to a spot to take in the magnitude we could hear the roar of the river way down. From Gunnison Point you could see the Gunnison River. The noise you hear did not seem to match what you see. In spots you could see movement, but from a third of mile away it looked like it should be a gentle stream. It was only when you focused in certain areas that you got a sense of the power the water contained.
Back in the Visitor’s Center there had been a series of displays telling you about the power of the water at various flow rates. At the max, which was somewhere over 10,000 gal per minute, it can move 4 ft. boulders like they were boats. That kind of power makes noise and the canyon’s steep walls make sure that the sound waves carried up to our ears.
Even before we could get to a spot to take in the magnitude we could hear the roar of the river way down. From Gunnison Point you could see the Gunnison River. The noise you hear did not seem to match what you see. In spots you could see movement, but from a third of mile away it looked like it should be a gentle stream. It was only when you focused in certain areas that you got a sense of the power the water contained.
Back in the Visitor’s Center there had been a series of displays telling you about the power of the water at various flow rates. At the max, which was somewhere over 10,000 gal per minute, it can move 4 ft. boulders like they were boats. That kind of power makes noise and the canyon’s steep walls make sure that the sound waves carried up to our ears.
Gunnison Point was the first of six stops we were going to make along the South Rim of the canyon. The Black Canyon has a South Rim, and North Rim, and the East Portal. The South Rim is the most popular, as the town of Montrose is nearby (it takes over two hours to get from North to South, as there is no bridge), and it has better overall views. The North Rim has a better view of one part of the canyon, but has no services or visitor’s center. The East Portal is for crazy people. Well maybe not crazy, but it probably helps. It is over 5 miles of 16% grade (very, very steep), with many twists and turns so narrow, that no vehicle over 22 feet is allowed on it. But, at the end, you get down to the bottom of the canyon. We skipped it.
But we did hit the other five overlooks I had planned. The South Rim has twelve. I did some research and weeded out half of them because the review of the view by past travelers did not seem to justify the hike to get to them. Margo is not known for her love of hiking. Her body says No, No, No, and her minds says Yeah, me too. But, she does want to admire the views, so she trusts that I won’t over tax her. Hence the winnowing down of the overlooks. That, and we just did not have the time to spend seeing them all. We had a four drive to deal with today as well. But that was a morning away. I’ll skip a blow by blow of the overlooks, suffice to say that each view was a little different, but all had us walking up the penultimate spot and saying “Wow!”. We did that over and over again. We hit Chasm View, Painted Wall, Cedar Point, Pulpit Rock, and Sunset View to compare with the night before. We took plenty of pictures and saw many views of the river and canyon cliffs. I put Black Canyon second to the Grand Canyon, but whoever I rank third is out of the hunt for the top spots. We needed to be on the road by 1 PM to get Canon City by 5 PM. We finished at the last of the overlooks, Sunset View, and decided to revisit the Visitor’s Center. Margo had gotten good use of her walking stick and had come up with the idea of decorating it with some sort of charm to commemorate our visit. I was skeptical of them having any such thing, but was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. We soon found out that hikers and travelers in Europe have been decorating their walking sticks with medallions from their travel conquests for years. Margo found that the tradition has spread to America and soon found the proper medallion. She then saw that they sold medallions for the other National Parks in Colorado and we ended up with two sets. |
With yet another Gift Shop vanquished we were on our way to Canon City. But we were painfully aware that our trek would be interrupted twice by road construction. We had discovered on our way into Montrose that Highway 50 was being repaved and that a bridge was being repaired. Each required the road to be condensed to just one lane. It took us about half an hour to get to the first one. By the time we got through all three, (yes, three) it had taken us about an hour. I had worked this time into our schedule (Yeah for William!), and we did get a few nice pictures while we waited for the road to reopen.
We pulled into Canon City at almost exactly 5 PM. Our itinerary for the day had us with one evening event; The Royal Gorge Route Railroad. This was a train ride that would go through the Royal Gorge, another beautiful canyon, this one carved by the Arkansas River. Our train was scheduled to leave at 6:30, but we needed to pick up our will call tickets at 5:45. Arriving at our scheduled 5 PM gave us time to check into our hotel, settle in for a few minutes, and then drive to the depot. Nailed it. Even the East German judge gave us a 10.
I had reserved us tickets in the Vista Dome car, this gave us a table and hopefully a view of the river. When we talked into the top area of the car, the area looked to have about 30 tables, 15 on the River Side (the good side) and 15 on the Rock Side (the side with a view of the canyon wall, which goes straight up). We were on the River Side. We were also informed that exactly two couples had reserved space up here. When we sat down, 100% attendance was achieved.
A little later on, before our 6:30 embark another group came up. They, an elderly couple, their likely daughter, and her two young sons were celebrating the young pair’s birthday. What we had now worked ourselves into believing was going to be a quiet train ride, was now looking to be a daycare center. They two boys, about 3 and 5, were energetic, explorative, and tested their mother and her patients the whole trip. But, to her credit they were never very disruptive and never for long.
Our hostess was a recent high school graduate named Samantha. She was mature beyond her 18 years old and kept us entertained with stories about her life, the train, local history, and a few of the people she knew. We found out she was going to attend Colorado University in just a few weeks, so we left her an extra-large tip to help with the daily expenses.
The train ride went through a small part of Canon City, then through the Royal Gorge, stopped at a small town named Parkdale and stopped long enough for engineer to walk from the front of the train and to the back of the train, which would now become the front. There was no roundabout or way to make a roundtrip. As a matter of fact we had been climbing in elevation from the start of the trip. The ride back would be powered by Isaac Newton and we only used the train’s breaks.
Margo and I both enjoyed the stories and just relaxing for a couple of hours. Canon City is home to Colorado Territorial Prison, which was the original state penitentiary. It was built in 1871, predating Colorado’s statehood. It is now a medium security facility and Samantha told us it was Colorado’s original gated community.
As we moved out of town and into the actual gorge Samantha pointed out a decayed and collapsing wooden pipe about 18 inches in diameter. This was the system that supplied Canon City’s water from the period of about 1910 to 1972. It was built by the inmates of the Territorial Prison after it was discovered the previous water supply was high in alkali and was making people sick.
It was quite the engineering feat. The pipe followed the railroad, which as I have already mentioned was graded in where Canon City was the low spot. From Parkdale to Canon City it is about 12 miles. In that period of time 500 feet of elevation is gained. That is one foot of elevation for every 127 feet traveled, more than enough for gravity to do all of the work.
Well, maybe not all of the work. It was not like there was a ready-made shelf of rock for this redwood pipe to be laid. That had to be dug out, including several tunnels which had to all be carved out by hand. The people of Canon City thought it a bad idea to let the convicts handle dynamite, so they got bits and sledge hammers.
I had reserved us tickets in the Vista Dome car, this gave us a table and hopefully a view of the river. When we talked into the top area of the car, the area looked to have about 30 tables, 15 on the River Side (the good side) and 15 on the Rock Side (the side with a view of the canyon wall, which goes straight up). We were on the River Side. We were also informed that exactly two couples had reserved space up here. When we sat down, 100% attendance was achieved.
A little later on, before our 6:30 embark another group came up. They, an elderly couple, their likely daughter, and her two young sons were celebrating the young pair’s birthday. What we had now worked ourselves into believing was going to be a quiet train ride, was now looking to be a daycare center. They two boys, about 3 and 5, were energetic, explorative, and tested their mother and her patients the whole trip. But, to her credit they were never very disruptive and never for long.
Our hostess was a recent high school graduate named Samantha. She was mature beyond her 18 years old and kept us entertained with stories about her life, the train, local history, and a few of the people she knew. We found out she was going to attend Colorado University in just a few weeks, so we left her an extra-large tip to help with the daily expenses.
The train ride went through a small part of Canon City, then through the Royal Gorge, stopped at a small town named Parkdale and stopped long enough for engineer to walk from the front of the train and to the back of the train, which would now become the front. There was no roundabout or way to make a roundtrip. As a matter of fact we had been climbing in elevation from the start of the trip. The ride back would be powered by Isaac Newton and we only used the train’s breaks.
Margo and I both enjoyed the stories and just relaxing for a couple of hours. Canon City is home to Colorado Territorial Prison, which was the original state penitentiary. It was built in 1871, predating Colorado’s statehood. It is now a medium security facility and Samantha told us it was Colorado’s original gated community.
As we moved out of town and into the actual gorge Samantha pointed out a decayed and collapsing wooden pipe about 18 inches in diameter. This was the system that supplied Canon City’s water from the period of about 1910 to 1972. It was built by the inmates of the Territorial Prison after it was discovered the previous water supply was high in alkali and was making people sick.
It was quite the engineering feat. The pipe followed the railroad, which as I have already mentioned was graded in where Canon City was the low spot. From Parkdale to Canon City it is about 12 miles. In that period of time 500 feet of elevation is gained. That is one foot of elevation for every 127 feet traveled, more than enough for gravity to do all of the work.
Well, maybe not all of the work. It was not like there was a ready-made shelf of rock for this redwood pipe to be laid. That had to be dug out, including several tunnels which had to all be carved out by hand. The people of Canon City thought it a bad idea to let the convicts handle dynamite, so they got bits and sledge hammers.
Margo and I had dinner on the train. In addition to our meal I ordered a micro-brew tasting tour. It consisted of four brews from nearby micro-breweries. I started on the dark end, because I am fond of Amber beer. They consisted of a dark, which was a bit bitter. Not uncommon, an Amber which reminded me of Dos Equis Amber, a wheat beer, and a premium lager. I liked the wheat best. Continuing down the tracks, I asked about flooding along Arkansas, and Samantha was not aware of any, but here own knowledge only went back 10 years, so at least nothing recent. I asked because there were several homes built on the water. Not expensive homes, just middle class, but at least 50 years old. I was curious about problems that living that close to the river might cause. She did mention that bears tended to follow the river and they could be an issue, as were rats. Figures. Rats love rivers. About the middle of the gorge is where the Royal Gorge Bridge was built. The story that was told, was that the bridge was built on a bet and really serves no purpose, other than to attract tourists. That smells fishy to me, and I will have to look in the actual history of the bridge. Regardless, it did look pretty impressive from the viewing it from the train, 1053 feet above us. |
We learned a tiny bit about the Royal Gorge War. Silver was discovered in Leadville, CO (this was the same strike that got the Unsinkable Molly Brown, of Titanic fame, her fortune) and two railroads, The Denver and Rio Grande, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe both tried to be the first to build a rail line to Leadville and reap the rewards of hauling all of that ore. The route had to go through the Royal Gorge, as there land around it was just too formidable. So rather than work together they laid track as fast they could, racing to get their first. They would even destroy the work of their competitors. The ATSF hired gunfighter Bat Masterson to protect their interests. He in turn, put together a group of gunman that included Doc Holliday, Dave Rudabaugh, Ben Thompson, and Mysterious Dave Mather. The courts ended up settling things in the DRG’s favor, but the boom was mostly over.
Our trip back was made largely in the dark, as the sun was setting when we began to go back. On the way we did see one odd thing, a group of rafters having a grand ole time in the dark. I asked about it, because even though the Arkansas is not considered serious whitewater, it still seems dumb to take tourists down it at night. Samantha assured me that these were almost certainly outfitters doing this on their own time, for fun. They were pros. She also thought it a dumb idea.
That was about it for our train ride. It was really a novel thing to do, and it gave us a real taste of what traveling by rail would entail. Margo suggested we take a train vacation. It is on my bucket list, but it would not be cheap. It is cheaper to fly that to travel by rail, if you get a sleeping berth. If I were traveling overnight, I think that would be essential.
Our trip back was made largely in the dark, as the sun was setting when we began to go back. On the way we did see one odd thing, a group of rafters having a grand ole time in the dark. I asked about it, because even though the Arkansas is not considered serious whitewater, it still seems dumb to take tourists down it at night. Samantha assured me that these were almost certainly outfitters doing this on their own time, for fun. They were pros. She also thought it a dumb idea.
That was about it for our train ride. It was really a novel thing to do, and it gave us a real taste of what traveling by rail would entail. Margo suggested we take a train vacation. It is on my bucket list, but it would not be cheap. It is cheaper to fly that to travel by rail, if you get a sleeping berth. If I were traveling overnight, I think that would be essential.
Day Three—Saturday, August 19, 2017
We were up at 7:30, even though we could have slept in a bit. The park at the Royal Gorge did not open until 10 AM. Margo was up much earlier than that, and in order not to disturb me, she gathered up her Kindle and went down to the tiny lobby and messed on it. I was dead tired, but had still stayed up until 1 AM writing and checking on weather and such.
I showered, got ready and we had breakfast at the Village Inn across the parking lot. Somehow we managed to lose a good part of the morning and did not get to the gorge until 10:30. It did not matter as it had not started to get busy yet. Our plan was to ride the two pay rides, the Cloudscraper Zipline and the Royal Skycoaster Swing, as I expected them to get busy, soonest.
The lay of the park pretty much dictated that unless we wanted to earn our Royal Gorge hiking stick medallion (which we would get anyway) we needed to ride the gondolas across the gorge and the walk to the zipline. But, first we wanted to see at least a glimpse of the gorge.
Remember when I said that the Grand Canyon and Black Canyon were #1 and #2 with respect to grandeur and conjuring awe, and that whoever was third was well in the distance? Well, maybe not so far behind is the Royal Gorge. Those sheer cliffs and steep drop were impressive. The fact that there was a bridge spanning it was equally as impressive.
I showered, got ready and we had breakfast at the Village Inn across the parking lot. Somehow we managed to lose a good part of the morning and did not get to the gorge until 10:30. It did not matter as it had not started to get busy yet. Our plan was to ride the two pay rides, the Cloudscraper Zipline and the Royal Skycoaster Swing, as I expected them to get busy, soonest.
The lay of the park pretty much dictated that unless we wanted to earn our Royal Gorge hiking stick medallion (which we would get anyway) we needed to ride the gondolas across the gorge and the walk to the zipline. But, first we wanted to see at least a glimpse of the gorge.
Remember when I said that the Grand Canyon and Black Canyon were #1 and #2 with respect to grandeur and conjuring awe, and that whoever was third was well in the distance? Well, maybe not so far behind is the Royal Gorge. Those sheer cliffs and steep drop were impressive. The fact that there was a bridge spanning it was equally as impressive.
By 11 AM we signed away our future grandchildren, given enough private information to insure spam for a millennium, and worked ourselves up that reality was going to be hard to compete with our anticipation of the actual ride. We climbed up a couple of short flights of stairs and were soon being strapped into the canvas seats that would carry us 1300 feet at a height of 1200 feet above the river. If we fall we die.
I was feeling some butterflies as the gate in front of us opened and we could see the distance we would travel and how thin the cable looked waaaaaay out there. We could not get much of a down feel for what was coming, but the gondola ride, had already reacquainted us with how far down 1200 feet really was.
The guy gave us a shove and soon gravity had us picking up speed. My first thought was that I should be pulling out in front of Margo, because I weight more, but I wasn’t. My second thought was Wow, Look at this view. It was the same view as we had just seen traversing the gorge in the protection of the gondola, but now with only canvas, cable, and a few metal components holding us above a very long fall, it seemed even more real and in the truest meaning of the word, awesome.
I was not ready for it to be over, but at some point past halfway I was thinking “it’s not over yet!” I had tried to be carefree and adventurous and let go of the sides of by conveyance, but that lasted about three seconds. The gap between being safe and feeling safe was too wide. So I hung on for dear life.
I was feeling some butterflies as the gate in front of us opened and we could see the distance we would travel and how thin the cable looked waaaaaay out there. We could not get much of a down feel for what was coming, but the gondola ride, had already reacquainted us with how far down 1200 feet really was.
The guy gave us a shove and soon gravity had us picking up speed. My first thought was that I should be pulling out in front of Margo, because I weight more, but I wasn’t. My second thought was Wow, Look at this view. It was the same view as we had just seen traversing the gorge in the protection of the gondola, but now with only canvas, cable, and a few metal components holding us above a very long fall, it seemed even more real and in the truest meaning of the word, awesome.
I was not ready for it to be over, but at some point past halfway I was thinking “it’s not over yet!” I had tried to be carefree and adventurous and let go of the sides of by conveyance, but that lasted about three seconds. The gap between being safe and feeling safe was too wide. So I hung on for dear life.
The ride came crashing to halt as we sung into the overhead barrier that acted much like the catch line on an aircraft carrier. I reduced our speed very quickly and through us forward so that our backsides were now being displayed on our soon to be viewed video.
Then disaster struck. After we settle back down to horizontal, we were still about three to four feet above the ground. I slid right out, caught by balance and turned to see Margo on the ground. She had fallen trying to get out, and the guy helping her out either did not notice her predicament or was slow to react. She told me she hit on her knee, hand, and her face.
The second thing, after her being on the ground, that I noticed was two lines, which resembled Indian war paint right under right eye and her glasses off. She had hit that side of her face. The guy helped her up, and as she was tearing up, she claimed she was fine, as everyone asked her time and time again. She was not “fine”, but wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
We made a beeline for the cafeteria where we were going to get ice. Someone from the park went and got a ziplock bag, and we were soon seated with ice trying to mitigate the already evident swelling and bruising. It was going to be an impressive shiner. That would come later. Right now she was coming down from her adrenaline rush and was trying to compose herself. She would do a pretty good job of it, and then some park person would come by to check on her and on would come the waterworks. I was starting to get annoyed. I know they were just trying to help, but I don’t like to see my wife upset.
Then disaster struck. After we settle back down to horizontal, we were still about three to four feet above the ground. I slid right out, caught by balance and turned to see Margo on the ground. She had fallen trying to get out, and the guy helping her out either did not notice her predicament or was slow to react. She told me she hit on her knee, hand, and her face.
The second thing, after her being on the ground, that I noticed was two lines, which resembled Indian war paint right under right eye and her glasses off. She had hit that side of her face. The guy helped her up, and as she was tearing up, she claimed she was fine, as everyone asked her time and time again. She was not “fine”, but wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
We made a beeline for the cafeteria where we were going to get ice. Someone from the park went and got a ziplock bag, and we were soon seated with ice trying to mitigate the already evident swelling and bruising. It was going to be an impressive shiner. That would come later. Right now she was coming down from her adrenaline rush and was trying to compose herself. She would do a pretty good job of it, and then some park person would come by to check on her and on would come the waterworks. I was starting to get annoyed. I know they were just trying to help, but I don’t like to see my wife upset.
She settled down and eventually decided two things. One, she was in no mood to ride the other thrill ride, and two, she wanted to see her video. I was in favor of both, because I hate rides what have me freefall. That stomach drop sensation is not one I associate with fun. It is more like I’m going to die in a violent and painful way. I don’t see how people actually enjoy it, but I’d have done anyway just so I didn’t look a wimp. And secondly, if looking at the video took her mind off of it, so much the better. I didn’t really see how that was going to take her mind off of it and was concerned that her less than graceful dismount would have been captured for posterity, but what could I do?
We went over to the video desk and asked to see our video. They did not ask which one. As the young lady was queueing it up, a guy came over with a form, and I felt my blood pressure start to increase. He needed to fill out an incident report. My first thought was that his incident report would make an excellent suppository, and that was reinforced as Margo started to get moist eyes. I bit back most of my anger and told the guy I would help him with the report as Margo looked at her video.
This helped her quite a bit as now instead of being the focus of attention, she could occasionally help me with the answer to a question. That turned out to not be nearly as hard to stomach. We got though the report in which the three park employees could not agree on the spelling of the word momentum. I did not care to offer an opinion.
Margo did decide that she wanted the video, and as soon as she asked how much, they gave it her. I would have been surprised if they had charged her. Later when I looked at the video, I was not that impressed, but they did take some still shots from it that looked able to help tell a story.
We went over to the video desk and asked to see our video. They did not ask which one. As the young lady was queueing it up, a guy came over with a form, and I felt my blood pressure start to increase. He needed to fill out an incident report. My first thought was that his incident report would make an excellent suppository, and that was reinforced as Margo started to get moist eyes. I bit back most of my anger and told the guy I would help him with the report as Margo looked at her video.
This helped her quite a bit as now instead of being the focus of attention, she could occasionally help me with the answer to a question. That turned out to not be nearly as hard to stomach. We got though the report in which the three park employees could not agree on the spelling of the word momentum. I did not care to offer an opinion.
Margo did decide that she wanted the video, and as soon as she asked how much, they gave it her. I would have been surprised if they had charged her. Later when I looked at the video, I was not that impressed, but they did take some still shots from it that looked able to help tell a story.
Margo was a little upset that I had spent money on the Sky Coaster ticket, which we would not use. I supposed I could have asked for a refund, but I wasn’t in the mood for a conflict which would have put me in a worse mood and ruined the time we had left. I didn’t really care if we did it or not.
To help cheer her up, I told her that was going to tell everyone back home that she almost died on the zipline. She would counter by saying that she looked I had beat her. She was going to have a very impressive black eye, but at this point it was just a bit swollen, and she had the two aforementioned scrape marks. I would have felt shortchanged if we had not walked the bridge across the gorge, so we headed that direction to walk across.
Margo had said we walked across on one of our other trips, and she is almost certainly right. But, I have no memory of it. I supposed when I finally dig out the pictures and other reminders, when I go to write those mid 1980’s travelogues, I will say we did, but right now, it is Margo’s memory and not mine. But, we definitely did this time. We walked all the way across, about a quarter mile, and then I told Margo she could walk to the middle of the bridge and I would walk to Sublime Point and take her picture.
To help cheer her up, I told her that was going to tell everyone back home that she almost died on the zipline. She would counter by saying that she looked I had beat her. She was going to have a very impressive black eye, but at this point it was just a bit swollen, and she had the two aforementioned scrape marks. I would have felt shortchanged if we had not walked the bridge across the gorge, so we headed that direction to walk across.
Margo had said we walked across on one of our other trips, and she is almost certainly right. But, I have no memory of it. I supposed when I finally dig out the pictures and other reminders, when I go to write those mid 1980’s travelogues, I will say we did, but right now, it is Margo’s memory and not mine. But, we definitely did this time. We walked all the way across, about a quarter mile, and then I told Margo she could walk to the middle of the bridge and I would walk to Sublime Point and take her picture.
I think this ended up being a mistake. The walk for me was up a steep grade. It was all paved, but by the evening the joint that connect my right big toe to my foot was painful and a bit swollen. It is very noticeable when I am barefoot. The view was great. I got a very nice picture of the bridge and gorge. My pictures of Margo were less so. I had the camera up to 40 times zoom (all optical) and she was still just a person in a purple shirt. She did see me wave, and waved back. Quite an accomplishment at over a quarter mile away, with several other people on the observation platform.
Margo was in no mood to hang around and check out other minor, museum-type, points of interest. It was hot, she was in pain, and we had a three hour drive ahead of us. So we hit the gift shop, always at least an interesting distraction, if usually a bit expensive. I did get a Royal Gorge walking stick medallion. I earned it, even though I was feeling fine at that point. |
It was about 12:30 when we left the park, with the Reserve Hotel and Casino, the only hotel/casino we have not stayed at in the Black Hawk/Central City area. In retrospect, maybe we should have gone to Cripple Creek, the other town in which gambling was voted in back in 1991. We have been there once, and the casinos were much smaller, but there were more other things to do. The trouble was we pretty much did them we went a few years back. Still they had some historic hotels that may have been interesting to stay at. Or we could have stayed at the Hotel St. Nicolas again, an old hospital, among other things. But, that is another blog.
At the Royal Gorge we had not eaten, and our breakfast had worn off We drove along Highway 9 to Fairplay and stopped there for a late lunch, early dinner... We were going to eat at the Brown Bear Café, a place that sounded familiar when it came up on Google, but they closed at 2 PM, ten minutes after we had arrived.
We settled on the bar/restaurant inside the Fairplay-Valiton Hotel, which was established in 1873 per the sign on the side of the building. Assuming that this was the original building, and I have little reason to doubt it, it must have been a grand sight 140 years ago. Fairplay is in South Park, a very large, relatively flat valley in Rocky Mountains, southwest of Denver. It is also the setting for fictional town of South Park in the cartoon series. Margo and I are going to have to go back and spend a day wandering the shops and learning a bit about the history.
Anyway, lunch was nice. The bar was dark, but the lady running it was nice and took care of us. As we were leaving she asked which direction we were heading, as there had been a head on accident, which closed the highway heading towards Buena Vista. Lucky of us, we were heading the other way. I never did hear the specifics for sure, but someone said it was a head-on collision as a result of someone trying to pass on Highway 285.
We pulled in the Reserve at about 5 PM. It had taken longer than I had anticipated, but it nearly always does when we drive. We were not on a tight schedule. We had only gambling planned, and the casinos would have their crack at my cash soon enough.
Margo is always deferential to me when we go gambling. She knows it is not my idea of fun. I never feel like I get value for the money I lose, and if you won most of the time the casinos would be broke. So, after a couple of hours of donating cash to Colorado’s version of Las Vegas, we spied a sign advertising Lasagna for dinner. You don’t have tons of choices with respect to fare. If you pay $25 per head, you can to a buffet and find Chinese and Italian food. You can find pizza. You can still find a cheap steak dinner. All of which we have done time and time again. Until the lasagna sign I was thinking prime rib, but it had been forever since I had lasagna, even at home. Margo saw it and asked if I wanted to go there. I did.
The building had been in place for well over a hundred years and I think Margo and I had walked past this place many times without knowing they served food. It looked like it was trying to be sports bar, but not trying very hard. They had the requisite TVs tuned to the Rockies and Bronco’s preseason, and they had a couple of pool tables in back. But, the place was bright and had two large chandeliers much more appropriate in a large hotel, rather than the dining area of the smallish room.
The food came, and I was underwhelmed. It had not been a good day. Margo got hurt. We cut short our Royal Gorge day. The casinos were taking my money like they were divorce lawyers, and now dinner was Ehhh. Margo was having a better time. She had hit three good machines in that first half hour we had been there. They totaled $193 when she cashed out. I imagine she had $60 in the tickets, so those three paid off. The tickets I had been cashing in would not buy me a drink out of a pop machine.
The rest of the evening went a little better, I basically broke even for the rest of the night, and Margo was tired enough to call it a day around midnight. We went back to the Reserve and went to bed.
At the Royal Gorge we had not eaten, and our breakfast had worn off We drove along Highway 9 to Fairplay and stopped there for a late lunch, early dinner... We were going to eat at the Brown Bear Café, a place that sounded familiar when it came up on Google, but they closed at 2 PM, ten minutes after we had arrived.
We settled on the bar/restaurant inside the Fairplay-Valiton Hotel, which was established in 1873 per the sign on the side of the building. Assuming that this was the original building, and I have little reason to doubt it, it must have been a grand sight 140 years ago. Fairplay is in South Park, a very large, relatively flat valley in Rocky Mountains, southwest of Denver. It is also the setting for fictional town of South Park in the cartoon series. Margo and I are going to have to go back and spend a day wandering the shops and learning a bit about the history.
Anyway, lunch was nice. The bar was dark, but the lady running it was nice and took care of us. As we were leaving she asked which direction we were heading, as there had been a head on accident, which closed the highway heading towards Buena Vista. Lucky of us, we were heading the other way. I never did hear the specifics for sure, but someone said it was a head-on collision as a result of someone trying to pass on Highway 285.
We pulled in the Reserve at about 5 PM. It had taken longer than I had anticipated, but it nearly always does when we drive. We were not on a tight schedule. We had only gambling planned, and the casinos would have their crack at my cash soon enough.
Margo is always deferential to me when we go gambling. She knows it is not my idea of fun. I never feel like I get value for the money I lose, and if you won most of the time the casinos would be broke. So, after a couple of hours of donating cash to Colorado’s version of Las Vegas, we spied a sign advertising Lasagna for dinner. You don’t have tons of choices with respect to fare. If you pay $25 per head, you can to a buffet and find Chinese and Italian food. You can find pizza. You can still find a cheap steak dinner. All of which we have done time and time again. Until the lasagna sign I was thinking prime rib, but it had been forever since I had lasagna, even at home. Margo saw it and asked if I wanted to go there. I did.
The building had been in place for well over a hundred years and I think Margo and I had walked past this place many times without knowing they served food. It looked like it was trying to be sports bar, but not trying very hard. They had the requisite TVs tuned to the Rockies and Bronco’s preseason, and they had a couple of pool tables in back. But, the place was bright and had two large chandeliers much more appropriate in a large hotel, rather than the dining area of the smallish room.
The food came, and I was underwhelmed. It had not been a good day. Margo got hurt. We cut short our Royal Gorge day. The casinos were taking my money like they were divorce lawyers, and now dinner was Ehhh. Margo was having a better time. She had hit three good machines in that first half hour we had been there. They totaled $193 when she cashed out. I imagine she had $60 in the tickets, so those three paid off. The tickets I had been cashing in would not buy me a drink out of a pop machine.
The rest of the evening went a little better, I basically broke even for the rest of the night, and Margo was tired enough to call it a day around midnight. We went back to the Reserve and went to bed.
Day Four—Sunday, August 20, 2017
Sunday morning came around 9 AM for me. I woke up tired and annoyed. From around 12:30 until 3 hours later I lay in bed, intermittently awake by our rude neighbors in the room next door. Their appeared to be two couples who were there to party and not gamble. When we checked in we could hear them laughing and talking loud. It appeared that nothing had changed by the time we got back. I was shaken asleep by a verbal argument, which appeared to result in some or all of them storming out. I thought that was the end of it. But apparently one male and one female had made up and decided to express their affections for one another in loud and animalistic exclamations. His vociferations boarded on theatric and comedic at that. But, thankfully, that was pretty much it for the night. They still were up and about, and not at all quiet, but fatigue had rendered me incapable of consciousness any longer. Margo who often sleeps in her chair in from of the TV, snored through it all.
In addition to being tired and annoyed, I was in pain. During the night the joint that attaches the big toe to the rest of by foot had begun to hurt. I noticed it when I would roll over and changed the position of my legs. When I finally got out of bed it hurt to put weight on it. I was sure all of that uphill hiking had strained something. It felt better once I got my shoes on, so I resolved to take ibuprofen and let my body heal up.
Margo had been up earlier and had already, showered, dressed, and hit the slots before I was up. I was about finished with my own morning routine when she came back. We decided on Dunkin Doughnuts, at the Mardi Gras Casino for breakfast. I hate that establishment. I like the food and service fine, but the damn thing closes every day at 5 PM. So, I guess if you can’t get there during the day no doughnut for you. It always makes me mad. It never fails that it gets to be deep into the night and a doughnut sounds like the right thing to ruin my diet, and they are closed.
Breakfast accomplished, Margo wanted to try her luck some more. This was as certain an occurrence as the eclipse I was looking forward to tomorrow. So, as this was her portion of the vacation, I wandered around and fed the machines. My luck was even worse than normal. I usually will find at least one winning machine our four or five. Winning being described as not losing all that I intended. (Now you know why I am not so fond of this type of entertainment). But, the first six machines I played would generate spin after spin of nothing or tiny wins. I grew frustrated. When I eventually found Margo again and she asked what was wrong. I told her I was sick of losing. Although not happy about it, she suggested we go home. I didn’t argue.
We got home an hour later and to our exhausted credit, neither of us sank into a chair and watched TV. We both started unloading the car and I started a load of cloths. We began cleaning out the cooler and unpacking the suitcases. I guess we both knew that time was short and that we had another long road trip in the morning. Thirty minutes later, only the laundry was left completely unfinished.
Tomorrow we would be up very early and on the road shortly thereafter. Neither of us had slept with much duration or quality the last couple of nights. Between being in unfamiliar, and sometimes rushed surroundings, and the interruptions of the previous night, I was wiped out all of Sunday. My goal was to get ready for Monday and go to bed. As I was planning to arise at 3 AM, 9 PM was the latest I was planning to be up.
No long after we got home, Jolene, Randy, and kids came over. Randy needed to drop off some things he did not want laying around the house, while they were gone for a week. They would come back later and bring Hazel. So we visited with them for a bit. They were leaving at 11 AM Monday, and were staying on Maui, again. But, they were staying at a place farther inland. They were still only about 7 minutes walking from the beach. Their plan was to spend the next five days relaxing in the Pacific sun, and trying not to talk themselves into moving their permanently.
After they had gone we made a trip to King Soopers to pick up fried chicken from the deli, and to get a few additional supplies for tomorrow. We were planning to be as self-sufficient as possible, down to having our own toilet paper. We were planning to watch the eclipse at a public park that did have bathrooms, and a place to get water. Food was also supposed to be nearby, but we were planning to be able to rely on only having an appropriate place to go to the bathroom.
Jolene and Randy dropped Hazel off around 5 PM or so. They hung around for a little while and Randy and I talked a little politics after I let Hazel out in the back She loves my backyard. Right now Jolene and Randy have a tiny back yard, and the one they had in Fort Lupton, Jolene would only let the dog go potty in the rocks. I don’t care, so the first thing she does is run around and then find a place to poop. Then she will run some more and roll in the grass. It’s just a pleasure to watch her act like a little kid turned loose.
With the trip to the store done, and our evening meal consumed, we began packing up the car, so a quick departure could be had Monday morning. Up until this past Thursday, I had been planning to go to Mitchell, Nebraska. But weather reports the whole week had been getting worse. On Thursday, when the report for Mitchell said mostly cloudy, I fell back to Plan “B”, Lingle, WY, a town east of Torrington, in the middle of nowhere, population around 800.
Anyway, that change in plan required me to print out new maps, so if traffic issues arose, I could drive around them. I needed to also map out and program the GPS on a back way home, avoiding, I-25, I-80, I-76 and Highway 85 as much as possible. By the time I was done with all of that, plus a little work on this blog, it was 8:30 PM. It felt much later. I got ready for bed, ate a snack that I shouldn’t have, but calories don’t count when you are vacation. I read that on the internet, so it must be true, and I went to bed. Tomorrow would be the eclipse.
In addition to being tired and annoyed, I was in pain. During the night the joint that attaches the big toe to the rest of by foot had begun to hurt. I noticed it when I would roll over and changed the position of my legs. When I finally got out of bed it hurt to put weight on it. I was sure all of that uphill hiking had strained something. It felt better once I got my shoes on, so I resolved to take ibuprofen and let my body heal up.
Margo had been up earlier and had already, showered, dressed, and hit the slots before I was up. I was about finished with my own morning routine when she came back. We decided on Dunkin Doughnuts, at the Mardi Gras Casino for breakfast. I hate that establishment. I like the food and service fine, but the damn thing closes every day at 5 PM. So, I guess if you can’t get there during the day no doughnut for you. It always makes me mad. It never fails that it gets to be deep into the night and a doughnut sounds like the right thing to ruin my diet, and they are closed.
Breakfast accomplished, Margo wanted to try her luck some more. This was as certain an occurrence as the eclipse I was looking forward to tomorrow. So, as this was her portion of the vacation, I wandered around and fed the machines. My luck was even worse than normal. I usually will find at least one winning machine our four or five. Winning being described as not losing all that I intended. (Now you know why I am not so fond of this type of entertainment). But, the first six machines I played would generate spin after spin of nothing or tiny wins. I grew frustrated. When I eventually found Margo again and she asked what was wrong. I told her I was sick of losing. Although not happy about it, she suggested we go home. I didn’t argue.
We got home an hour later and to our exhausted credit, neither of us sank into a chair and watched TV. We both started unloading the car and I started a load of cloths. We began cleaning out the cooler and unpacking the suitcases. I guess we both knew that time was short and that we had another long road trip in the morning. Thirty minutes later, only the laundry was left completely unfinished.
Tomorrow we would be up very early and on the road shortly thereafter. Neither of us had slept with much duration or quality the last couple of nights. Between being in unfamiliar, and sometimes rushed surroundings, and the interruptions of the previous night, I was wiped out all of Sunday. My goal was to get ready for Monday and go to bed. As I was planning to arise at 3 AM, 9 PM was the latest I was planning to be up.
No long after we got home, Jolene, Randy, and kids came over. Randy needed to drop off some things he did not want laying around the house, while they were gone for a week. They would come back later and bring Hazel. So we visited with them for a bit. They were leaving at 11 AM Monday, and were staying on Maui, again. But, they were staying at a place farther inland. They were still only about 7 minutes walking from the beach. Their plan was to spend the next five days relaxing in the Pacific sun, and trying not to talk themselves into moving their permanently.
After they had gone we made a trip to King Soopers to pick up fried chicken from the deli, and to get a few additional supplies for tomorrow. We were planning to be as self-sufficient as possible, down to having our own toilet paper. We were planning to watch the eclipse at a public park that did have bathrooms, and a place to get water. Food was also supposed to be nearby, but we were planning to be able to rely on only having an appropriate place to go to the bathroom.
Jolene and Randy dropped Hazel off around 5 PM or so. They hung around for a little while and Randy and I talked a little politics after I let Hazel out in the back She loves my backyard. Right now Jolene and Randy have a tiny back yard, and the one they had in Fort Lupton, Jolene would only let the dog go potty in the rocks. I don’t care, so the first thing she does is run around and then find a place to poop. Then she will run some more and roll in the grass. It’s just a pleasure to watch her act like a little kid turned loose.
With the trip to the store done, and our evening meal consumed, we began packing up the car, so a quick departure could be had Monday morning. Up until this past Thursday, I had been planning to go to Mitchell, Nebraska. But weather reports the whole week had been getting worse. On Thursday, when the report for Mitchell said mostly cloudy, I fell back to Plan “B”, Lingle, WY, a town east of Torrington, in the middle of nowhere, population around 800.
Anyway, that change in plan required me to print out new maps, so if traffic issues arose, I could drive around them. I needed to also map out and program the GPS on a back way home, avoiding, I-25, I-80, I-76 and Highway 85 as much as possible. By the time I was done with all of that, plus a little work on this blog, it was 8:30 PM. It felt much later. I got ready for bed, ate a snack that I shouldn’t have, but calories don’t count when you are vacation. I read that on the internet, so it must be true, and I went to bed. Tomorrow would be the eclipse.
Day Five—Monday, August 21, 2017
I set my alarm for 3 AM, but was up ten minutes earlier. I have never been so excited to be up at 3 AM in my life. What is wrong with me? I took care of morning routine and Margo was right behind me. I got Hazel fed and watered. By the time I turned around her food was gone. She is funny with her food. She will refuse to eat unless someone is home with her. We would feed her, and then walk out to the door to run an errand and come back to find her food untouched. But, then once we got home, she would greet us and then go over to her dish and start munching. Margo was right behind me again, going to feed her and I had to warn her off.
I had planned to be on the road at 4 AM, and we left at 3:50 AM. Early morning departures never go off on schedule. It is just too hard to get going, so I was very happy. We got about half a mile away and Margo remembered her flip-flops, so we turned around. We ended up leaving again at 3:57 AM. Like George Peppard (John “Hannibal” Smith) of the A-team used to say. “I love it when a plan comes together”
I was torn between which route to get to Lingle, WY. I could take the quick route, I-25 to Cheyenne, and the US-85 most of the rest of the way. Or try out the backroad way I was planning to get us home. My goal was to avoid the traffic which I knew was coming. Even leaving this early, I figured by Cheyenne, at least, we would run into traffic jams on I-25.
On the other hand, the backroads were all unlit, mostly unpopulated and definitely unfamiliar. Driving those in the dark was a little intimidating. Margo and I compromised by taking US 85 right out of Brighton. That would be a road less traveled, but it would still hit various cities along the way. At least until we were north of Cheyenne. But, it would be light by then, and the monsters would all be safely back in the closet for their daily naps.
Our one hiccup started about 15 miles south of Ault about 45 minutes into our trip. Apparently US85 was undergoing a facelift and traffic was routed into two lanes instead of four. As almost all of the traffic was going north, we trudged along at a pedestrian 40 miles an hour for the next 15 miles, until the road returned to normal. That was the first of two traffic slowdowns.
I had planned to be on the road at 4 AM, and we left at 3:50 AM. Early morning departures never go off on schedule. It is just too hard to get going, so I was very happy. We got about half a mile away and Margo remembered her flip-flops, so we turned around. We ended up leaving again at 3:57 AM. Like George Peppard (John “Hannibal” Smith) of the A-team used to say. “I love it when a plan comes together”
I was torn between which route to get to Lingle, WY. I could take the quick route, I-25 to Cheyenne, and the US-85 most of the rest of the way. Or try out the backroad way I was planning to get us home. My goal was to avoid the traffic which I knew was coming. Even leaving this early, I figured by Cheyenne, at least, we would run into traffic jams on I-25.
On the other hand, the backroads were all unlit, mostly unpopulated and definitely unfamiliar. Driving those in the dark was a little intimidating. Margo and I compromised by taking US 85 right out of Brighton. That would be a road less traveled, but it would still hit various cities along the way. At least until we were north of Cheyenne. But, it would be light by then, and the monsters would all be safely back in the closet for their daily naps.
Our one hiccup started about 15 miles south of Ault about 45 minutes into our trip. Apparently US85 was undergoing a facelift and traffic was routed into two lanes instead of four. As almost all of the traffic was going north, we trudged along at a pedestrian 40 miles an hour for the next 15 miles, until the road returned to normal. That was the first of two traffic slowdowns.
The second was in Cheyenne. Traffic was a near standstill for about a mile, as all of the major highways kind of funneled into one area. It was about 5:30 AM by now and the sun was trying to come up. Traffic looked like Denver at 7 AM, which could not be normal for a town a quarter the size of the Denver metro area. We got through it and we were soon doing 65 mph again.
We had not stopped for a break at all yet. But, we skipped stopping at Cheyenne and continued on US 85 to Torrington. We passed a service station a bit later, and I started thinking we should stop now that we were out of traffic. Then we saw a sign that said “Last Services for 74 miles”. Yeah. So much for soon.
We stopped at Torrington, thinking maybe we should skip Plan A and go to Plan B, which was looking for a place to set up shop. I was starting to get cold feet as I saw how many people were already in the small town of Torrington. At 7 AM it should have been a ghost town, with only a few farmers or ranchers stirring. There were people milling about and invading the one café/bakery that was nearby. We, too, joined the hoard hoping for a fresh doughnut and maybe some gossip about what was going on locally. They were sold out of nearly everything and I head one lady say they had pay sites being set up out of town the direction we were going. Margo agreed that rather than look for food we should set up camp first.
We left Torrington pointed in the direction of both these pay camp sites and Lingle, WY. There were several, but we noticed the signs too late on all but one, and the one we did see in time, looked to lead us on a dirt road, around a hill to an unknown location, with unknown accommodations and services. We both decided to skip it.
By now we were about 9 miles from Lingle, so it was back to Plan A. The GPS took us the Whipple Park, which came up on us quickly, as it bordered their downtown area and seemed out of place, at first. It was near 7:30 AM, and there were a dozen or so campers on the lawn already. We parked, grabbed our sun shade, and we walked into the park to stake our claim. The sun was about 10 degrees above the horizon, and as totality would happen at 11:47 AM, I knew that the trees that were 50 yards in the distance, currently blocking the sun, would pose no problems with the eclipse, if we set up right off the walkway that bisected this section of the park, and was 30 yards from the bathrooms. It looked perfect, so we grabbed it.
We had not stopped for a break at all yet. But, we skipped stopping at Cheyenne and continued on US 85 to Torrington. We passed a service station a bit later, and I started thinking we should stop now that we were out of traffic. Then we saw a sign that said “Last Services for 74 miles”. Yeah. So much for soon.
We stopped at Torrington, thinking maybe we should skip Plan A and go to Plan B, which was looking for a place to set up shop. I was starting to get cold feet as I saw how many people were already in the small town of Torrington. At 7 AM it should have been a ghost town, with only a few farmers or ranchers stirring. There were people milling about and invading the one café/bakery that was nearby. We, too, joined the hoard hoping for a fresh doughnut and maybe some gossip about what was going on locally. They were sold out of nearly everything and I head one lady say they had pay sites being set up out of town the direction we were going. Margo agreed that rather than look for food we should set up camp first.
We left Torrington pointed in the direction of both these pay camp sites and Lingle, WY. There were several, but we noticed the signs too late on all but one, and the one we did see in time, looked to lead us on a dirt road, around a hill to an unknown location, with unknown accommodations and services. We both decided to skip it.
By now we were about 9 miles from Lingle, so it was back to Plan A. The GPS took us the Whipple Park, which came up on us quickly, as it bordered their downtown area and seemed out of place, at first. It was near 7:30 AM, and there were a dozen or so campers on the lawn already. We parked, grabbed our sun shade, and we walked into the park to stake our claim. The sun was about 10 degrees above the horizon, and as totality would happen at 11:47 AM, I knew that the trees that were 50 yards in the distance, currently blocking the sun, would pose no problems with the eclipse, if we set up right off the walkway that bisected this section of the park, and was 30 yards from the bathrooms. It looked perfect, so we grabbed it.
I left Margo to begin set up and I walked back to the car to begin bringing in the supplies. She had set this thing up solo several times, where as I had not done it all. And I made a much better pack mule than she did, so we had the right people assigned to the right jobs. We were completely set up in less than 30 minutes and we sat down in our chairs to relax, by 8 AM. The skies looked cloudless and we were in the path of totality, with a very nice base camp. Right on schedule and according to script.
With the moon’s gnawing of the son not scheduled to commence until 10:23 AM and totality not until 11:47 AM, we had some time to kill. I saw a vendor tent set up at the front of the park, so I asked Margo if she wanted to check it out. I wouldn’t mind a souvenir from this historic event, and Margo loves to shop. She went over while I people watched.
There was a family behind us that arrived at least half an hour before we did. It looked like a set of parents with three or four very pretty high school and college age sisters, plus two guys that were either boyfriends, spouses, or siblings. It was hard to discern the family dynamics. They appeared to have been from the Fort Collins area judging by the snippets of conversation, plus their t-shirts. They looked to be having a blast taking photos, playing Frisbee, and generally cutting up, while not getting to the point of being obnoxious or disrespectful.
There was an elderly man that brought his pug along. The dog would bark in a very territorial manner every time another dog or per person would go by. Margo eventually offered to dog sit, when the gentleman, Aaron, decided to go take some pictures. The dog, Abby, was content to have Margo as her temporary mommy and sat with her.
A lady with her 8 year old looking daughter walked by our set up, which consisted of a sun shade, two chairs, cooler, two umbrellas, radio, and food, and asked if I thought the trees in front of would pose a problem. I explained the reasoning of why of I was sure they would not be, she seemed mostly satisfied with my answer, but set up behind us, instead of beside us, which was not taken.
All in all, it was a happy crowd, with no loud music, no loud or obnoxious people, and a spirt of harmony and cooperation. There were a couple of hard core astronomers with expensive looking telescopes, tripods, and camera set ups. They were happy to let people look and explain what they knew. Later another pair of college students brought out a pair of spotting scopes, and focused the sun onto the ground revealing the partial eclipse in the form of a crescent shadow on the ground. It was really cool, and they let other viewers try their luck at making the pinhole camera effect happen on the ground.
I had decided to wander around the small park and take a few pictures to show where we were and our little campsite. It did not take very long, but it was a nice little park. It had a swimming pool, with a concession stand and bathrooms, another set of bathrooms, and a small band shell. There was a horseshoe pit, and a sand volleyball court. The park was patrolled, a couple of times by a local policeman, who was happy and welcoming.
With the moon’s gnawing of the son not scheduled to commence until 10:23 AM and totality not until 11:47 AM, we had some time to kill. I saw a vendor tent set up at the front of the park, so I asked Margo if she wanted to check it out. I wouldn’t mind a souvenir from this historic event, and Margo loves to shop. She went over while I people watched.
There was a family behind us that arrived at least half an hour before we did. It looked like a set of parents with three or four very pretty high school and college age sisters, plus two guys that were either boyfriends, spouses, or siblings. It was hard to discern the family dynamics. They appeared to have been from the Fort Collins area judging by the snippets of conversation, plus their t-shirts. They looked to be having a blast taking photos, playing Frisbee, and generally cutting up, while not getting to the point of being obnoxious or disrespectful.
There was an elderly man that brought his pug along. The dog would bark in a very territorial manner every time another dog or per person would go by. Margo eventually offered to dog sit, when the gentleman, Aaron, decided to go take some pictures. The dog, Abby, was content to have Margo as her temporary mommy and sat with her.
A lady with her 8 year old looking daughter walked by our set up, which consisted of a sun shade, two chairs, cooler, two umbrellas, radio, and food, and asked if I thought the trees in front of would pose a problem. I explained the reasoning of why of I was sure they would not be, she seemed mostly satisfied with my answer, but set up behind us, instead of beside us, which was not taken.
All in all, it was a happy crowd, with no loud music, no loud or obnoxious people, and a spirt of harmony and cooperation. There were a couple of hard core astronomers with expensive looking telescopes, tripods, and camera set ups. They were happy to let people look and explain what they knew. Later another pair of college students brought out a pair of spotting scopes, and focused the sun onto the ground revealing the partial eclipse in the form of a crescent shadow on the ground. It was really cool, and they let other viewers try their luck at making the pinhole camera effect happen on the ground.
I had decided to wander around the small park and take a few pictures to show where we were and our little campsite. It did not take very long, but it was a nice little park. It had a swimming pool, with a concession stand and bathrooms, another set of bathrooms, and a small band shell. There was a horseshoe pit, and a sand volleyball court. The park was patrolled, a couple of times by a local policeman, who was happy and welcoming.
10:23 arrived and a few minutes later I donned my glasses and go my first look at the son. The moon had taken a tiny bite out of the upper right section. I had made a trip back to car to get my tripod. I had made up my mind not to try to get pictures of the various phases, but I had hoped that if I set the camera to its night-time setting, I could the total eclipse, and maybe the diamond ring, which happens right before. So I set that up and kept the lens covered to prevent possible damage.
Through the next hour and 15 minutes I would intermittently look up to monitor progress. Margo made us sandwiches around 11 AM and we had an early lunch. The son was about half gone, but the loss of light was barely noticeable. It kind of felt like a large cloud was just about to pass over. That period when the light decreases just a bit, before the full part of the cloud in engaged.
When it got to about 11:35, or 11:40, the loss of light was noticeable. The sun was about 90% gone, and I was thinking this is what home was going to look like when totality hit. It was going to be just dark enough to make people think that they were missing something, or wondering what the real fuss was. They would be thinking, “So big deal, it got a little dark”
The last minute of the eclipse was marked by someone behind us giving the small group of a people a play by play, with comments like “Not yet, not yet” or “almost, almost”. I think it for the benefit of the kids, so they would know when to take off their glasses and few the totality in its unfiltered glory.
Through the next hour and 15 minutes I would intermittently look up to monitor progress. Margo made us sandwiches around 11 AM and we had an early lunch. The son was about half gone, but the loss of light was barely noticeable. It kind of felt like a large cloud was just about to pass over. That period when the light decreases just a bit, before the full part of the cloud in engaged.
When it got to about 11:35, or 11:40, the loss of light was noticeable. The sun was about 90% gone, and I was thinking this is what home was going to look like when totality hit. It was going to be just dark enough to make people think that they were missing something, or wondering what the real fuss was. They would be thinking, “So big deal, it got a little dark”
The last minute of the eclipse was marked by someone behind us giving the small group of a people a play by play, with comments like “Not yet, not yet” or “almost, almost”. I think it for the benefit of the kids, so they would know when to take off their glasses and few the totality in its unfiltered glory.
I don’t think it was necessary, but it did add a sense of drama. As the sun winked out, I started pressing the shutter button on my camera, not really caring what it was seeing. I wanted to make sure that I saw it, and not as concerned about documenting the event.
The street lights came on moments after the sun was blotted out. When you looked around there was a 360 degree sunset effect as the clouds on all visible horizons were a reddish tin. Some shouted that a nighthawk was flying by. I looked up in time to see the silhouette of a large bird. I thought it more resembled a gull, but I only got a quick glance.
My attention turned to my camera and it looked like my image was pretty small, so I zoomed in. I was centered close enough that the result was dramatic. I instantly had a much larger view, and I was able to take about six very good pictures of totality, with a corona around them. Then once the moon had had its way with the sun, and the latter began to peek out, I got a couple more pictures, and got a couple of decent shots of the diamond ring. I was very happy.
At totality, it did not get completely dark. It was like mid dusk, there was light enough to see, but not light enough to say play catch or Frisbee. But, you be able to walk around without walking into a pole. Venus came out and you could see it, and maybe one or two other stars. I heard someone say that one of those was Jupiter, but my astronomy knowledge was limited, as was my attention, which was focus on the two major celestial bodies of the day.
As soon as totality was achieved the park cheered and applauded the performance. Then it was mostly silent as people observed and then started announcing their discoveries or commenting on the majesty of the event. It lasted for about two minutes, which seemed both long and short at the same time. It gave you enough to truly appreciate the uniqueness of the event, but short enough to definitely leave you wanting more.
Then it was over, and day time seemed to return much quicker that it had left us. I expected to be the dark and not be able to strike the camp, but really it was light enough the instant totality ended to begin taking things down. US 85 was about 100 yards from where we were at, and it seemed like a line of cars appeared almost instantly. By the time I made my first trip to the car, I glanced up the road and saw that there was already a line formed as far as the eye could see. I was amazed both that there were that many people here in the middle of nowhere, and that they were already on the move.
Margo and I joined the exodus about 20 minutes later. The line of cars were filled with courteous people, and drivers were routinely letting people in, actually cheerfully waving them to go. It was like the world, at least for a few minutes had been united.
I had planned for a five hour drive back, as I fully expected a crowd of biblical proportions. The early returns seemed to confirm my suspicions. But, less than a mile into my trip, we turned off onto a small, but paved road, and had it nearly to ourselves. We ended up rejoining US 85 about 40 minutes into our trip. I should have mapped out a better route. I knew I would be traveling 85 for a portion. For the next 40 miles we crawled, it was miserable, creeping along at 5 miles per hour, getting up to 40 and then having to stop. But we were finally able to turn off and were soon making good time again.
We arrived home at about 5:30 PM. That was half an hour before I expected, and we stopped twice for bathroom break and dinner. There were many stories on the radio about 1-25 being jammed all the way back to Casper, and I was very glad for the decisions I had made. I considered this trip to be a complete success. I think we have decided that our next trip will definitely be to Idaho and Montana. Looking forward to it already.
The street lights came on moments after the sun was blotted out. When you looked around there was a 360 degree sunset effect as the clouds on all visible horizons were a reddish tin. Some shouted that a nighthawk was flying by. I looked up in time to see the silhouette of a large bird. I thought it more resembled a gull, but I only got a quick glance.
My attention turned to my camera and it looked like my image was pretty small, so I zoomed in. I was centered close enough that the result was dramatic. I instantly had a much larger view, and I was able to take about six very good pictures of totality, with a corona around them. Then once the moon had had its way with the sun, and the latter began to peek out, I got a couple more pictures, and got a couple of decent shots of the diamond ring. I was very happy.
At totality, it did not get completely dark. It was like mid dusk, there was light enough to see, but not light enough to say play catch or Frisbee. But, you be able to walk around without walking into a pole. Venus came out and you could see it, and maybe one or two other stars. I heard someone say that one of those was Jupiter, but my astronomy knowledge was limited, as was my attention, which was focus on the two major celestial bodies of the day.
As soon as totality was achieved the park cheered and applauded the performance. Then it was mostly silent as people observed and then started announcing their discoveries or commenting on the majesty of the event. It lasted for about two minutes, which seemed both long and short at the same time. It gave you enough to truly appreciate the uniqueness of the event, but short enough to definitely leave you wanting more.
Then it was over, and day time seemed to return much quicker that it had left us. I expected to be the dark and not be able to strike the camp, but really it was light enough the instant totality ended to begin taking things down. US 85 was about 100 yards from where we were at, and it seemed like a line of cars appeared almost instantly. By the time I made my first trip to the car, I glanced up the road and saw that there was already a line formed as far as the eye could see. I was amazed both that there were that many people here in the middle of nowhere, and that they were already on the move.
Margo and I joined the exodus about 20 minutes later. The line of cars were filled with courteous people, and drivers were routinely letting people in, actually cheerfully waving them to go. It was like the world, at least for a few minutes had been united.
I had planned for a five hour drive back, as I fully expected a crowd of biblical proportions. The early returns seemed to confirm my suspicions. But, less than a mile into my trip, we turned off onto a small, but paved road, and had it nearly to ourselves. We ended up rejoining US 85 about 40 minutes into our trip. I should have mapped out a better route. I knew I would be traveling 85 for a portion. For the next 40 miles we crawled, it was miserable, creeping along at 5 miles per hour, getting up to 40 and then having to stop. But we were finally able to turn off and were soon making good time again.
We arrived home at about 5:30 PM. That was half an hour before I expected, and we stopped twice for bathroom break and dinner. There were many stories on the radio about 1-25 being jammed all the way back to Casper, and I was very glad for the decisions I had made. I considered this trip to be a complete success. I think we have decided that our next trip will definitely be to Idaho and Montana. Looking forward to it already.