Livin' Large!

We started the day by driving to the beautiful River Walk in Pueblo, Colorado. Where we decided we could still make it to Pike's Peak and take advantage of the good weather. There are a couple of choices to get to the summit. You can drive the dusty, dangerous, mostly paved road, or take a cog train. We checked out the railway and decided this was the safe and smarter way to the top without damaging the bike. It takes an hour to get to the top. You have an hour there to shop, take pictures and freeze your ass off, then another hour to descend. The scenery is breathtaking but so is the altitude. I doubt I could do anything more strenuous than take pictures and walk around a bit. Theresa fared worse, posing exhausted her. We were not the only ones affected by the altitude, the cashier at the souvenir stand wore and EMS shirt and had a stethoscope around his neck. I asked if he used it often; he said yes. To make us feel even more wimpy a hiker, Dr. Thomas Jagger, strode onto the train looking like like he could race it to the bottom and win! He had just walked up the mountain in about 5 1/2 hours, and wasn't even breathing hard! He had a really cool gizmo in his backpack, a pulse ox sensor that clipped onto your finger like an electronic clothespin on steroids. We all had fun documenting what horrible shape we were in. At 13,000 feet Theresa scored a 78 vs. Tom's 92. To be fair, we live at 13 feet above sea level in Naples, Tom lives at about 6,500 feet, so I figure Theresa spotted him 6,487 feet.

We are here one week too early for the Pike's Peak Hill Climb. See http://www.ppihc.com/ for details of an automotive event that is just scary to believe. Imagine snaking up to the 14,010 foot summit in 10 minutes and 1 second in a purpose built race car. No guardrails! Maybe we will have to hang around a few extra days to see this craziness.

At the top and on the way down we experienced a weather phenomena called virga. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virga for a better explanation, but the short story is that rain can fall and re-evaporate before it hits the ground. We saw what looked like a cloudburst but it dissapeared a few thousand feet below us. Cool. To finish on Pikes Peak weather, it averages 30 degrees cooler at the top of the cog rail than the bottom, but we came from Pueblo today with 103 on the thermometer on Interstate 25, to what felt like 40 degrees at the summit. Now that's what I call a chilling contrast.

On the way down the mountain we talked to a passenger who booked a 3.5 star room for $52 using http://www.hotwire.com/ . When we got back into town I fired up the notebook on a sidewalk bench and checked for myself. We have been paying about $52 for Motel 6, to $89 for Super 8. Her suggestion was worth investigating. Hotwire offered a 4 star resort for $67! There are strings attached with Hotwire, for instance you don't know the name of the hotel until you accept, but gambler that I am, I pushed the button and was directed to the beautiful 4 star Cheyenne Mountain Resort. Motel 6 it ain't!

This full featured resort backs up to Cheyenne Mountain of NORAD fame. From the bowels of this hollowed out giant rock, the Air Force could dictate which cities would disappear if the cold war ever became hot. They ran Space Command from there too. See http://www.ppihc.com/ for the Wikipedia data dump on it's history and future.

There were a couple of extra fees, like $12 tax and a $15 "resort fee" which got us amenities like golf, saunas, pools, indoor or outdoor tennis, Internet, (which I'm using now), and may other bennies. We had become so accustomed to living large that by dinnertime we splurged and ate in the big, on property, restaurant. We opted for the $18 salad, soup, and desert buffet. We figured, (Obama style), that we had already blown today's travel budget so badly, why stop there. I expect the pain in my wallet will ease when I settle into my pillow top mattress and enjoy the silence of no freight trains running outside my window. Total damage will still be under $150 for a very nice experience. I think I'm going to love Hotwire.

If you don't see an update for a couple of days we will be camping near Denver.