From Here to Colorado Springs - Third Day

On day three, we left Tulsa to drive to Colorado Springs.  It was a very long day but we gained another hour as we headed West so we arrived in time to have dinner with our son.  He had just finished a 12 hour work shift and we were tired too so we went for an early dinner and then back to our room for hubby and son to have a much needed drink.  I should have said earlier but we decided to stay in the same hotel that our son was staying in, a Holiday Inn.  It was a nice hotel with a lovely view of the Rocky Mountains Range.

The next morning, we met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  Our waitress was very friendly and as we chatted, she asked where we were from.  Turns out she was from Georgia as well!  Her husband is in the Army.  They previously lived in Augusta, GA where he was stationed and had just recently been transferred to Colorado Springs.  Small world!

I suffer from life long migraines.  I was nervous about visiting Colorado because of the altitude there.  When I turned 40, we took a family and friend trip to Breckenridge, CO.  We had never been to a state that had so much snow and had never been snow skiing.  We planned to ski, ice skate, snowmobile and take a night time horse drawn sled ride.  Colorado had a record breaking amount of snow that year, 1995, so everything was amazingly beautiful.  Unfortunately, I was quite ill with what I thought was migraines but was most likely high altitude sickness.  I struggled through the ice skating, skiing and snowmobile ride but when it came time for the one thing that I truly wanted to do, the horse drawn sled ride, I was too ill to go.

I had hoped that since we drove cross country slowly going up in altitude that I would not have the same issues with altitude but unfortunately I did!  I woke up both mornings we were in Colorado with a splitting headache and sinus issues.  This time I did have meds for migraine with me so that did help.  I mention this because it did interfere with my enjoyment of the trip and what I was able to do while there.  After we got back from our trip, a friend told me that there is now medication that you can take for high altitude sickness!

The first thing we decided to do for the day way to go to the Garden of the Gods Park in Manitou Springs.  Our son had been there before so he drove us there.  We drove up a not too high mountain that was very curvy on the Southwest edge of the park to a large gift shop where we purchased a few items.  They had a wonderful deck on the outside of the shop where you could view some of the beautiful valleys.

We drove back down and went into another section of the park where we had a lovely lunch outside of another gift shop.  After lunch, we drove through the park and viewed all of the lovely red rock formations including "Balanced Rock".  I read that the mountains there are red because they are made of sedimentary beds of deep red, pink and white sandstone conglomerates and limestone.

This is my husband with the big rock above his head!  The park apparently got its name in 1859.  You can read about it at the official park website at Garden of the Gods Park.

Next on the list was Pikes Peak.  Unfortunately for me, my head was killing me as we started to ascend the mountain so when we reached Crystal Creek Reservoir we stopped  at the store there to get something to drink.  The elevation at this point was 9,230 feet.  I decided at that point that it would be best if I didn't go up the rest of the way so I stayed at the lake and the guys drove on up.  Even though I would have liked to have seen the peak, I did have an enjoyable walk around the lake area (after taking more meds!).  The scenery was gorgeous and there were walking trails that had informational signs posted describing local plants and animals.  Oh, and that is where I spotted Sasquatch!

There was a cog railroad (the world's largest) that operates from Manitou Springs to the summit but after 126 years of operation, it is currently not running!  It is 19 miles of winding and potentially treacherous driving to reach the summit of 14,115 feet.  My husband and I are both afraid of heights so he was very nervous driving up the mountain.  Our son took a video of the top portion of the drive for me to "enjoy"!  It was in the upper 60's at the lake reservoir and 39 at the summit!

Pikes Peak is named after Zebulon Pike who led the first Americans on the Pike Expedition in 1806.  At that time he failed to climb to the top because of weather conditions.

We had dinner at an excellent seafood restaurant, Bonny and Reed, in historic downtown Colorado Springs.  We were seated by the window where we could people watch.  Just outside the window we could see the entrance to another restaurant called The Rabbit Hole.  As you can see by the picture, you open a door that leads down from the street into what looks like a subway entrance.  We were quite curious so after we ate, we went over to check it out.  It was a fun looking establishment with a bar and restaurant.  Lots of people took pictures at the front entrance!

The next day we decided to drive in a different direction and visit the Broadmoor Seven Falls.  It is a series of waterfalls at the end of a 1,250 foot box canyon.  We had cell phone coverage issues with our phones so using the map app was difficult.  After we got to the mountain and started up, we had a couple of false starts.  When we finally got to the spot, there was a sign posted that said buses only.  Not knowing what else to do, we started back down the mountain where we came upon the Broadmoor Hotel.  We decided to see if we could have lunch there but as we drove up it looked so amazingly posh and beautiful that we thought they would probably turn us away.  To our delight, not only did they not turn us away, they made us feel most wanted!  They complementary parked our bug invested (from the cross country drive) SUV and told us we had several choices of restaurants for lunch.  I hope that is you are ever in Colorado Springs that you can visit the Broadmoor Hotel!  It is a truly delightful place.  For one thing, it is huge!  A Forbes 5-Star and AAA Five-Diamond resort that is incredible.  It opened in 1918.  They were celebrating the 100 year anniversary.  They offer gold, a luxury pool and cabana, fine and casual dining, a spa, shops and galleries.  I made sure to visit their wonderful shop that was full of sweets - chocolates, pastries and gelato!

We chose to eat at the bar restaurant that had outdoor seating by a beautiful lake stocked with very large fish and beautiful white swans.  The day was gorgeous weather wise with low humidity and temperatures in the low 80's.  We had a leisurely lunch and then walked around the lake.  The landscaping was breathtaking!  I saw my first magpie there!  My husband and son know I love bird watching but they did not quite understand my excitement at seeing "another bird"!  My mother does though as she is a fellow bird watcher so I immediately sent her a picture of it!  Here it is for your enjoyment.

We were on our way back to our hotel to rest for a while but decided we wanted to peek into one of the cannabis stores we had seen earlier. In 2013, Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment legalizing retail sales of marijuana for recreational purposes but the Colorado Springs City Council voted not to permit retail shops in the the city.  Medical marijuana outlets continue to operate and this is what the store was that we entered.

Not knowing any of that before hand, we sheepishly walked into what looked like a doctors office waiting room.  There was no one inside the waiting room but in a minute or two a gentleman popped his head out of a sliding glass window and asked if he could help us.  We answered that we were just curious because it is legal there and we were from Georgia.  He then asked if we were interested in recreational marijuana.  We said we didn't want to buy anything but just wanted to see what a shop looked like.  He said we could come back and look around at the medicinal marijuana and we said that would be great.  After we went inside he told us that we would need to sign in his book.  My husband said you mean sign something that goes to the government?  To which he replied yes but it was just a formality.  We quickly agreed that we did not want to do that and left but not before glancing around and seeing all kinds of interesting looking equipment and "medicine"!

At some point in our two day whirlwind visit, we went to Barnes and Noble Bookstore so that our son could purchase some paperback books to read in his down time at work.  He has a Kindle but no electronics are allowed in the section where he works.  While he looked for books, I went to the magazine section to look at bead magazines.  When I finished and still had time to look around I noticed the Weed World Magazine.  I bought a copy to read on our trip back across country.  Most of it was about the different types of marijuana.  I am no expert but back in my college days when pot was around I didn't even know there was more than one type!  

There was an interesting article in the magazine that was informative to me.  It was entitled,  The Divided States for America.  The article implied that the number of marijuana users both medicinal and recreational was going down in Colorado.  Supposedly, the market is flooded with lower quality weed and bureaucratic red tape is making everything more challenging for independent business people.  The article goes on to say that legal cannabis has to be of good quality and sold at a price that makes its production worthwhile.  So even though the drug has been legalized in some states, it sounds like it is going to be a long uphill road for the future.

We met our son for dinner at the hotel restaurant.  He had to get up around 4:30 a.m. to go to work the next day and we had another long day ahead of us to get to Oklahoma City.

Here are some facts about Colorado that you might find interesting:

* The state bird is the Lark bunting

* The state animal is the Bighorn sheep

* The population of CO in 2018 is 674,000 up from 2016 when it was 465,101

* Colorado Springs first inhabited by Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Kiowa and Ute Indians who gathered each year at present day Garden of the Gods Park

* General William Palmer, a Civil War General, first came to the area in 1871

* Peterson AFB, US Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, US Space Command, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base are all located at or near Colorado Springs

* The economy consists of the military, high tech industry and tourism

* The climate is a semi-arid climate - the proximity to the Rocky Mountains makes the city subject to drastic day-to-day variability in weather conditions

* One of the most active lighting strike areas in the US - this natural phenomenon led Nikola Tesla to select the city as the preferred location to build his lab and study electricity in 1893

* There are 12 four year colleges within 40 miles of Colorado Springs

* Aquamarine is the official gemstone but you can also find amazonite, garnet, topaz, tourmaline, lapis lazuli, quartz crystal, smoky quartz, rose quartz, amethyst, turquoise, jasper, chalcedony, peridot, sapphire, zircon and agate in Colorado

* A few famous people from Colorado Springs are Lon Cheney, James Dobson and Bobby Unser

Watch for another post in our journey soon!