A Blizzard on Pike's Peak -- in August?

At Colorado Springs KOA, Colorado Springs, Colorado...

It seemed like a good idea: Take Sandy to the top of Pike's Peak for her first time. I made reservations about ten days in advance for the cog railway, which I assumed was the best way to make the trip. I had little to go on to make that assumption, however, since my only other trip to the summit was, let's see, 59 years ago as a kid, and that was riding in my uncle's Dodge.

There is a problem that plagues me when I make reservations so far in advance: Ten days is a long time for an old brain to hold on to information, and when I didn't take the time to recheck the booking, we ended up at the station a day late. At the time our train was supposed to be leaving, Sandy and I were at the luncheon mentioned in the previous post, where we were harassing Ed unmercifully and enjoying every minute.

When we arrived at the railway station after discovering my error, I confessed to being a day late, and the clerk merely put us on a standby list from which we were called for boarding on the 1:20 p.m. train. 

Cog Railway Station at Manitou Springs

Upon boarding, we were surprised by the sardine-can accommodations and finding ourselves in perhaps the most uncomfortable seats ever invented. I mean, these were tiny wooden seats that were possibly salvaged from Nazi torture chambers. There was never a time when we weren't squirming or sliding around as the train rounded curves. The only saving grace was the conductor, who pointed out a number of interesting sights along the way and who had a nice repertoire of jokes that were so bad, they were actually good!

The hard seats became maddeningly uncomfortable by the time we reached the summit, a trip that took much longer than expected--about an hour and a half to go 8 1/2 miles. There was some scenery--mostly trees--during the ascent, but the worst part was at about the 11,500 foot level, above which no vegetation grows. It was at that point that we entered the clouds and a mixture of rain and snow that completely obliterated any view. When we exited the train, the visibility was about 25 feet, and the temperature was 29 degrees in blowing snow. Mind you, this was still in August!

Sandy doesn't take cold too well, 

The bottom line: Our visit to Pike's Peak was a total disaster. Next time, we will be sure of the weather at the top, and we will be traveling by car! Never again on this train from hell.

Ed, Marilyn, Bob and Janet were kind enough to meet us for a farewell luncheon the next day at an excellent Thai restaurant named Na Rai Siam Cuisine. We talked and laughed a lot and, hugging them goodbye, we thought how lucky we were to be able to name these fine folks among our friends.

Back at Phannie, Sandy made an excellent batch of fudge to console us for today's debacle. To offset this decadence, we made a healthy Thai salad with Korean chicken that is one of our mainstay meals.

Santa Fe, here we come!

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.