Well, at least there are no more red lights on the Tahoe! And the passenger side has air conditioning once again! Of course VacationGirl and Dear Husband had to sit in the local Al Serra Chevrolet dealership for 3 hours this morning - but it was worth it!
Today was Royal Gorge Bridge day. As soon as the Tahoe was functioning as expected (around 10:30), we dropped by the hotel and picked up the "almost 18-year old" and headed south to the Royal Gorge Bridge. It was about 1.5 hour drive. Very pretty. The bride is huge! First we rode across on a little train and but you couldn't see down over the sides so we got off on the other side and walked back. Sure is a LONG way down to the Arkansas river. Not sure how we got the Arkansas river in Colorado but it is!
The bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge - at 1,053 feet above the Arkansas. It was pretty windy out on the bridge too.
When we left the bridge, we decided to take this 35 miles road that should take us to Cripple Creek (notice should not would). The road is called the Phantom Canyon Road. Thirty five miles isn't much, right! HA! It is when you're only able to go 15-20 miles an hour. The books do warn you to not drive the road if you are not experienced driving on mountain roads. But do we listen???
NO!
And although VERY tiring, VacationGirl is glad we didn't listen. Dear Husband really loves the dirt roads and this was pure dirt road - nothing paved. It started out at about 5,000 ft and rose to 10,000 by the time we hit the thriving metropolis of Victor, CO. About half way through, the 'almost 18-year old' decided he wanted to drive. Ya know, off-roading, Mom!
YEH, Mom knows.
But he did good! Most of the time, only one car could drive so you really had to watch for people coming the other direction and plan ahead. You couldn't get too close to the edge because it was muddy and you'd easily get stuck or too close on the other side and you're off the side of the mountain. We could see the storm clouds as we began to start climbing upward and sure enough we got pelted - small hail and everything. Pretty wild. But once we got out of the mountains, the rain stopped.
Tomorrow if Pike's Peak day - riding the Cog Railway up. Hope it's as clear on Tuesday as it was today (at least in the morning).
Will post pictures tomorrow - too tired tonight!
Pike's Peak or Bust!
No comments:
Post a Comment