A Heavenly Day

Our first stop of the day was an al fresco breakfast at the Garden of the Gods Welcome Center. After the group picture was taken, we watched a short video entitled "How Did Those Red Rocks Get There?".  We drove through the garden and saw many rock structures. Photo 2 shows a Balancing Rock. We then processed to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings.

Group Photo with the Garden of the Gods in the background. Sneed and I are in the back row just right of center. Sneed is wearing a green hat and I'm on his left.

The 185 steps were quite steep.

Second photo shows Seven Falls. Friendly chipmunks ran along the sidewalk at the bottom of the falls.

A side stop took us to these lovely sculptures of Starr Kempf in front of the home in which he lived until his death in 1995. We had to stagger our stops as the neighbors are quite upset when lots of cars block the entry and egress from the area.

Our last stop was Helen Hunt Falls in North Cheyenne Cañon Park named after Helen Hunt Jackson, a successful writer who moved to Colorado Springs in 1873 to restore her health with "the curative air of the Rockies". She is remembered for her novel Ramona.

We, and Phil and Sue from Williamsburg, VA, were invited to join Michael from Kansas at one of his favorite restaurants in Manitou Springs located in the beautifully appointed Cliff House. We dined in a small private room with fireplace, many servers, and excellent food. A very relaxing end to the day.

Winding our way up Pikes Peak

Before we left, Sneed mentioned he wanted to drive up Pikes Peak to the summit...over 14000 feet. Four other PMCs followed us as we went back and forth around hairpin curves up the mountain. One of these motorcars was a 1930s open Bentley from Michigan.

These informational signs greeted us at the base of the mountain. The round trip would take 2 hours, max speed was 20mph -30mph on the way up. It had snowed a few days before out ascent, so the roads had been plowed recently. The temperature at the peak was 22 degrees F with a windchill of 6 degrees F.
Some photos from the way up appear below.

We were amazed at the views as we twisted and turned our way up the mountain. We passed the tree line and individuals walking the mountain. At the summit the cog rail cars arrived shortly after we did. Several people traveled that way and met the van that brought bikes up for them to ride on the way down. Braver that I would ever be, they are.

Cy next to the Pikes Peak elevation sign validating that he climbed to the top. Next, the way down.

Katherine Lee Bates got the inspiration for "America The Beautiful" while visiting Pikes Peak. Sneed is in front of the half way station going down. We stopped in for some refreshment. At this point it was suggested that one test the brakes. Several cars had to pull over to wait for the brakes to cool before proceeding the rest of the way.

Cy gets his reward of being hosed down removing the butterflies and the gunk from the mountain. There was a welcoming dinner this evening at which time we were treated to a history of Colorado by one of our members whose family settled here back in the early 1900s. The tour starts tomorrow.

Kansas to Colorado

O Beautiful, for spacious skies (even if they are dark and murky), for amber waves of grain

After entering Colorado and before arriving at Lamar, we passed a cantaloupe farm advertising cantaloupes for sale. As we neared the actual selling point, there was a CLOSED sign plastered across the words "Cantaloupes for sale". This was the farm that produced some of the cantaloupes that were tainted with listeria. In Lamar, at the welcome station, the docent said she had just bought 3 cantaloupes from that farm and they were the best she had ever eaten. She felt sorry for the man whose living depended on those melons.

Bent County Courthouse, Las Animas, Colorado. We can't pass up a pretty courthouse if it's on our route. The other building is the jail.

Hmmm, not a very good crop of pumpkins...Looks like Charlie Brown's pumpkin patch = )

Just as we crossed into Colorado, we ran into a bunch of these yellow butterflies trying to cross the road. I kept telling them the grass (in this case alfalfa) wasn't any greener on the other side, but they kept coming. Unfortunately, Cy's grille was the recipient of many of these butterflies.

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho Ho, and a couple of Tra La Las

That's how we laugh the day away in the merry old Land of Oz. And have fun we did. As we were entering Liberal, KS, I started seeing billboards advertising Dorothy's home and the Land of Oz. We just had to stop there.

We found it. There was Dorothy's house with Dorothy and Toto standing out front. The storm cellar was the red door in the grass. What a huge Kansas sunflower!

I was pleased to see that Ron and Nancy also enjoyed the Land of Oz enough to have a brick engraved with their names.

Proclamation from the Governor of Kansas stating that Liberal, KS, was the Gateway to the Land of Oz (Ahs)

 Enjoying the swing and making new friends

A then and now photo. Then was less than 2 weeks before Annemarie was born.

 Sneed enjoyed a Hokie reunion with Jim Floyd, also a former Corps of Cadets member -  Class of '64.

Note the new Max Speed. I have to admit when I realized what Sneed was doing, I egged him on. As you can see in the far right photo in the other blog entry for 16 September, the roads further west were flat with no traffic as far as the eye could see. Need I say, Cy performed effortlessly. 

Zipping along

We are traveling a circuitous route to and from Colorado to avail ourselves of going through the panhandle of Texas to photograph more courthouses. On this leg we got photos of 12 more. Slowly getting to our goal of the entire state - 254 Courthouses.




We must be the only people who enjoy driving across Texas. So many say it's boring, but we find it all quite fascinating. Where else can you see as far as the horizon as you're driving along?

 

In Hardeman County, this board was branded with the County's Ranch Heritage. Right around the corner was the depot built in 1908, now a museum, for the Quanah, Acme and Pacific railroad which ran between Ft Worth and Amarillo. The city of Quanah, Hardeman's county seat, was named after Quanah Parker, the last great chief of the Comanche tribe. Quanah was the son of a Comanche chief and a captured Anglo, Cynthia Ann Parker.



Believe it or not, this is the BIG Red River. Due to the state's extended drought conditions, it's barely a trickle now.

A bonus on the road was the town of Shamrock. This Conoco gas station was one of the inspirations for the movie, "Cars". It's located on old route 66 and is touted as the most photographed spot on Rte 66.

I wonder what this bank is doing to keep all its customers Happy.

As always, I found some interesting flowers of which to take photos. I really like the white ones, so delicate.

On our way to Colorado

Since we were leaving a day earlier than originally scheduled, we took our time getting on the road. As we were nearing the town of Marlin, I noticed there was a notation on the map about a Highlands Mansion near there. Since it wasn't too far off the interstate, Sneed got off and we set about trying to find it. (wish I had looked it up before we left) Anyway, I took some photos of interesting houses which could have fit the description only to see tonight on the internet that neither of them was the one for which we were looking.

The last photo is the Highlands Mansion, but the other 2 are quite interesting too.

The scenery was familiar, dry lakes and other bodies of water, cotton only growing about 6" high but still being harvested, and once we got to Fort Worth, parking lot traffic on the interstate at 3:45 in the afternoon. Saw a few interesting billboards along the way.

We were quite surprised when we got out of the car to photograph the Cooke County courthouse in Gainesville that is was cool and windy. Cy's temperature readout was 72. Normally 72 is a nice temperature but I was immediately chilly and pulled out my jacket. We were quite disappointed to find that the courthouse was undergoing a restoration so we will have to revisit it when that is finished.

We did, however, score when we decided to eat around the corner from the courthouse in a place called Main Street Pub & Eatery. It was a western style pub. I had an excellent  rainbow trout but Sneed's beef fare wasn't quite as good.

Sneed didn't think I'd take a photo of the cowboy's boots at the next table. He even had his spurs on.

Houston RR Monthly Breakfast

A great turnout for breakfast this morning. Two long tables filled at Skeeter's and lots of cars.

Our friends, Beth and Richard, rode with us this morning in Cy