Wednesday, July 09, 2008

We left early this morning and dropped by Burger King for a sausage biscuit and orange juice.... well, it was suppose to be just a sausage patty and a biscuit, but eggs and cheese were in there too. We ate it anyway... no time to complain when you are not sure how long it will take you to get somewhere. There was suppose to be construction on I-25, but we didn't run into any.


At Pike's Peak Cog Rail they had Frank parallel park.... only a small car in front of us and nothing behind, so no problem. The truck took up a parking space and a quarter of another parking space :-) We picked up our tickets... Frank called and got us reservations last evening. I visited the restroom... none on the train and it is an hour and a half ride up the mountain. We waited a bit... watching hummingbirds at the feeder up above our heads. The lighting wasn't good enough to get the camera speed up... so no pictures.


Soon the train arrived and we got seated. The conductor, Mary, stressed a few times before our departure to use the restroom :-) We rode facing another couple.. we were on the three seat side and we were fortunate to not have anyone else in the third seat. Frank had the window seat so he could do the video taping. I didn't take any pictures from the train. It would have required standing up and my balance isn't the greatest in the higher altitudes.


The train ride was interesting and beautiful. Frank had wondered why there were so many dead trees. Pine beetles had destroyed them. There was one area that looked like a scene from The Sound of Music... beautiful green.


We had hoped to see some of the long-horn sheep, but we didn't. We did see some yellow-bellied marmot.. hopefully the pictures turned out okay.


At the summit we stopped for a while and we got out and took pictures. One elderly lady was so dizzy I thought she might fall down. I told her to drink some water... she did and stood still for a few minutes and she was all right. I told her to walk real slow and keep drinking a little water and she would be fine.. and she was. The altitude bothered both of us too. It was very hard to breathe up there.


I stopped by the restroom before we left... Frank hit it just after we arrived at the summit. I wouldn't have gotten any photos if I had waited in line for the restroom after we got there. Frank bought me a souvenir bell.


We had a pleasant trip down the mountain..... good conversation with our seat mates who were from Texas.


A little bit hard getting out of the parking area.... so many people and more cars coming in to find a parking space.


We went over to Garden of the Gods and visited the trading post there. I needed the restroom again. We bought a bell and a plate. Then off to eat lunch at the picnic grounds. We found a nice shady spot with a view of Pike's Peak. We took a few pictures of Pike's Peak after lunch. A dark cloud rolled over the summit for a while. We then drove over to the visitor's center... nothing much really there. Most of the unique rocks in the garden had people crawling or hiking on them, so not great photo opportunities.


On the way home we bought gas in Colorado Springs for $4.69 a gallon.


We came home and have pretty much crashed. There is a train tracks near by... can't see them, but we can hear them very well. The trains are frequent day and night. The ac fan doesn't drown them out. Frank put ear plugs in.... me I just tried to shut the noise out because I really hate ear plugs.


We have done a little bird watching while resting. Getting pictures is proving difficult. The lighting just sucks. There have been cow birds, house finches, steller jays, a nuthatch, a type of grosbeak and a yellow and black colored bird that may be an oriole of some type.... even a hummingbird investigated the feeders.


Tomorrow we head over to Royal Gorge Bridge.