Family played the biggest part in ending up at Colorado, considering the distance for us to travel from Illinois. My sister and my wife's sister both lived out there (still do) so it is not surprising we did a few touristy type things.
Let me take a moment to mention that at this moment I am nearly halfway through writing up a story about all the states. Nine of them are those I never visited so those were short. Then I starting going through the list a second time and worked on all the easy ones that had just a quick visit to the state. Now I'm going back through again working my way in numerical order and doing the best I can with the trickier ones. What can be tricky about some? Well, maybe tricky isn't the word but the point of this for me is to back up my state visits with pictures and I am coming up short on certain states. Which ones, you might ask? Mostly it's the ones that are before 2005 as that is the year I finally bought a simple digital camera to go on a trip to New York City. Now I lived in New York for twelve years so that one's doubly tricky in that I also need to keep it short. It would not be difficult for me to write a novel. But the trouble I'm having before 2005 is that there are no digital photos on my computer to easily sift through and find applicable photos to the stories. At the moment I have right around 38,000 photos from Spring 2005 right up through today. They are all organized by date and all I need to do is sift through the right years. All my smart phone photos are in another folder and usually I can remember if I brought along the DSLR to take great photos, or if I just figured I'd make do with the okay photos of the mobile phone.
Everyone has a stack of these, right?
So, when Colorado came up next as the one to start, I had to think long and hard about when we were there and it turns out it was the 1980's and 1990's. All I needed to do was pull down the right photo album and scan a few photos. Easy Peasy. So I asked my wife where the albums were stored and she pointed up to a shelf in the storeroom. They weren't even organized or marked with dates and I counted thirty of them. If you're one of those who have to go and count yourself, I will tell you that there are a couple not up there and that left stack has a bunch of little ones vertically stacked behind the front ones. So I pulled them all down, lined them all up on a table, and started going through them one by one. After several albums without finding anything about Colorado, I noticed a particular theme going through the books. Almost 100% of the photos were of people, no matter whether they were family or friends or dead. Apparently I limited myself to photographing the people we decided to visit or who decided to visit us. Who needs a photo of scenery or something random! Taking photos of anything and everything would have to wait for the smartphone and its built-in camera. I also wasn't that into photography and didn't have a whole lot of time with a growing family. I must have snapped a few photos and then went back to the matter at hand. Plus, the cost of film and development cost real money and that was in short supply as we started married life. So I just kept going hoping to find a few scenic shots among all the group photos.
I know you're just giddy with anticipation about this photographic conundrum, so I'll get to the point. I did find a few photos of Colorado, even one of Pikes Peak. At least I hope it's Pikes Peak as I really did drive up that mountain. I grabbed every scenic I could find and scanned them into a file for later. I still imagine I will come up short as I near the end, but we'll face that when the time comes.
Pike's Peak in the distance
We took the Pike's Peak Highway and it was not the smooth highway drive I was expecting. There were sharp turns where there was no guard rail and it was so crowded that cars were bunching up making it hard to move. We did stop somewhere on the way up to do something, I don't remember. I was too shaken up by the drive. I looked the Pike's Peak Highway up online and it was very clear that "the entire 19-mile journey is along a smooth, paved surface." That was not how I remembered that drive but nonetheless we made it up one side and down the other. I do remember saying I was glad to have done that, but wouldn't be doing it again.
A tunnel dug through the mountain rock
Wagon wheel ruts from the Santa Fe Trail
Even the drive along the main highways can be breathtaking with endless rock formations and even tunnels bored right through the mountain rock. We also stopped to see wagon wheen ruts from the Santa Fe Trail used by early settlers in the 1800's. They have been pounded so hard and for so long that the dirt is as hard as concrete and is still visible today.
Casa Bonita in Lakewood, Colorado
I also did take a drive into Denver on another trip to Colorado and met my sister at Casa Bonita in Lakewood. It is famous for its pink paint exterior and for the deep pool inside with divers entertaining the diners. I was great to connect with her seeing she is so far from Illinois, and the entertainment of the divers was the cherry on top.
My wife has been back there by herself for other family events so I have heard many stories of her exploits but I don't have an many stories. But I have been to Colorado.
Until next time,
Arktander
(AKA David Andreasen)
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