Western America Road Trip: Day Three

Okay, chances are I will never get around to finish this.
What you need to know:
We got stranded in Utah.
Almost died in the desert.
Got drunk in Vegas.
Got slapper cards.
Came home.






June 29th: Day 3

Pike's Peak Cog Railway

We wake up with plans to take the Pike's Peak Cog Railway up the mountain. As we get ready, we thought to call to see if there were any places left on the next train. Unfortunately, it was booked for the entire day and we weren't going to be able to go as we left Colorado the next morning. We decided to go and check to see if there had been any cancellations. We got there two hours before the next train and fortunately, we were able to secure three places on the next trip up the mountain.

While we waited, we wandered down into Manitou Springs and checked out a couple of the little shops along the main street. When it was 20 minutes to the time we had to be back, we headed up the incline back to the cog depot. The walk was much more grueling than I had expected and I got a little altitude sickness.

Just a little extra height

Irritated now, I waited as patiently as I could while 2983472830 children piled themselves into our train car. The ride started out slow, but eventually, the excitement of finally being able to see a Yellow-Bellied Whistling Marmot started to overcome me. Everyone would shout at the elk on the mountain and in my head i'm thinking, "Yeah, sure, they're seeing elk but just wait, while they're looking down the mountain I'll see a fucking marmot on this side."

No marmots.

We got to the timberline and hit about 9,000 feet in elevation. The conductor lady (who was quite annoying), said we should see marmots. Like the usual luck I have, everyone saw a marmot (and I mean EVERYONE) except for me.

Now, I was altitude sick, irritated and irate for the lack of marmots.

We get to the top of Pike's Peak, at 14,110 feet, the view was pretty dece. You could see five states and a sheer drop down the side of the mountain. Of course, I convince Dan to take a jumping picture of me on a rock on the edge. Hopping around was much harder and I was already out of breath from just walking. All of the sudden, as Dan's about to take another picture I shout, "MARMOT!!!" and go running towards it.

Melissa and I on the edge

My lack of thinking before acting could have scared the marmot away but he was pretty badass and just laid on the rock as I ran over to my camera bag to switch out to my telephoto lens. Then, I stalked over to him and saw he wasn't moving. I almost thought he was dead and then I think, "Hey, this is a whistling marmot, maybe he wants to communicate!" So, of course, I begin whistling what I think to be marmot like sounds and he looked at me! I speak marmot now.

I did a quick photo shoot with him before going off to take more pictures. The horn sounded on the train three times, signaling us to come back aboard and since we deviated so far from where we actually should have been, it was a chore trying to run back up the rocks to the rail car. 100 feet seriously felt like a marathon.

Yellow-bellied Whistling Marmot

Back on the rail car, we started to go back down, another hour and a half to go. We saw Bighorn Sheep and more Elk on the way back down as well as a few more marmots.  I ended up falling asleep in Dan's lap as the altitude sickness was really getting to me. Apparently the guy across from me said, "You can get in trouble for that in public," in front of his two grandchildren. Awkward...

14,110 feet tall

Back at the bottom we went back into Manitou Springs and checked out the Olive Tap. A place with many different flavors of olive oils and basalmic vinegars. Expensive, but really neat. We ended up taking that idea and cooking dinner for John and Ellen and mixed olive oils and spices together to make a bread dip as an appetizer. I was rather proud of my concoction: chipotle olive oil, parmesan, EVOO, garlic and some basalmic vinegar. The chipotle gave it a little bit of a kick to it which was nice with the wine we were drinking.

But, before that, we drove through Garden of the Gods. It's a series of giant red rocks that somehow congregated in this one area. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, we had to get back to make dinner so we had to drive through really quickly (this isn't the only time on the trip we had to book it through a park) and didn't get any decent photos. Here's an idea of what it's like anyways.

Garden of the Gods

Sorry about the wait between blogs, I've been really busy these last few days. Actually, that's a lie. I'm pretty sure I've just been forgetting about it and now I have time where I'd rather write than chat on facebook or play with Sharkbait. The rest of the story will get here eventually. It still gets interesting, promise.

In current life, I'm starting up again at Starbucks tomorrow (we'll call it *bucks from now on). I need to magically come up with uniform clothes before noon but we'll leave that until tomorrow morning I suppose. Sharkbait is sick with conjunctivitis in her eye and feline flu. It's sad to see her so sick when she's usually bouncy and active. She managed to escape today though. I left to go into *bucks at 2:30pm and came back at 4:00pm to see here sitting outside my front door meowing like a maniac. I'm not sure how she managed to slip out as I was locking the door... and then me not seeing her as I walked out... Ninja kitten for sure.

I move on Sunday after working a 16 hour training week and then working 37 hours starting next week. And then...

It's SHARKWEEK!

We're having a sharkweek party Tuesday night. You're invited.