Last Friday (October 8) we left Grand Junction (a bit sadly for me - I could have been comfortable there for another couple weeks I think).
We were traveling along I 70 across the Rockies, so we weren't sure where we'd end up for the night. I fully expected it would be a rest area along the way ~ something I HATE, because I take Sir out in the morning and I am always concerned about a "safe" location in the "early" hours. If we didn't have Sir I wouldn't care at all where we spent the night but since we do, I'm a scaredy cat, chicken, whimp!
Along the way we kept passing these cement "buildings" with solar panels on top (photo above) as well as a few of these large buildings with huge fans outside (photo below). Well since there was no indication along the road what the heck they were I decided to see if our map had any indication what this was all about, and surprisingly there was a notation that this was the Naval Oil Shale Reserve ~ which meant next to nothing to me, but King Richard tried his very best to explain it to me - still not sure I understand getting oil from rocks (sort of like getting blood or money from a stone??) so I guess I will read the link I posted here huh!!!
Another thing we kept passing along the way for miles and miles and miles, were these funny ramp looking things along the way - every 1/2 mile or so on both sides of the road. The one shown below was along a river/creek, but they were also abutting fields, fences, dirt roads ~ it didn't seem to matter what they abutted. Any ideas??
Continuing along, chug chug chug, push push push up the mountains we went, I was surprised and delighted that "Bessie" just went along, a bit slower than normal, up those mountains!
Off in the distance we saw these snow covered mountains, beyond the golden aspen hillsides. I did say to Rick at one point, "look over there, we are going into a snow storm".
It's probably best that I don't go into details regarding how I think my comments are received ~ it's the male/female thing, you know someones from Venus, someones from Mars!! Yada yada yada ...
Well son of a gun .... there we were at 10,000+ feet and guess what!
nastiness! Nothing major but a snow storm complete with wind and blowing snow and cold cold cold! Just like we remembered from days gone by! But yup, we got through this one too.
Eventually we came upon Dillon Lake, outstandingly beautiful Dillon Lake. What a marvelous place for the State of Colorado to put a scenic view stop!
Eventually we came to the "high point" (pun certainly intended) of that days travel - the Eisenhower (west bound) and Johnson (east bound) tunnels. They're only at an elevation of 11, 158 feet, seriously, what's the big deal!
On we went for a total of 310 miles that day to end up at the Elks Lodge in Colorado Springs, loving the view of Pikes Peak and its 14,000 foot elevation. We'll be here for a week at least, talking about trying to get tickets to a Broncos game on Sunday ~ we shall see. In the meantime we've come up with a plan for where we're headed. Stay tuned ..
1 comment:
You have to ride the bikes up Pikes Peak!!!
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