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Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 14 - July 12
Denver, CO to Monte Vista , CO
Miles traveled: 218
Local Music:
The Rail Benders. Boot stompin', rowdy honky-tonk. Trucker music.
Pike's Peak.
Lt. Zebulon Pike, for whom the peak is named once said that no one would ever reach the top, and now so many people have done so that they built a gift shop up here! In fact, they only thing that they don't have up here is Oxygen. Both me and my car had a bit of a problem working well up here, so I didn't stay too long.
I think they missed an opportunity with the name though. "Zebulon's Peak" would have been much cooler.
Down at the base of the mountain is a little town named Manitou Springs. A quirky little town full of art galleries, odd specialty shops, and at least one good restaurant (I only got to try one). But most unique is that the town actually has springs. There are seven natural mineral water springs scattered through the downtown area, each built into a unique fountain. Tourists are enouraged to get a map of the spring locations, and sample the water from each of them - kinda like the wine walk that they have here in reno, but with spring water and running 24-7-365.
As I explored the town, it started to rain. I found out later that at the summit it was snowing! Glad I did the peak first. Anyway, because of the rain, I skipped the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, a museum of sorts based on indian cliff dwellings once native to the area. But it's an outdoor attraction, and it was raining.
The American Numismatic Association runs the Museum of Money in Colorado Springs. It's fascinating, but contains mostly displays of ancient coins from the various birthplaces of civilization. Unfortunately coin-sized object behind glass cases are very difficult to photograph well, at least with my camera. Above is one of the few photos that came out well. I find it really cool that Israel put Einstein on their 5 Lirot note.
The Movie Manor Motor Inn in Monte Vista, CO. Take a motel, put large picture windows in every room facing a drive-in theater and pipe the sound into the room. It's a great idea and an experience that no roadtrip would be complete without. They were showing "Evan Almightly" which was certainly not the best movie I'd ever seen, but was OK.
