Chapter 3: Holy Cheetos!
In this case, Priceline worked for us. I had made most of the hotel reservations for the trip using Priceline’s Express Deals tool. It’s supposed to be a step between normal hotel reservations and bidding on rooms—here, Priceline does the bidding for you. You get offered a few rooms at discounted prices, and the hotel name is hidden from you until you book it. But if you look through the amenities, star rating, and customer review scores, you can usually figure out which hotel it is (or narrow it down considerably).
The Best Western Tech Center turned out to be a good deal. We started early Thursday morning (still somewhat on East Coast time) and got downstairs to the hotel breakfast around 6:30 a.m.
One of the key features I look for in a hotel is a free breakfast. With a family of 6, I need all the free food I can get. Hotel breakfasts all have pretty much the same ingredients, but for some reason vary greatly in quality. We’ve all had that unfortunate breakfast experience where the rubbery “eggs”(that taste more like recycled tire treads), greenish potatoes, stale bread and unripe fruit means you pack everybody into the van and head for the donut shop. I always hate doing that because it weakens the food budget. I mean, I usually feel a little better after eating a donut, but it’s still money I wasn’t planning on spending.
Anyway, the Best Western did breakfast right. Most items were very fresh, and even the fake eggs were somewhat edible. That was a win.
We immediately climbed into our rental van and headed south into the pressure of I-25. But that’s ok. I eat pressure for breakfast. Along with fake eggs. We were heading here:
That’s Pikes Peak, near Colorado Springs. It stands 14,110 feet tall. And when I say we were heading here, I mean we were driving all the way to the top of the mountain. We’d wanted to get going early in order to have the best chance of a clear view from the top, before clouds developed later in the day.
The drive down to Colorado Springs took about an hour, and it’s a gorgeous drive. Let’s face it, when you can turn to your right and see the Rockies out the window, well…that doesn’t suck. We fell in love with Colorado very early on.
Along the way, near the Air Force Academy campus (which looked like a beautiful place), there was a pullover with a view of the Academy air field. It’s very difficult to see in this photo, but just over the mountain on the right we could see a plane pulling a glider. Eventually the plane let go of the tow cable and we watched them lazily circle the mountains.
Before long, we reached the
Pikes Peak Toll Road. There are four ways to ascend the mountain: by foot, by bicycle, by auto, and by train. I had ridden on the
Pikes Peak Cog Railway when I was a kid and remembered it as a fun experience, so I’d begun my planning by assuming we’d all ride the train. After all, you don’t get a chance to ride a cog railway very often. However, my enthusiasm was dampened by the fact that it was going to cost us $135 for my family to ride the rails. Also, we’d only get 30 minutes at the top and if we weren’t on the train by then, it would leave without us.
We’d talked with Jill (jedijill, our friendly DIS Denver resident) about our plans, and she recommended driving up the toll road. She felt it was both cheaper and offered better views than the train. At $40, it was still steep (see what I did there?) for a toll road, but saving us close to $100 was appealing. As for the views? Well, we all hoped Jill was right.
The toll road is 19 miles long, with approximately 162 turns and switchbacks and an average grade of 7% on the way. It climbs over 8,000 feet from start to finish. It’s 2 lanes (one in each direction) and clings to the side of the mountain most of the way past the tree line, with guardrails somewhat scarce.
Map:
Of course, we were no strangers to danger—uh, adventurous drives, having driven to the top of Mt. Mansfield in Vermont,
the top of Haleakala on Maui, and
conquered the Hana Highway there as well. And then we even
conquered the second half of the Hana Highway, with its unpaved roads and PVC-rail bridges. If you recall, that was the drive where Julie called her divorce lawyer and put him on retainer.
If we made it to the top of Pikes Peak, it would be the highest we’d ever been. In terms of elevation, wiseguys. I’m too cheap for any other kinds of thrills. Julie pretended to be excited, but I think she was nervous, thinking: it’s too steep. I only have one rope, and you don’t know how to climb mountains. My only fear was that I’d burn up the brakes on the way down. Not that I really cared about abusing the van, but I needed those brakes to last another couple of weeks.
We got off to a good start. Even with dire warnings posted, everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Even Julie was doing a good job of faking enthusiasm.
…and then Scotty happened.
We took our time going up (you kind of have to when you’re climbing a 7% grade the whole way), and it turned out that Jill was right. Once we got above the tree line, the views were stunning in every direction. Clear skies meant we could see for miles all around. Julie wasn’t having any of it, though. She preferred to just stare straight ahead. Mostly because the road looked like this:
And this:
We cruised slowly, content to take our time and carefully navigate the curves. As we climbed above the tree line, we oohed and aahed at the views surrounding us. I made a couple of very tight turns around switchbacks. All of a sudden, there was a loud “BOOM!”
I had a quick panic attack and started trying to figure out what had happened. Did we blow a tire? The thought of changing a tire on that road at that elevation was enough to give me a second panic attack on top of the first one. But…the van seemed to be riding just fine. Had the engine backfired? Was it another car? Had I mistakenly eaten a bean burrito for breakfast?
Sarah spoke up from behind me. “The bag of Cheetos just popped open.”
As it turned out, it was simply a reminder that as you climb in elevation, the air pressure changes all around you. And this, of course, may affect other items already packaged under pressure. Although we’d picked the Holy Trinity of snack foods in our supplies (Doritos, Fritos, and Cheetos), only the Cheetos were affected. Which led Sarah to the following conclusion:
“Mom?” she asked. “I think God really wants us to eat these Cheetos.”
I’m going to call it right now. That was the Quote Of The Trip. And really, how can you refuse what God wants?
In due time, we reached the summit. And yes, it did feel like an accomplishment. It also felt very cold. There was a constant breeze up there, and plenty of snow on the ground. But we’d conquered the mountain (locals call them “fourteeners”).
Good thing we’d brought sweatshirts. And proper footwear.
We’d made our Target run the night before in order to pick up PB&J supplies, before finding out about Scotty’s shoe problem. And we hadn’t had time to go back, so Scotty was stuck with his flip flops. We tried not to stay in the snow too long.
Another concern was altitude sickness. The air is very thin at 14,000 feet, so your body has to work harder to get its normal amount of oxygen. Not only that, but the air is very dry (since it doesn’t hold moisture well at that altitude), so it’s much easier to become dehydrated. If you’re not acclimated (and having traveled from the East Coast the day before, we probably weren’t), prolonged exposure can cause “altitude sickness”. This is usually marked by fatigue, dizziness, and possibly nausea. You’re gonna start to lose vision in your left eye. Oh, and you’re gonna get a really bad headache and flopsweat. You combat this condition by taking it easy at high altitudes, not trying to over-tax your body, and by drinking plenty of water.
We’d bought a couple of cases of water at Target and were doing our best to follow the advice. We also told the kids several times, “Don’t run around like idiots.” We say that a lot at home, actually. Just about every time we have to go to the store.
But enough about blowing chunks. You want to see these views I keep talking about.
Drew didn’t seem very impressed. Actually, he was upset that we weren’t letting him wander into the snow on his own.
Southwest, we could see more of the Rocky Mountains:
Looking north, towards Denver:
This was the end of the Cog Railway tracks. You can see the center rail with the “teeth” that catch the cog wheel on the underside of the train. This helps pull the train up the steep slopes of the mountain.
There was also a display commemorating the song, “America the Beautiful”. This song was actually inspired by the view from atop Pikes Peak.
We took our time at the top, and between the scenery along the drive and the unhurried, uncrowded views at the top, we were very glad we’d taken Jill’s advice and driven up instead of riding the train. Thanks Jill!
There’s a small visitor center at the top that houses a gift shop and a snack bar. We had one more mission to accomplish at the summit.
Ok, two more missions. First, to take goofy photos:
And second, to try some donuts. This was another tip from Jill. Apparently they have to cook them differently at that elevation in order to get them to turn out right. Don’t ask me what the details are, since I don’t mess with cooking unless it involves a grill or a microwave. But in any case, these were nice, warm, crispy, and very tasty.
Right about the time we were finishing our donuts, the train arrived. And just like that, the shop was swarming with people. It was definitely much more enjoyable being one of just a handful of people at the top prior to the train’s arrival.
Not only were the sudden crowds bothersome, but after an hour we were actually starting to feel the effects of the altitude. We hadn’t run around, but I’d been carrying the baby off and on, and none of us were really acclimated. We were starting to feel a bit light-headed.
So, we took our final looks and began the drive back down. And as it turned out, my fears about burning up the brakes were unfounded. I shifted the van in to low gear and just allowed the engine braking to keep our speed down for the most part. Every once in a while, I’d have to apply the brakes, but doing so in very short bursts and staying in low gear made it easy. All in all, the drive wasn’t that bad at all. I’d happily do it again.
What I wouldn’t do, is attempt to ride my bike up that road. I salute you, brave soul.
If nothing else, that downhill ride gives you excellent gas mileage.
A couple of family shots at a pull-off on the way down.
Coming Up Next: Our first PB&J stop, the neverending attempts to get that perfect Christmas card photo, and a DIS Meet!
Don't miss those days at all. I think I still stockpile napkins in my car for spills and such because of those past experiences.
Poo with a view.
