September
24 – We were up early and had some bacon, fruit and half each of the huge rolls
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| Boarding the train |
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| Royal Gorge Engine |
Darlene brought for us! We were ready to
go when they picked us up at 8:15. We
arrived at the train depot for our Royal Gorge Train trip in plenty of time to
park, pick up our tickets, check out the gift shop and people watch! The train left at 9:30 and we bought tickets
for one of the Dome cars. We had a table
for 4 so we could easily converse while travelling the 11 miles to Parkdale,
population “3”. There was some concern
before boarding that there would be too much fog and cloud cover for a good
experience but that was no problem.
There were rafters and many lost paddles scattered along the river. Clouds were hanging low over the gorge walls. All along the river is a wooden pipeline
built
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| Clouds in the Gorge |
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| Rafters |
from 1908-1910 by convicts from the Territorial Prison in
Canon City. This brought water into the city until 1972.
The
train route was built in 1879 and this section closed in 1967 as a passenger
line and reopened in 1999 as a tourist route.
It grew from humble beginnings with 5 passenger cars and a cooler for
drinks to vista Dome cars, open cars and regular cars and serving first class
meals. Many special events are hosted
annually as well as weddings, etc.
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| Foot bridge over the gorge |
Seeing
the Royal Gorge Bridge above was exciting in itself,
both on the way up and back.
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Wooden pipeline through the mountain
along the gorge |
We also saw
the housing for the “gatekeeper” who managed the water flow in the water
pipe. At the end of the ride in Parkdale
is where we stopped and headed south again.
That is also where the rafters put in.
Today was too cold for me to be rafting but I’m sure they enjoyed the
numerous rapids along the river. The
train stops on the way back for viewing rock formations and
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| Hanging bridge train tracks |
explanation of the
“hanging bridge” which is a section of the tracks that are not on land. A hanging bridge was built suspended out wide
enough for the train tracks. It was
pretty amazing! On part of the ride back
we went out to the open car to get better photos, especially of the bridge
overhead.
When
we arrived back at the station the 12:30 crowd was at the gate awaiting our
exit. It was a bit expensive but most likely a “once in a lifetime” thing for
us.
Lunchtime! Knowing we would be eating out for dinner
tonight, we chose something more reasonable for lunch, Wendy’s. We arrived just
before the rush, but it’s the way we arrived that kept us laughing! Mike has been doing the driving since our car
is packed with
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| Mr. Toad's Wild Ride |
holey boards, water and other paraphernalia in the back seat. He was making the left turn onto the side
street of Wendy’s and stopped as there was a car approaching, suddenly he made the turn to our amazement,
then as he turned into the lot at Wendy’s he ran over the curb (he said he
didn’t see it!) and we were still clamoring about his turn onto the street and
then he just about shot back out onto the main road and we were all alarming
him to stop and he whipped into a parking spot and then proceeded to jump out
of the car and not turn it off! It all
happened so fast, and Darlene and I busted out laughing uncontrollably! Phew!
Once we got our meals and “calmly” had our meal, I got tickled about it
all over again and could barely contain myself!
I warned Mike it was going in the blog, but maybe you had to be there to
really experience it!
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| Dinosaur tracks |
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| View of Canon City from Skyline Drive |
After
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride we were hesitant to have Mike drive us all on Skyline Drive. The drive is a 3 mile one-way narrow road up
and across a crest 800 feet up with “hogbacks”.
The vote was to give him another chance!
The view was spectacular and there are dinosaur tracks in the rocks to
view. We stopped several times along the
way for the view and photos. It was
really a nice drive with great views of Canon City.
Mike
took us back to the RV park where we all took a siesta until time to head out
for dinner. They picked us up at 5:30
and we headed to El Capitan, a Mexican
Restaurant. Timing is everything and
once we were seated the crowd was backing up in the lobby. The service was very good and we all enjoyed
our meals. However, we all had just
enough space left for junior Frostys from Wendy’s. We picked them up at the drive-thru and
brought them back to the RV and enjoyed our dessert.
Unfortunately
the fun (and exciting) day had to end and we said our good-byes tonight since
Mike and Darlene are leaving early in the morning! We certainly enjoyed our time with them and
look forward to the next time. It has been 2 years since we last saw them for a
quick breakfast while we were on the road.
Bill
and I watched some TV and settled down to read for a bit!
