Monday, September 12, 2011

Pike's Peak

I have not blogged in a few months mostly because I didn't feel like blogging through tears and being a big downer. I'm not fully adjusted to this whole idea of living in Colorado but there are some things that make it easier. It sure is nice to have my parents here and my nephew is just down the street as well. Jackson thinks it is pretty cool to actually go to the same school as his cousin. I just think it's amazing that we're all in the same place! We've spent most of our time settling in but this last weekend we did do a little sight seeing. We headed up to Pike's Peak.



This was a trip we might NEVER do again. We will probably go to Pike's Peak again but we will not drive. It had to have been the windiest uphill drive that any of us had ever been in. It is also pretty difficult to breath at 14,000 feet so as you are driving up the mountain you can feel the difference. It was beautiful if you didn't think about falling off the side of a mountain.



The trip down wasn't as bad unless you count almost getting run off the road by an ambulance. There was a charity hike up the mountain that day and I guess there were several people in need of medical assistance. There is always medical crew up at the top and they even have an oxygen room to take those that need help breathing. Well, after the charity hike the one ambulance wasn't enough. On our way down we passed one coming up and THEN we came around a curve with an ambulance headed straight for us. Some idiot in a blue car did NOT pull over for the ambulance and so he was trying to pass it just as WE came around. Nothing like a giant vehicle squeezing in between two cars on a skinny mountain road!!! Fortunately we all survived!



As we got closer to the bottom of the route we got to watch a life light helicopter land. Turns out one of the people at the top was too sick for the ambulance and at 14,000 feet the helicopter is limited on the weight it can carry so they let off one of the crew and then flew up to the top. They actually let off a smoke signal so the pilot knows where to land up there. The kids thought this was pretty cool and one of the forest rangers was nice enough to explain it all to us.

Now I'm just hoping that the rest of our adventures in Colorado are just as beautiful but not as "eventful".

1 comment:

Mindi said...

I hate to read that you were so sad:( I hope you will really like Colorado. I have to tell you when I heard your mom lives there now it made me a little sad. I thought "now she will not ever come back". I guess I kept hoping you would. Your Pike's Peak adventure sounds exciting! I bet it was just beautiful!!