As of this summer, it's been twenty years since I graduated from high school...and thus, twenty years since I've lived in Colorado full-time. Ouch, I am sure getting old! When I visit my home state, it is interesting to see which things have changed, and which things have stayed the same.
For example, the hotel where we stayed at for the majority of our Colorado trip. Today it's a
Radisson Hotel, but it has changed ownership several times over the years. Frankly, I'm a little surprised it's still in business; it's a huge, over sized building in a part of town that has no need of a hotel that size. Most of the Radisson seemed unoccupied for the majority of our stay; we'd take the elevators and walk the halls, and see almost nobody else, guests or staff. It's anybody's guess how long this hotel will hold out. Who knows? Maybe someday, the building will be torn down, and a smaller, more efficient one will be built in its place.
However, I will mourn the day when this hotel finally goes away. Why? Because it's the place where my high school held its Senior Prom in 1995. It's in this ballroom (well, the ballroom behind these doors, anyway) where I attended Senior Prom with Nathan Barrett, on our very first date! It wasn't a romantic date (we were in the "friends-only" stage at that point), but it was a very fun night that we both remember fondly. It marked the beginning of "us" as a pair, and for that I'll always be grateful. Every time we walked through the hotel lobby, I was filled with fond remembrances of that long-ago date, and all the good things it has led to in both our lives.
Other things in Colorado have changed
a lot. Like this former McDonald's. Can you guess what it is now?
 |
| The sign says "The Green Solution." Hmmm.... |
I'll give you a hint; a few years ago, Colorado legalized recreational marijuana by popular vote. It's not like there wasn't
any marijuana in the state before that; quite the contrary, there were
plenty of places you could score some weed (Boulder, another city in the Denver metro area, is notorious for the amount of pot sold there). If you approached the right people in the right place, it was relatively easy to get a joint. But now that it's legal all across the state, it's easier than ever...and it feels very in-your-face too! Why, even old, shut-down McDonald's restaurants are now being converted into marijuana shops that any adult can visit (I admit, Nathan and I were tempted! It's
legal, right??)
I admit: seeing all the marijuana dispensaries in my hometown (and they really are
everywhere; my parents pointed several out to me every day as I drove around. You've gotta watch out for the green cross on the building signs!) made me a little uncomfortable. I will always consider Colorado my "home," but on this trip, it felt like something had shifted inexorably while I was away, never to return to its original state. My childhood home felt a little rougher, edgy and skewed. I suspect things will never go back to the way they were, though, so this is a reality I will have to deal with from now on.
I know my Colorado extended family members have very mixed feelings about the legalization of marijuana. On one hand, the home prices have skyrocketed; on the other hand, everything is still very unregulated and uncoordinated...the revenue heading into the state's coffers is certainly not at the level the government had anticipated or hoped. I have suspected that Arizona is edging towards legalizing marijuana as well (possibly in the next decade or so). After visiting Colorado, I hope my new home state takes its time and covers all its bases, so they can properly regulate the sales & distribution of the drug. I hope they can learn from Colorado's early mistakes!
Despite being surrounded with "Mary Jane" on our trip, Nathan and I never inhaled (hee hee). It definitely wouldn't be worth it to try! However, on our last day in Colorado, I suddenly became obsessed with getting a "natural high"...both in the emotional and topographical sense.
The kids were in the backseat crying at the thought of leaving their grandparents & cousins; and I was facing a long, boring drive to Albuquerque with no one to relieve me in the driver's seat. So I hit on the (slightly crazy) idea of driving up the most famous mountain in the state...
...Pike's Peak! It's one of Colorado's many "Fourteeners" (aka, mountains that rise more than 14,000 feet above sea level), and it's located outside Colorado Springs, which was on our way out of town. I warned the girls that it would mean extra driving for the day, but they were game for an adventure. Luckily, I had enough snacks in the car that it helped pass the time.
The
Pike's Peak Highway is well-paved and kept, but you have to pay to drive on it; it wasn't cheap, but I decided it would be worth the effort. It happened to be a cooler, rainy day, so we drove through several banks of clouds on the way up. It was fascinating to watch the vegetation change as we got higher and higher. As we ascended, I kept narrating our journey to the girls, explaining the concept of "tree-line" and other concepts that were foreign to these lowland-born children.
The highway was 19 miles long, and it was very steep and winding in places. As we passed above tree-line, the drop-off beside the highway suddenly looked a lot more menacing, with no trees to break the terrible tumble to our deaths.
As we climbed higher and higher, it started raining on us...and that rain had turned to snow by the time we reached the top!
Yes, snow on July 8th! It's a good thing we had our jackets out, because we definitely needed them.
There really isn't much to do at the very top of Pike's Peak. There's a small visitor's center/snack bar/gift shop, and a railway station (for the famous
Pike's Peak Cog Railway), but that's about it. A few stubborn snowdrifts clung to the ground, which made walking difficult in places.
There were also a few plaques proudly proclaiming just how high up we were...
Since it was a cloudy, wet day, our visibility was somewhat limited. But even with our view partially obscured, the vistas were spectacular.
It was truly awesome to stand on top of a huge mountain and watch the movement of storms from
above the clouds. We could see lightning striking miles
below us. We watched the very storm we'd passed through to get there, as it ebbed and flowed in different directions around the base of the mountain. We felt a little like the Greek gods must feel when they're sitting on Mount Olympus!
The girls were freezing the whole time, but exhilarated as well by the wildness and weirdness of the place. All of us also really felt the lack of oxygen; the air is noticeably thinner on the peak. At times, I had to move slowly and take deeper breaths, so as not to get exhausted.
We stayed up top for about an hour or so. We bought a few little souvenirs from the gift shop and then headed on down. The drive down was actually a little more frightening than the drive up, if only because I was worried our van's brakes weren't going to hold out. At times, I'd pull the car over to take pictures, and I could smell the smoking brakes as soon as I opened my door. Thankfully, they held out long enough for us to descend to more level roads.
There were so many spectacular pictures along the way! I love Arizona, but I really love the tall, majestic Colorado Rockies. I often wish I could go tromping off into the hills and lose myself for a while in these amazing mountains. But even if I can't do that, at least I was able to take a nice drive up the side of Pike's Peak and experience that
"Colorado Rocky Mountain High" for a few hours, before heading back towards the desert.
Thanks to our lengthy detour up the mountain, we didn't make it to Albuquerque until very late that night. But it was worth it for the great adventure we had. It was a fitting end to our time in Colorado. I can't wait to go back, but for now I'll have a lot of great memories and pictures to tide me over. Hopefully it won't be three years until our next visit! (And hopefully the state won't be buried under fields of cannabis by then, either.)
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