The fourth day in our cross-country journey started with a revelation—Mom solved the mystery of her malfunctioning eye that had plagued her the day before. “Sissy (most of my family calls me Sissy or Sis), I figured out what was wrong with my eye,” she said as soon as I was rolling out of bed. “I forgot to put my contact in my left eye.” Turns out her eye hadn’t “quit on her” after all.
We started the day with a jaunt up Pike’s Peak, which boasts a 14,115 foot elevation and the highest gift shop in the country. The drive up to the summit was as scenic as you can get, with bird’s eye views of lakes and towns, deep green forests, and smaller hills and peaks. There’s a pull off at a reservoir, with zaffre blue shimmering waters, dotted with the occasional boat, lines hung overboard luring in lunch. Signs line the roadside with pictures of the wildlife and plants you can expect to spot on your drive up. We saw a few yellow bellied marmots, and though there is a Bigfoot Crossing sign (erected due to the numerous sightings in the area), we didn’t spot the hide-and-go-seek guru.
The drive to the summit can also unnerve you a bit. With hairpin turns around the edges of the mountain and no guardrails lining the road, the thought of your vehicle tumbling miles down the face of the mountain does cross your mind. Mom, somewhat weary of heights, strongly urged Merle to keep the car straddling the yellow line when the drop-off was on her side. She also had a bit of trouble with the altitude, getting a bit woozy and light-headed. She wondered, “was it the altitude or the weed that John Denver was talking about in ‘Rocky Mountain High?’”
The best meal we’ve had on our trip came from Taco Navarro, in Pueblo, CO. A small, hole-in-the-wall restaurant, its specialty was street tacos and they were some kind of good. I also met a rugby fan there. He saw my USA Rugby tank-top and asked if we were playing nearby. He had seen 7s on TV and was hoping that the local college had a team—good news for our sport and its growing popularity.
The second half of our day was more scenic driving through the southwestern part of Colorado (the San Juan Mountains were a pleasure) and northeastern part of New Mexico. We saw an elk ranch (my dad would have enjoyed that), old steam engines, cows that roamed freely, some venturing into the road, and found out where all of the buffalo have gone, all three of them—in some lady’s yard in New Mexico.
In this part of the country, our conversation shifted to topics like the difference between a mesa and a butte, what exactly is an arroyo (another name for a wash), how the landscape was becoming more desert-like (like the “Mosabi” [Mojave] desert, in the words of Mom) and how some of the smooth rocks resembled driftwood (isn’t is funny how Nature mirrors itself).
All in all, we did more sightseeing on Day 4 than any other day thus far, and it was wonderful. The view from the summit of Pike’s Peak was breathtaking and the ever changing landscape of the drive through Colorado and New Mexico was wonderful to behold. There are some who would say that the magnificent view from Pike’s Peak proves the existence of a higher being. I say it’s proof that the Universe has wonders for us every day—that there is a hidden jewel, a bit of a miracle in each rising of the sun. Sometimes it takes a mountain to show us that, but if we look closely, we can find little miracles everywhere, even in the yard of an old lady in New Mexico, where there are three beautiful buffalo quietly grazing.
More on our awesome adventure tomorrow!
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