Mountain Clams

Manitou Springs trip

On the weekend of August 19th, we took a quick trip down to the Colorado Springs/Manitou Springs area to see what there was to see. We started out at the Garden of the Gods, arriving at night and sleeping in the truck until the sun was just peeking over the top of the hillside next to us. The naturally red rocks took on a deep hue in the early morning sun. We made and ate a delicious breakfast, then walked around long enough to get a sunburn, taking pictures of everything.

Feeling hungry, we meandered back to Colorado Springs. At first, I was going to go to the sushi restaurant near the Citadel Mall, but we ended up driving north instead, towards the Chapel Hills Mall area. We happened upon Texas Land and Cattle, and boy, are we happy we did! They had fantastic service, great atmosphere, and awesome food - the pepper-crusted smoked (never grilled) beef is at the top of my list now, and I only got a bite of it! Too bad they're not in Denver... Yet.

We reached the hotel just before the end of happy hour, so within 15 minutes of walking in the door, we had 3 free drinks in each of us. Fortunately, it was only house Scotch and whiskey, so not much of an impact. A quick shower and we headed to the movie theater to see Stardust. I LOVED this movie. I must own it.

The next day, we headed west on 24 to the cliff dwellings, where we probably spent just as much time in the sprawling gift shop as we did walking through the actual dwellings. It's a neat place, but difficult to envision what it must have been like long ago, before the road was put into place.

From there, we got to the Cave of the Winds with just enough time to jump on the next-to-last Discovery tour. It was a bit crowded, and the various tour groups had some stacking issues. I rated the logistics low. (If you're in the IFGS, you get that joke.) But the scenery was nice as usual. Maybe it's me, but the tour seemed a little more rushed than it had before. I can't wait to see the super-night-shot video of the dark areas of the cave.

We tried to go out to Seven Falls, but the price was a little outrageous for what little we would have been able to see in the failing light of the day. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was closed by this time, too. There are some really nice houses out that way. Some really ugly ones, too. But all expensive.

Later in the evening, we found ourselves in Manitou Springs again. Many of the shops were closed, as it was getting late. We walked around looking for a place that might have a bathroom and found ourselves in the dulcimer shop. Bud the younger was behind the counter, and Bing Futch was visiting. We chatted with them for almost two hours about dulcimers and music. They told us about a music festival coming up that they would be performing in. Bud recommended that we go to the Keg for dinner. The grill was mostly closed, but they had burgers and salad, so that's what we had.

At the end of a long night, we had the long drive from Manitou Springs up to Longmont. It's no wonder I've already got 16,000 miles on my "new" truck!

Labels: travel

posted by Brett @ 6:50 PM