Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak

I am still having trouble getting video and photos to upload. I believe it is the internet connection at the motel, and the town. Anyway I did insert one photo into an earlier post, and when I get some place I can get a good fast internet connection I will load more stuff into those posts.

I got up mat 0500 to go to the Garden of the Gods park. The weather was a little cloudy, but it cleared up a little in the morning. I met up with a guy who goes to the park daily to shoot photos, so he showed me some of his spots, and pointed out others. This was helpful. He had some real nice shots on his camera. It is a matter of being there at the right time. I took a lot of shots for HDR type photographs. Unfortunately I did not load the HDR program into this laptop so I can not process them. I can still tweak them with another program. I spent much of the morning at the Garden of the Gods park and enjoyed myself. There are lots of red rock formations.

After the park I went back, got into my riding gear and headed for Pikes Peak. The ride was fun except for the torturous slow motorist. Some apparently were terrified to be driving on that road. On the hairpin curves they litterly almost came to a stop, and then they still could not keep in their own lane. I did get a few breaks from the turtles and took an easy run. The road up is long, I think over 16 miles and with the traffic took about an hour. Upon getting to the top half the peak was in a cloud. The temp was 42 and it was a little chilly. What I really noticed was the lack of O2. I didn't think it would bother me as much as it seemed to do. I just started taking deeper breaths as I tend to be a belly breather, and with my gut, it shouldn't have been a problem. I met one guy in a neck brace. He broke it racing up the peak at the races earlier this year. The old fellow says he'll be back next year. He races in the vintage class, same as Eddie Mulder, one of the racers I met four years ago on my first cross country ride with Big Jim, and my brother-in-law Rod.

I stopped at the cliff dwelling ruins on the way back. They were interesting, but after a half hour, I headed back to the motel. I did my laundry. After about two weeks on the road I have exhausted both sides of my socks and underwear! Just kidding, I actually had a pair or two with a good side left.

Tomorrow I leave for the rally in Paonia. I will take the Independence pass as I cross Colorado. I do not know what kind of internet connection I may find there. If I have to use the 3g on the Xoom, then I will just continue with the written post and wait until I get somewhere I can upload all the photos and video.