In which Sid and Doris do not get in the car and enjoy Colorado Springs.
The obvious thing to do today would be to drive up Pikes Peak which is just outside town and open to the public. The 12.4 mile, 156 turn climb is the venue for the world’s best known hill climb. Early records, before WW1, on the gravel road were around 20 minutes. Still on the loose perhaps the best known run is Ari Vatanen’s 1988 Peugeot 405 (sic) drive captured in the film Climb Dance. Do look it up.
The route is now paved, with the record held by Volkswagen’s electric IDR, driven by Romain Dumas. Electric power makes great sense here as range is manageable and e-motors put out a lot of torque. And that is why the JGG is not going up.
Instead we are going to the Pioneer Museum housed in the old County Court House, for a guided tour.
Before which a walk. We are the only people walking as we go up to the town park where we find the Fire Fighters’ Memorial.
It also brings home to these two non-Americans the shocking death tolls from ladders 94 and 854 on 9/11.
As Sid mutters darkly about other causes of deaths in the US (opioids: 70,000 and guns: 20,000 last year) we watch little children at American football practice and walk back through a modest suburb which has views across the Colorado Springs bowl up into the Rockies. Doris takes photos of houses, to continue answering her earlier question “do they only have clapboard houses on the coasts of the US?”.
Sid finds a giant mosaic’d pomegranate to while away the several minutes before eh guided tour of the Pioneer museum begins. Also a statue of someone wearing winter sports gear of approximately the same level of sophistication that Sid had when he was full time ice-climing – ie a jumper that your great-aunt knitted.
The museum covers the town as a Sunshine City for the cure of TB, a cause of much early twentieth century tourism and town growth as people stayed for the healthy air and brought their germs with them. We hear about the gold rushes, the effect of the end of the Dual Standard gold and silver backing the US Dollar, the mainly black immigration post the failure of the South’s post Civil War Reconstruction and get to see the court room. All very satisfying. We are recommended to keep watching re-runs of Perry Mason as the court room was used in at least three episodes.
And we spot two contenders from very different eras for the “I am fairly certain it only has three wheels” conveyance of the day specialist class award.
The town is now home to many sporting federations and the US Olympic administration, perhaps because being in the middle of the time zones is convenient? We particularly like the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.
And finally to the Conveyance of the Day Overall Award. Despite having a rather conventional four wheels, the fifth one in the front is creative. This space age mobile home has to be the winner.