Monday, June 28

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June 28, Monday - Left Limon and went to Denver. Cooked lunch at Echo Lake. Went to Central City and spent the night at Estes Park.

June 29, Tuesday - Went to Grand Lake by way of Trail Ridge Road. Took a cruise ride in the afternoon and rested the rest of the day. Called Marvin.

June 30, Wednesday - A beautiful day! From Grand Lake to Berthoud Pass, to Loveland Pass to Hoosier Pass to Manitou. Bud and I went up the Manitou Incline.

Our vacations tended to be whirlwind affairs - Limon to Echo Lake to Central City Estes Park is about 220 miles. You could generally drive into a mountain town somewhere and without benefit of reservations, find a nice place to stay.

We cooked lunch out among the pines on a Coleman propane camp stove. Even to my jaded 15 year old palate, it tasted like cordon bleu. The stove, because of the high altitudes, required a larger gas orifice to work properly. My aunt Patty latched onto that and we heard orifice jokes all the time we were in Colorado. It's a goofy family, to be sure. It took a few years for me to understand the understated humor of orifices.

Trail Ridge Road is a scenic wonder, but Grand Lake is not all that much to write home about, except for the stories about the fur-bearing trout that live there. So mom called home. Remember, this is 1965. Long Distance calling is a thing, and a few minutes on the phone between Colorado and Kansas City would probably have cost six or seven bucks or more. Say hello, keep it brief, and hang up.

All the passes, Loveland, Pass, Berthoud Pass, Hoosier Pass, and on to Manitou Springs. The standard procedure went something like this: Pick a route on the map, decide when and where to eat lunch, and take off driving. Arrive at a waypoint, get out, point at the sign, have your picture taken, lather, rinse, repeat. Sadly, those images have been lost to the ravages of time, dozens of moves, crabby relatives, and our dramatic downsize.

Here's one from a number of years earlier, taken on a big family caravan vacation. This is at Snowy Range Pass, Wyoming:

Please note the nine year-old photographer on the left holding his trusty Ansco Pioneer 620. I already knew what I wanted to do with my life.

Anyway, the Manitou Incline was, to me a wonder of engineering. It was a railway that ran up the side of a mountain in Manitou. You sat in a reclining seat, facing Colorado Springs. As the car started up the steep incline, you were no longer reclining. You were sitting upright and wondering what would happen if one of those drive cables snapped. You'd be doing Mach 1 by the time you got to the bottom, I think. My aunt Patty got a case of the yips thinking about it, and I used my natural talents as a jokester and smartass to keep her mind occupied with laughter. By the time we got to the top, the whole damn car was laughing, and when we got back to the bottom of the incline, the some guy told my mom he and his wife had so much fun listening to us that he paid for our dinner. Historical perspective: he never should have encouraged me. I still think I'm pretty funny.

The Incline Railway was closed after a rock slide in the 1990s, but the roadbed, minus the rails remains. Now, crazy people hike up the damn thing. Straight up. What a world.