People don't live in the mountains

Evenin' Campers! It's Silver Cliche' again. Joining you tonight, once again, from Cheyenne Mountain State Park perched above Colorado Springs.

So, today started cold and windy with the threat of rain. We had no specific plans for the day. From the start this had been a "stay in place" day of the trip and a chance to explore the Colorado Springs area. I mentioned last night that there's quite a lot happening here for a city of less than 500,000. There are major natural attractions (Pike's Peak is less than 10 miles from town), military (Cheyenne Mountain, Fort Carson, USAF Academy), national institutions (US Olympic Committee and training center) and history (Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and mining). We looked at the weather, considered where we've already been, contemplated where we are headed and decided not to see any of that. We dedicated today to resupply for the next phase of the trip.

That was accomplished by heading out around 10:00 to visit various shops including a couple of stores where warmer Colorado-grade clothing is sold (the stuff we need now is out of season for the locals and on sale) and Trader Joe's where smart campers go to stock up on fare that beats hot dogs on the grill and s'mores (ok... it's possible that when one goes camping that nothing beats hot dogs on the grill and s'mores). Knowing that there is plenty of bar-b-que and Mexican food behind and ahead of us we took advantage of being in a city and lunched at a French bistro. Seriously. The reviews online said this place has the finest French onion soup in the state of Colorado. We put it to the test. It delivered. With the temperature struggling to reach 60 degrees, the locals were out in tee shirts and flip flops. I was wearing my favorite thick corduroys that I have literally not been able to wear since moving to Florida full time.  That was topped by a long sleeve cotton/wool tee shirt and a fleece jacket. My body said I was in winter and darn it, I was dressing for it!

Just to tie back to an earlier topic, yes... we did drive the "Americal Mile" here in Colorado Springs. In fact, this is an old city center with a ring road. The space between the two is nothing but Americal Mile. Here's a pic of the point where I said "wait a minute... this is Americal Mile "Colorado Edition" with the peaks in the background:

This was just after our Trader Joe's stop. It occurred to me that there is an aspect of every stretch of Americal Mile that I failed to mention the other day when I described this common feature of our country. Fried food smell. The Americal Mile can be a cruel place for two older Americans who are trying to eat properly on the road. After a discussion in Trader Joes that included "Honey, would you rather have the roasted corn and black beans with queso fresco or the quinoa and edamame with ginger soy dressing?" the last thing you want is to smell burger and onion ring aroma filling the truck. It's just cruel, I tell you.

Let's talk about the locals. While there are a few older, conservatively dressed folks like Mrs. C' and me here, we are outnumbered. The Colorado look that says "this is home" involves either nose piercings (your pick... the bull ring dangling above the lip or the stud through the side of the nose both say "I'm local" here) or dreadlocks or multi-colored hair. When I say "multi-colored hair" I don't mean silver and something that used to be dark brown. If so, I might pass the "local" test. I mean half purple and half yellow (which I think they call the "happy Easter") or blue and white or some other two-tone combo that would have worked on a 1950's car. So, lacking a piercing, dreads or eye catching hair marks me as a visitor. Oh well. 

We've also started to tune into some regionalism and stress in the life of Colorado. This comes from chatting it up with the locals and watching Colorado broadcast TV. The decision to legalize recreational marijuana here a few years back has not gone down well with everyone in the state. Both in Del Norte where we were a few days back and here in Colorado Springs, the local governments have enacted legislation to block retail recreational marijuana sales. They've done it using zoning laws similar to the way communities have historically barred businesses of one type or another. Think of "dry counties" in the south and midwest. They've got 'em here, too.

So, let's get to a few pics that tell more about this place. I have always thought of Colorado as a mountain state. It is, of course. 8 of the 10 tallest peaks in the lower 48 are here. Only Mt. Whitney (California) and Mt. Ranier (Washington) are taller. The difference between Whitney and Colorado's tallest peak Mt. Elbert is only 61 feet. Colorado peaks are also amazingly, consistently high. There are 53 peaks scattered around the state between 14,001 feet and 14,433'.

The other day I mentioned that I-25 runs north/south from one end of the state to the other and is close to the middle of the state... maybe 40% of the way in from the Kansas border to the east. We can literally see I-25 from our campsite about 5 miles east of us. Here's a pic of Cheyenne Mountain taken from that ring road around Colorado Springs just near where it joins I-25. Our campsite is in this picture just to the left of the white dot at the base of the mountain in the center of the frame:

 That dot, by the way, is the entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain complex. Behind those blast doors and buried in the mountain are 15 three story office buildings mounted on spring shock absorbers (to dampen the shock of the nuclear blast!) and enough water, food and fuel to last until the fallout clears.

The view from the campsite looking at where the pic above was taken looks like this:

And a more complete panorama of the same view but from about 100 yards south of our campsite: 

However, standing next to the trailer and looking west gives this:

That's Cheyenne Mountain and behind it is nothing but more mountains for about 150 miles.

I hear you saying "OK, Cliche'... enough of the compass point views already... what's your point?" It's this: Colorado people talk about their "mile high this" and "Rocky Mountain that" but they don't actually live in the high points of their state. The I-25 corridor which runs along the eastern edge of these mountains contains the top 14 population centers of the state. You have to go all the way to #15... Grand Junction, which is on the Utah border and has fewer than 60,000 population to find a city that isn't on the plains. So maybe when John Denver wrote "Rocky Mountain High" he was describing the state he was in whenever he talked about life in the mountains. I guess "Livin' on the plains" wouldn't have made for a soaring ballad. Most Coloradans live in a place that's as flat as the state we come from... and that's flat.

OK... I'm done ranting for tonight. Tomorrow we move north to Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. Now that's actually in the mountains. Let me look at my list. Yep... #65... 5,800 residents. You see, I told you nobody here actually lives in the mountains.

Later!

SC'