Day 8: June 20, 2011

11 something

Driving out of Santa Fe

87 Degrees F

Writing on June 22, 2011

Left the Curecanti and drove straight to Colorado Springs. This took a good five hours. We really did not expect to see many interesting sights on the way—we had already experienced so many different climates and views in the state. But highway 50 really was something special. I drove for a bunch of it, having avoided the past two days due to winding mountain roads. When I stepped behind the wheel, I did not know I would head straight into one of the most terrifying drives of my life!

We passed a sign for the San Isabel National Forest and kept climbing higher and higher into the mountains. The road was often two lanes wide and there were guardrails, thank God. We drove at a steady incline directly into an opaque white cloud. More sheer drops down the side of the cliff and a complete lack of visibility freaked me out. I got through by singing some Faith Hill/Tim McGraw duets all by myself. Somehow, through the cloud, we saw a big yellow National Park sign. We had stumbled upon the Continental Divide! The elevation was over 11,000 feet. We got out to have a little photo shoot in the 100% humidity. The other amazing sight up in the cloud was a beautiful female deer silhouetted against the white sky.

After our stop, I let Teddy drive a bit so I could take a breather from my terror. We finally made it to Colorado Springs where my cousin Adrienne lives! We were just in time to see her boyfriend, Mike, off for work—he’s the editor of the local paper and works late, so it was just me, Teddy, Adrienne and the kittehs! PJ and Cookie Puss were extremely entertaining hosts; but, so were Adrienne and Mike, I guess J . Adrienne took Teddy and me to a much-needed late lunch at Arabica—yummy Middle Eastern/Greek food. We were exhausted afterward and curled up on the couch to nap and update the blog.

In the mid afternoon, Adrienne gave us the locals’ tour of some great areas in and around Colorado Springs. We shopped and explored Manitou, a self-proclaimed “weird” neighborhood. I loved the main street—there were so many little artsy shops, galleries and cafes. I got an iced Bhakti Chai at one of the cafes which gave me the sense that we definitely were in a sort of hippie/earthy type of town—which is awesome. Teddy and I cracked up at Adrienne’s admission that this area had a very high volume of Marijuana dispensaries—the names were ridiculous: “Cannipothecary” was one of our favorites.

We met some amazing locals—one who worked at an art gallery and told us the intimate details of some local artists’ lives. “Oh, you like the painted feathers upstairs? That guy’s been in prison for twenty years. Yeah, he killed someone”. Okay.

Most of the shops and restaurants still have the “old-mining-town-vibe”. We ran around the arcade, which still has a row of vintage Skeeball machines and ancient kiddie rides. We also decided to sample all of the different springs around town—Manitou, like Colorado Springs proper, was an old healing region where people with TB used to travel for the water’s “curative” properties. The waters pretty much did nothing to heal them, but it might have been a nice placebo getaway nonetheless. Each spring had a different, tonic-water-like taste—some more salty, others more bubbly, all kind of gross. But, after a while, you kind of wanted more…there was something addictive about it I think. You can see some good reaction shots down below.

After the town visit, Adrienne led us up to The Garden of the Gods, which is a mini Valley of Fire or Bryce. There were some really cool red rock formations that you would not think to find in the middle of a city or at the bottom of Pikes Peak. As tourists, we had to try to move the Balancing Rock. We had so much fun laughing at the other tourists who would stop their cars in the middle of the road right in front of us to take pictures out of their windows. (Shout out to Adrienne, Cheyenne, Tucker and Peyton Manning: “Get out yur phone!”)

We had a few hipster photo shoots at an outdoor art installation at the College of Colorado. We have no idea how the artists created the eerie, fairy-tale branch structures. See pictures.

Dinner was at Shuga’s—a super hip and cute restaurant in Co Springs that serves delicious mini meals. Ade knew the waiter who gave us each a lavender martini and a delicious freebie called “The Moxie”. I would kill for another one of their almond cakes. After dinner, we had a relaxing sit on Adrienne’s porch, listening to PJ whine at the front door—his little, eager ears peeking out from the glass. It was so, so nice to see family and catch up with another Briasco girl! Also, it was great to talk about cats (that’s a joke for Teddy. He was driven insane by amount cat stories Ade and I shared). Oh that reminds me—another cat story: Ade has a very high maintenance set of felines. PJ is 17 and needs a series of medications every day, including two subcutaneous IVs. I got to watch the whole procedure—PJ is such a good boy. They gave him 2 weeks to live 2 years ago—just another kitty with 9 lives.

In the morning, Mike joined the three of us for breakfast at Paris Crepe. Obviously, I got a Nutella banana—the perfect sweet thing to send us off for another day on the road.

Thanks to Adrienne and Mike for everything! We had an awesome time and will come back ASAP!