My First Fourteener

  I've lived in Colorado for 37 years

and I finally got to the top of my first fourteener. 

Running man and I went to Manitou Springs, Colorado

 last weekend for a little R and R. 

We stayed at a beautiful restored inn called the Cliff House.

  It was a beautiful inn 

and we had a lovely room, 

but why are there wires coming out of the toilet? 

 

  An electric toilet seat warmer.  

Those Toto toilets are something else.

  Manitou Springs is the base for the cog railway 

that will take you to the top of Pike's Peak. 

 

 It was sunny at the bottom, 

but very cloudy and cold at the top.

30 degrees in June.

 

 Occasionally the clouds would break and reveal a landscape below.  

 

 

Did you know Zebulon Pike never made it to the top?

 Did you know that Pike's Peak was the inspiration for

 the song America the Beautiful?

 Katherine Lee Bates penned the song 

as she rode a burro to the top and back in 1893.

There are running races to the top, 

car races,

and of course hiking, 

but the railway was my way to climb my first fourteener.

At the top

there is little oxygen,

 a large tacky gift shop,

 and proof that I made it.

 Until Next Time-