Homeward Bound

Well, we left St. Elmo on Sunday morning with wonderful memories and new friends, but a little sad at the same time. Jenee had promised to take my to Pike Peak on the cog railway, so it wasn't too hard to leave. Jenee even managed to keep awake for much of the way.

St Elmo is behind the large Mt. on the left.

I couldn't begin to tell you all about the trip up the mountain. Our conductor was so knowledgeable and had the entire train in a trance waiting on his every word. No man died building the railway, but its amazing how much manual labor was involved, everything was done the hard way, no modern bulldozers and cranes. At one point there was a beautiful hotel for workers and climbing pilgrims to stay in halfway up the mountain.



It takes 3 hours and some for the round trip. There is a public road that takes you to the summit too. It takes the average tourist close to an hour and a half and it took the current 2007 winner of the Pikes Peak hill climb less than 15 minutes. There was one corner, shown in the slide show, that the winning driver took at 70+ mph / 115 kph, tourists take it at 15 / 20.

After Pikes, we went to Royal Gorge to see the highest suspension bridge in the world. We got ripped off $23 each to walk over a bridge. If you ever go, take a look from the carpark and leave, save your money for something else.

After the Gorge we were both done for the day so we got back in the car and headed back to Denver to stay with Chris and Soha one last night. We love Chris and Soha. Monday we spent the day in Denver Zoo, which I didn't want to like, but I have to admit I loved and it's on par if not better than Adelaide and Sydney Zoo's.



What a holiday. It was just non-stop all the time. I was definitely more tired than when I left but I had a great time, and if I could I would leave tomorrow and do it all again.