Back From Colorado Springs

[Ksyrup]

I'm sorry to say, I'm back from vacation. Colorado Springs was beautiful and a needed change of pace from this hot, humid hellhole I call home. Saw it snow for the first time since 1989 at the top of Pike's Peak, then drove back down in a hail storm and took my daughter swimming in an outdoor pool. All in the span 5 hours. Surreal.

We did all of the touristy things, but had a lot of fun. Some amazing scenery out there. Got to see a Rockies game, and my Tigers even pulled out a win for me on Friday night. All things considered (like my MC bill), a great, relaxing vacation.

Now, what have I missed around here? I had absolutely no connection to the net for 8 days - no email, no nothing. That's the longest I've ever been disconnected from the net since I first got service in 1993.

[JeeberD]

Yeah, Colorado has some crazy weather. Folks down here in Texas think they have looney weather, but they ain't seen nothing compared to Colorado...

[Anrhydeddu]

hot, humid hellhole

I'm glad you said that and not me. :)

We have been having a relatively cool and wet Spring, which is so welcomed after having hot and very dry Springs (or years) this decade. But we have enough variety in a day to make it interesting. Jeeb is right. When others say "if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes", all they are refering to is the sudden start and stop of a thunderstorm. Here in the Springs (or anywhere along the Front Range of the Rockies), we can have 90 mph winds, warm clear skies, thunderstorms, hail, snow flurries - all in one day (usually in the early Spring though). But in no way would we have hot humid hellhole weather, just cool, dry mountain breezes most of the time.

Really glad you and your family had a great time here. Tell your friends to vacation out here too.

[Craptacular]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Tell your friends to vacation out here too.

I'm way ahead of you. Counting my trip this Friday, all three of my vacations or quasi-vacations in the last year will have been to or started in CO. If we ever leave Madison, we're moving out there!

[Anrhydeddu]

Crap, that sounds like me 20 years ago. I first vacationed in Colorado in 1983 (after undergrad). From 1983 to 1988, it seems like every trip I made, I went through Colorado. For instance, when I drove from San Diego to grad school in UNC, I spent a week in Colorado. When I flew home for Christmas, I stopped in Colorado. And of course, Springs Break was spent in Colorado. It was my dream to live here and I am very blessed to have done so since 1989. (Now in about 4 years, we are very much looking forward to leaving Colorado, but that's another story.)

[SunDancer]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Crap, that sounds like me 20 years ago. I first vacationed in Colorado in 1983 (after undergrad). From 1983 to 1988, it seems like every trip I made, I went through Colorado. For instance, when I drove from San Diego to grad school in UNC, I spent a week in Colorado. When I flew home for Christmas, I stopped in Colorado. And of course, Springs Break was spent in Colorado. It was my dream to live here and I am very blessed to have done so since 1989. (Now in about 4 years, we are very much looking forward to leaving Colorado, but that's another story.)

Where u relocating to?

[Anrhydeddu]

We want to relocate to a small town in Northern New England (preferably NH), believe it or not.

[Ryche]

Ahh I miss Colorado Springs. Went to college for 4 years there before moving back to Minnesota. Just awesome weather, sunny and dry most of the summer, alternating between snow and 50 during the winter. I'd give my left nut to move back there right now.

[Ksyrup]

The change in weather is giving me some problems. I had no problem going from hell to heaven, but heaven to hell has given me a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat. I remember when I moved from Michigan to Texas, and then Texas to Georgia, I developed bronchitis both times. I don't take changes to weather very well.

CS was great. We hit pretty much everything that was close by, but opted not to go too far out of town - we skipped Royal Gourge, for example - and we also didn't hit the things we thought our daughter would get bored with, so we skipped the Olympic training center and the Academy.

My days are all running together, but as I recall, we did the mountain zoo (what a hell of a walk that was!) on Sunday morning, drove/hiked/climbed around the Garden of Gods on Sunday afternoon, took the cog railway up Pike's Peak on Monday afternoon, did the cliff dwellings and cave of the winds on Tuesday, the North Pole on Wednesday, and drove up the Peak again on Thursday morning and hit the Ghost Town Museum quickly that afternoon. And then went to Michelle's for dinner and desert that night.

We stayed at Cheyenne Mountain Resort, which was really nice, but not as nice as The Broadmoor, I imagine, just based on price. We were able to go swimming a couple of times, which made Caitlin happy. We didn't really take advantage of many of the resort's offerings, though, as we were out and about most of the time.

The weather was terrific, although a bit more cloudy and rainy then I expected. Especially since all I heard about the entire week was "drought this" and "drought that." But oddly, the rain never really stopped us from doing much of anything, and provided a snow flurry on the mountain that I'm glad to have seen. The lightning shows were spectacular, especially Thursday evening. The coolness was a welcome change. Even up on the summit of Pike's Peak, in the snow, I was out there in shorts and short-sleeve shirt loving every minute of it. I could spend my summers there, easily. Winter, I'm not so sure, but summer, definitely!

What's with all of the moths in town, and the birds that fly daredevil-like through the intersections? Watching them sure made the wait between lights go quickly. That was really odd, though.

On Friday, we drove back to Denver and took our daughter to the zoo in the afternoon, then waited out a huge storm at the hotel before heading to the Rockies game. We were under a thunderstorm and tornado watch, but got not one drop of rain at the game. And the Tigers even won!

Now I'm ready for another vacation...

[Anrhydeddu]

What's with all of the moths in town, and the birds that fly daredevil-like through the intersections? Watching them sure made the wait between lights go quickly. That was really odd, though.

It's the annual May/June Miller Moth invasion. They concoon themselves in Western Kansas and Eastern Colorado before heading up to the high country. Most never make it as you saw.

We are still in a drought because after 4 years of severe lack of precipitation, it would take about 3-5 years of normal wetness to get the reservoirs back to normal. For example, we have 7 reservoirs on the South Slope of Pikes Peak. All have been empty (as in dry) since last Spring when we got no snow and very little rain all year. Our big reservoirs on the Continental Divide (near Aspen and Breckenridge) are doing well right now but they were down to about 25-37% earlier this year. As you saw, the Front Range cities are growing (Springs is up over 500,000) and that comes with more demands for water.

[Craptacular]

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Our big reservoirs on the Continental Divide (near Aspen and Breckenridge) are doing well right now but they were down to about 25-37% earlier this year.

I want to go scuba diving in Lake Dillon.

[Anrhydeddu]

Just don't pee in it. :)

[Craptacular]

I was tempted to do that (or worse) when we were out there after the Broncos beat the Pack in the Super Bowl.

[Airhog]

The truth is out! We now know why he calls himself craptacular :D