This "bus conversion" caught our eye parked in a gas station along side the main street. Quite the paint job and how about that second story?

The Cog Railroad Station in Manitou Springs, CO.

Here is Joy waiting patiently to board the cog railroad.

Although I was a tiny bit concerned about the lack of oxygen at the summit, I was excited about taking the ride to the top.

What a view! You can see forever from up here. That is Colorado Springs down in the valley.

The air was thin and it was very cold ... brrrrr!

Reservoir on the flank of Pike's Peak.

"World Famous 14,000 foot donuts."

Obviously, their claim to fame is being deep fried over two miles above terra firma because otherwise they are ordinary cake donuts with no embellishments. One of these and a big cup of hot chocolate hit the spot at the summit.

Phil and Joy, all bundled up on the Cog Railroad heading back down Pike's Peak.

Phil loves this place. He has fond memories of visiting these exotic rock formations when he was a teenager.

Famous balancing rock.

People were letting their children crawl around underneath it ... made me wonder what they were thinking!

2:04 pm Sunday, October 7, 2007

This is our final day in Truth or Consequences NM. It is 80 degrees already at noon; the coach is heating up so we have the air conditioning on. I felt less than 100% well yesterday so we stayed home all day and have not gone out exploring like I had hoped. I feel better today so maybe we will get out and about later this afternoon.

My last post left off with our visit to Lead and Deadwood, SD. From Rapid City we traveled to Scottsbluff, NE. We actually had several reasons to turn our Penny the Pace south into Nebraska. The first being we had missed NE on our trip back east in 2005 and wanted to get that state on to our magnetic USA map. This map (on the front end of our slide-out) is where we display for all to see the states we have traveled in our coach. We had added the state of Wyoming on the way through to South Dakota.

We also wanted to see historic Chimney Rock and Scottsbluff. Since it is fairly certain this is the trail my great grandmother traveled on her way to Lead (City) from their farm in NE after it was sold, I wanted to experience the area and view the terrain. Serendipitously, we discovered that the headquarters for our favorite outdoor store is located in Sydney, NE so one day we drove down. Phil loves the little short pieces of black licorice and Cabelas has the best we have ever found around the country. There were only four packages on the shelf and we bought them all (usually we buy at least six). Phil also found a couple very nice shirt/jackets to replace his worn out Levi shirt/jacket ... on sale even!

We cross the Nebraska State line in the modern day version of a "covered wagon" ... our wonderful Penny the Pace.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the trepidation felt by my beloved progenitor as she and her family headed their wagons toward South Dakota that fall of 1890.

Wow ... awesome vistas!

Another marker along a trail my great grandmother may have taken on her trek to South Dakota in 1890.

A long, lonesome road ...

Miles of prairie ...

Sign at the Chimney Rock Visitor's Center.

Very informative.

These signs always get my attention!

I can't help but wonder how many pioneers were bitten as they walked across the prairie. Conversely, it seems plausible the noise and dust chased the poisonous vipers away before the children and animals came along.