Just as a reminder, this is a recap of a trip that myself, my mom and my cousin Steve took on Saturday – we trekked down south to the Royal Gorge for some touristy type fun.
Okay. SO. Where were we? Oh, yeah – I’d just made it across that damned bridge! How dare it be all swaying in the wind making me uneasy! *shakes fist menacingly*
Now that we’re on the other side, though – is there anything left to do? Turns out the answer to that question is: YES!
First up, some hiking.
“…1/2 mile with steep grades… adequate footwear recommended…” PFFFT! how steep could it be?
Huh. That… uh.. Huh. Still! It can’t be that way all the way up, can it?!
…s’just… *huff*… *puff*… see… *huff* I’ma… *puff* …writer… *huff-puff* …I work on… *huff*… *puff*…computers! …give me… *huff* a…*puff* second…
Hey! Who wants to NOT climb all the way up this damned hill? We can probably see everything from this spot right here, right? Let’s see:
Dude! Steve! What the hell, man?! You’re in my shot! Move please?
Ahhh… That’s better. There’s the whole danged bridge! Looks kinda small from up here. Now, who wants to go back down the way we came and forget we ever tried to climb this damned hill in the first place? Just remember to remind me not to mention any of it in the blog post.
Oh. Crap.
Ah, well. We headed back down the hill (little realizing just how close we were to the top where there’s a TRAM THAT WILL TAKE YOU BACK DOWN THE HILL), and went into the little theater where we saw a quick movie on the history of the place. The only excitement was in trying to take self portraits:
Steve didn’t bring a camera, so he had to settle for an ‘oh shit’ candid shot:
Following that, we had lunch at this place:
The website talked about hickory smoked BBQ. Being that my mom’s side of the family is from the south, this appealed greatly. We were bummed to learn that that half of the place was closed. The other half was selling burgers and hot dogs, but said they had BBQ sandwiches. Mom tried one. She wasn’t happy. Not in the least. You should never serve something you’re calling BBQ to someone who knows BBQ and hope to survive. It just isn’t a good plan.
Following up lunch, we headed to the ‘Mountain Man Camp’; a ‘true representation of an old west town’. There, we saw a gun fight. Doc wanted to gift the town to his new bride, a woman he grabbed off the street.
In order to do that, though, he needed for Slim and The Kid to leave town.
He gave em a choice: head on or fight it out. The Kid chose to try and shoot the star on Doc’s hat. He missed and kilt poor old Calamity.
This upset the deputy, who shot back.
Killing The Kid…
Well now, Slim, he didn’t like that. Nope. Not one bit. He drew on the deputy.
…and kilt him dead.
Old Doc, he didn’t like that at all, but he was still willing to give Slim a chance. He put his hat on his wife to be (after grabbing him a ‘back up’ from the street – just in case), and said if Slim could shoot the star without putting a hole in his favorite hat, well, he’d let him be. Slim took a shot.
…and took the hat clean off her head! But, sadly, he missed the star and put a hole in Doc’s favorite hat, which upset him to no end! He was willing to lose his soon to be wife (cuz he had a back-up), but shooting a man’s hat?! That could not be excused!
…and that was the end of Slim and The Kid.
Now, while all of THAT was going on, a damned cow stole my drink!
I was standing next to a pen with three bulls in it (I suppose they were bulls and not cows. Sigh.).
Yes, they have saddles on them and yes, the cowboys actually rode them around town – which was odd to see. Anyway, somehow, the smallest (and most sneaky / clever) of them, managed to grab my cup and dragged it into the pen when my attention was on the gun fight. I’d set it down so I could take pictures. When I turned around, it was gone. Then I noticed it in the pen – you can see it in this photo:
SNEAKY! Like a bull ninja!
After extricating the cup from the pen so the bulls wouldn’t eat it (no, I didn’t do it – they had cowboys for that kind of stuff), we moseyed (yes – I said ‘moseyed’) on out of town and over to the livery stable where they had horses!
Alas, to actually ride the horses was a bit too expensive for me on this particular weekend, so I did not partake. But the mule driven wagon ride was free!
The wagon ride takes you up on this hill where you see a genuine tee-pee and Indian camp. Sans any genuine Indians. Must’ve been off hunting.
Okay, once again I am calling it a night! Too many photos! Too many stories! I’ll have to do another post tomorrow with the remaining stuff from this side of the bridge (like the animals – oh, the animals!) and then the Incline Railroad.
So, all of that tomorrow on part 3!
~P
