07-09-2010 A Beautiful Place to be Lost

2010-07-09

We got up early to go to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We took a guided tour past the dorms and the Cadet Chapel. Unfortunately, the noon meal formation, which Tony had been really looking forward to, wasn't happening that day due to an awards ceremony or something of the like. Some parents must have been visiting sons and daughters at the Academy, because several middle-aged women were holding banners that read "Write your mother" or something similar. The platoon leader must have noticed, because the Dooleys (freshmen cadets) chanted in unison, as if they had been ordered, "I miss my mommy" as they walked by the banners. When we went to Arnold Hall (the Academy's equivalent of a student union), Tony got to reminisce over Godfathers' pizza before we left for Garden of the Gods.
The Garden of the Gods was an incredibly beautiful example of natural phenomena. Evan climbed onto a boulder beside balanced rock. Then, Evan climbed onto a lower ledge of balanced rock. Then, Evan climbed onto a very high ledge opposite the road from balanced rock. After Evan had gotten his fix, we left the Garden of the Gods for Pike's Peak. This was the first time we left the Garden of the Gods that day.
On the way to Pike's Peak, we heard a "ding" and concluded that one of the phones must have been acting up. We soon forgot about the mysterious ding; we were distracted by 10 mph tourist traffic on the only road to Pike's Peak, which ran through Manitou Springs, a touristy city of gift shops and expensive restaurants, but lacking gas stations entirely. By the time we got to the ticket booth at the bottom of Pike's Peak (it's privately run, so visitors need to buy tickets to climb the mountain), we realized that we only had an eighth of a tank of gas left - the mental lightbulbs that went off could have lit a small office - that ding an hour ago must have been the car telling us to get gas. We were still frustrated from traffic, and anxious to climb the peak, so we decided that an eighth of a tank was plenty. The base of the mountain is at an elevation of 7,000 ft, and the peak is at 14,100 ft., but by the time we hit an elevation of 9,000, the gas tank read below empty, and the idiot light had already given up. At about 13,800 ft., we decided that if we went any further, we definitely wouldn't have enough gas to make it down the mountain, past Manitou Springs, and into a gas station. We got out to take pictures, and Evan climbed to the top of the local peak. It looked like rainclouds were coming in, but to our surprise, it started snowing lightly.
Then we got back in the car for the real thrill. The trip down the hill required careful planning and vehicle operation; we were low on gas, so we had to coast, but the mountain is so steep that even a car that isn't coasting is likely to overheat the brakes, which would put a very bad ending to our vacation. The only option was to switch to the lowest gear, allowing the engine to slow the car, rather than the brakes. At 11,800 ft. was a mandatory brake check. The park ranger said that cars whose brakes are over 300 degrees are required to stop at the rest stop for 30 minutes. Our brakes were at 499 degrees. We did our time at the rest stop, and hung out with the other burnt-rubber scented vehicles. Our descent continued, and we left the park without any indication from the engine that it was about to sputter and die, so we drove onward. We started back through Manitou Springs per request of the GPS, and were soon at a dead stop, so we U-turned back onto the highway hoping for better speeds at the next exit, which we were granted. We pulled into the gas station safely, and placed bets on just how empty the tank was. The owners manual claimed that the tank holds 16.5 gallons, and when the pump stopped, the meter only read 14.5!
We started heading back north to our hotel the same way we had come down, but Tony suggested that we take an alternate route named Rampart Range, which originates inside the Garden of the Gods. We passed Garden of the Gods to get dinner, and then headed back to the entrance of Rampart Range Road. The road was an off-road path, occasionally washboard style, and occasionally two lanes, but never with a guard rail. After an hour and a half, we hadn't gone downhill once. After three hours, we were arguably lost, but still following the GPS, and a mere 30 minutes later, our faith was rewarded as we stumbled upon familiar territory - Manitou Springs! We were back on the same freeway we had taken between Manitou Springs and Pike's Peak, so we were right back where we had originally started. We then started heading north from Pike's Peak for the second time that day, and passed Garden of the Gods for the fourth time that day. Needless to say, we were thankful to get back to the hotel that night.

07-07-2010 Arriving in Kansas City

2010-07-07

At 10:30, Tony wakes up Evan and I, because we had a reservation for visiting the arch at 11:30. By 11, we were on our way over, and by 11:15, we had found a parking spot, ran/jogged for 50 feet, given up and continued walking, and finally reached the entrance to the arch.
To get to the top of the arch, you not only have to have a reservation, but you have to go through the visitors' entrance, which resembles a miniature Grand Central Station. It's even underground, accessed by two ramps which lie directly under the two sides of the arch. At the bottom of these ramps is a security checkpoint. After the security checkpoint is the gift shop, bathroom, and Westward Expansion Museum. Moving on, another ramp descends from the security checkpoint down to six "elevator" shafts located at points along the underground path of the arch.
When we arrived at the first ramp, it was fully packed all the way down to the security checkpoint - we were way too late to make our reservation. Luckily, the visitor in front of us, apparently not concerned about keeping an appointment, overheard our dilemma, and suggested that we go to the other side of the arch, which is on the far side of the arch from the parking lot, because the line might be shorter. We picked up our pace again and sure enough, the other side of the arch was completely line-free, and we made our appointment.
As I said earlier, visitors are transported to the top of the arch through "elevator" shafts. I say "elevator" because the thing resembles more closely an egg seat from "Men in Black," except that the tour guides manage to fit five anxious tourists into each pod. As the pod rises through the arch, it has to rotate at several points so that visitors don't arrive at the top of the arch at a 45 degree angle. The rattling of these sudden, periodic, and jolting rotations, combined with the view of the out-of-commision, old, metal stairs just outside our pod's viewing window can be a little off-setting, but the ride is only a few minutes (5 up and 3 down), and worth the wait. At the top of the arch, the floor, windows, and ceiling curve with the arch, because the arch is not wide enough to provide for a classically rectangular room large enough for the tourist demand. The windows lean out slightly, so visitors can look straight down.
After about five minutes at the top, we got bored of the view and left the monument for our next checkpoint, Pappy's BBQ. Aside from the obvious, they had fried corn on the cob, which dad liked, and Evan had baked beans.
We left straight from Pappy's for Kansas City, where we already had a hotel reservation (we used Hotwire extensively this trip). However, we had to find a shot glass for Evan first. He collects them, and for some reason they weren't selling them at the Gateway Arch. Long story short, we made several detours that lasted over an hour in themselves, and finally met success at a Flying J west of St. Louis on I-70.
Our hotel in Kansas City was literally right across the street from the Royals' and Chiefs' stadium. We got in early, and the room was fairly nice, so we decided to order pizza from the hotel restaurant, despite the fact that the hotel keycards had Domino's ads printed on them. Then things got sour; the pizza was made with cheddar cheese, and the free internet was quirky. We were staying at a Clarion, so when we looked for wireless connections, and found a "Clarion" wireless network, we figured that was it, but the signal was awful. However, there was an open "Holiday Inn" wireless network that worked perfectly. We noted the Holiday Inn across the street out of our window, and, though puzzled, gratefully accepted our luck. As it turns out, that Clarion used to be a Holiday Inn, and they had never changed the name of the network, so the Holiday Inn wireless network was actually the correct one. Thanks for the heads up, front desk.

2010-07-06

We drove to St. Louis, and, as you can imagine a drive through rural Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to be, it was extremely boring; that is why I'm just going to skip to the hotel experience.
We got a good price on a 4-star hotel, but there was an $18 charge to park, and no internet in the hotel room, unless you paid an extra $9.95 per computer. There was a nice business center with free internet in the lobby.
What the extra stars come from, however, are the small things - one of which was little LCD panels in the elevator showing CNN and various local advertisements. Unfortunately, these panels were running on a Microsoft operating system, and our elevator LCD screen was displaying the classic blue screen of death, with no sign of returning to the regularly scheduled programming.

Our window looked out to the Gateway Arch, only two or so blocks away to the East, and Busch stadium was nearby too. Perhaps that's why the "max price" listed for our specific room was $799 - not what we paid haha.
After we got settled in, we left to scope out the area, but we had arrived too late and mostly everything was closed already, including a local restaurant we had wanted to go to called Max and Erma's. Instead, we ate at an actual local restaurant called Calicio's. We were planning on doing BBQ in the morning, so I defected to what I thought was a Philly Cheese Steak, which turned out to be roast beef and cream cheese on a crusty bun…. oh well.