July 14, 2007

Today Richard and Vera went to Pike’s Peak. They took the cog railway to the top. There are just over 50 cog railways worldwide and this is the highest, reaching an altitude of 14,115 feet. This 1st picture is one of the old engines that used to take the train to the top. Next you can see yard where they do the maintenance and store the trains.

After passing through the tree line, the views were fantastic. It was an hour and ten-minute trip narrated by the train conductor. On the way up, he told them to look east and they could see Kansas. It was an awesome ride to the top

Here they are standing at the end of the track at the top. Isn’t this a great view of the surrounding area?

The temperature at the top was nice. They were comfortable with a light jacket and shorts as you can tell in this picture.

Now it was time for the trip back down the mountain. They both said it was a great trip and they picked the perfect day to visit Pike’s Peak.

While Richard and Vera enjoyed Pike’s Peak, Char and I spent time with our family. We went to another of Abby’s baseball games. She had some good hits and a great play at third base getting the opposing player out. Our most enjoyable was watching her as the catcher. She has a great arm and was complimented by both her coaches and the other team coaches for her good throws.

After the game we stopped for lunch in Castle Rock and then went to see Abby and Jill’s school. Abby will be in the second grade this year and Jill will be teaching the first grade. This is Jill’s room.

It is difficult for me to imagine that I was small enough to fit in these tiny desks.

Tomorrow will be our last day in the Denver area. We plan to go to the farmer’s market with Jill, Karl and Abby in the late morning and then to a park for a picnic lunch. Later in the day we will start the pack up process for the next leg of our journey. We will move to Loveland, Colorado where we plan to spend some time in Rocky Mountain National Park and go to the Cheyenne Rodeo Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming.