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Sunday, October 27, 2019

06/19/2019 Day 10 Air Force Academy famcamp -CO

What a disappointment! 
If you’ve been keeping up with our adventure, you know we specifically came back to Colorado Springs for two main reasons. The first was to go back to Pikes Peak so Mr. Charley can replace his coffee mug that he broke. (I know, it sounds silly, but he really liked that mug).
 The gates open at 7:30 and we were in line by 7:20. Since Pikes Peak is not a National Park we couldn’t use our Sr Pass and had to pay full price $15 each. Also, due to construction, we could only drive up to a certain level & then had to switch to shuttle vans. Mr. Charley rode up front and could take pics and look around for once, so he was happy. 
In case you didn’t know, Pikes Peak is the highest summit at 14,115 feet, of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. When we drive, we like to note the starting temperature as we climb up, and watch how much it drops. 
Here’s the start temp at 51 degrees

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1WLNgHX0cxllDUiSSN_MKYePApPwjRPjs

Thirty minutes up (about halfway) it dropped to 44. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1nuCZ0zcNyiOTAe1YZjkj77JuEvQzqHub

We had to park & get on the shuttle, so we don’t know what the top temp was. It was cold and icy, but not as bitter cold as last time. 
I got some nice pics , but with all the construction going on I didn’t see any wildlife (humans mess everything up). 

 https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Yu_O9_ZBNR4QtHFJf3UxiWb5AFl-RkpX

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1QPxzhP_H32xXmuXvM8uQpIXg4KPCrxzT

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=16ICIBg4hc3DX5A8PMy29aX38rcYNYIBj

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Ya0DH9puNazJwxDTxbfT2P6vD9Gnk6RH

When we got up to the Summit, we went in to the gift shop & look what was outside the window ! 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1rHa7v3aUg5I6kc7ehMnKtoH4rDTDACKO

The gift shop was very disappointing. Since they are “under construction” it had limited stock. And, although they had coffee mugs, they were all too big, so Mr. Charley didn’t get one. 
When we got back down, we stopped at another gift shop and they didn’t have one either. The credit card machine was down, so it was cash only, I didn’t even try to buy anything. 
See the muddy mess, you sure can’t get a good view. Behind me is the rest of the muddy mess parking lot and lots of bulldozers and construction crews. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1dgQ3C_ON7L48zrdTMle2OTiRMV0Bt9tq

They are getting ready for the Race to the Clouds, held on June 30th. Lord help the fools trying to make that ride. 

All in all, we were very disappointed in this trip. We felt ripped off after paying full price and getting less than half the quality of what we know Pikes Peak has to offer.If you’ve never been, I’d wait a few years until they complete the mess they have up there. 

Have a good one everybody , we’re sure trying to in spite of the disappointments. 

DescriptionPikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North Ameri

DescriptionPikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America.

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