Arrived at USAFA

We have arrived at USAFA just north of Colorado Springs, CO. It has been 1200 miles in four days, and we are really ready to park for awhile. We will spend a week here. Even though we spent five years here from ’69 to ’74, we had never made the drive we did today. As soon as we left Grand Junction, we started climbing; gradually for the first couple of hours, then the grade increased to 6%. The first part of the climb was up through Glenwood Canyon, to Glenwood Springs and then through Vail. I-70 must have been the most expensive of the interstates to build. As we approached Glenwood Springs, we watched helmet-clad rafters hurtling down the Colorado River. The canyon is narrow. How narrow is it? Two examples: it’s so narrow that, even with the tall windshield on the bus, you still couldn’t see the tops of the canyon walls, and second, there isn’t room to put the eastbound and west bound lanes of I-70 side by side. In some places they had to be one above the other! Vail is a westernized, enlarged Alpine village. The two pictures were taken west of Vail Pass. The first is looking east toward where we are headed. The second is looking south over the most attactive scenery. There are elegant homes clinging to every outcropping like crows on fence posts. Vail Pass is at 10,600 feet and Loveland pass is well over 11,000. Managing 18 tons up and down those grades took a bit of care. The 400 Cummins had no problems, but managing the speed, both uphill and down, took some attention. Interestingly, the driver’s perspective of the grade is not reliable. On more than one occasion both Durelle and I thought we were descending, but a glance at the river paralleling our route confirmed that it was flowing toward us! I have a two level Jacobs brake for engine compression. I used it a lot. I also used some manual downshifts on the climb.
Denver and the surrounding areas are still growing. The Air Force Academy that we left so long ago still looks familiar. We have a great, full-service site for $17 per day. The warning signs about mountain lions are a bit disconcerting, however.