Old Fogey High on Old Things

I have been on top ever since and don't expect me to come down. (Well, maybe if you will take me to Dunkin Donuts

Wow! Was today Wonderful! This has been about the most productive day I have had in years. I woke up to a pile of knick knacks to be photographed, described and posted to eBay for our Annual Spring Sale. Also there was a new refrigerator to be rearranged, hooked up for water (icemaker) and some much needed straightening up in our computer room and kitchen. As soon as I started sorting through the junk I began to discover things I hadn't seen in a while. I found some old CDs with programs on them that hadn't worked on updated computers and had been shunted aside. I also found some old computers sitting around and decided to harvest what I could from their hard drives. Hey!, Sweet, Sweet Wonderful Day! I found some stories I had written up to 25 years ago that were still on hard drive. I had a devil of a time getting them to copy over because I had archived them long ago under systems I had long forgotten. In the end it all came back to me. I wound up using DOS, Windows NT, 95,98, ME, XP and more. The oldest machine went back to 1992.

AND. I found my old CD of Corel Draw and Corel Ventura. Those babies cost me big bucks way back when. They still cost big bucks if you buy them today. They had gotten put in the bottom of the drawer because they wouldn't work on all the Windows that excluded DOS. I popped them in my XP and there you be! They work fine. I can go back to print publishing. Now all I have to do is remember how to use Ventura. I tossed the books long ago. Same with Draw and Photo Paint.

In the middle of all this my daughter called me from Qatar. She is an accountant with Department of Army and is in the middle of a two year tour there. She is doing well, just had her first camel ride and her friends all have Maseratis and Lamborginis and such. Really made my day. Or it did until I realized I wasn't going to be the last Viner Standing if I didn't get something posted. Then it hit me: This is a story I wrote long ago and it explains where my Avatar picture comes from and "At The Top" got its start. I have been writing Old Fogey Sez stories for years.

The Old Fogey sez: Like the guy in the movie I went up a mountain and came down with the best doughnut money can buy.

I had been in Colorado Springs for several days and had been looking at those mountains to the west. They were interesting but only a little more so than the hills of West Virginia where I spent some of my boyhood. Like most Americans I had heard of Pike's Peak, but never seen it. When I asked a local where it was, he pointed to a bump on the horizon. Not what I had expected. Thought Pike's Peak was a stand alone mesa, much like the peak in Encounters of the Third Kind. Real thing not that impressive.

Someone told me there was a choochoo train that went to the top. Said I should take the ride. Said I would be impressed. I took their advice and drove over to Manitou Springs where I found the station situated way up a hollow. Reminded me of old coal towns along the Ohio River. Manitou Springs, quaint, lots of antique and collectible shops, nice eateries. Nothing real impressive.

The train had big windows which opened all the way. Made you feel like you were sitting in an open San Francisco trolley. Trains were built over in Europe somewhere. Special for going to Pike's Peak. Called a cog-wheel locomotive. Same tracks as any train but between tracks is something that looks like a flat gear or ratchet. Nice ride and went right up a 20% grade. Front of 3 car train was 3 stories higher than back on way up. Nice and pleasant but nothing especially impressive.

Scenery along 8 mile track to summit changes ever so often. Trees thick, rocks strewn at bottom. Little further up, rocks thick, trees strewn. Saw some open meadows and glades about half way. Higher up, trees gone, rocks all broken up. Near top it looks like one of those moon shots when our man Neal got there. Very interesting but didn't impress me that much.

At top, city people were watching buzzards circle and saying, "Oh, look at the eagles!" We did see a thing looked like a cross between a prairie dog and a ground hog. A marmot, someone said. Lots of birds but few I recognized. We missed the elk, deer and mountain goats (or is it sheep?) Rewarding trip so far but not impressive.

The station at the top has all the trappings of a tourist stop. Some who dressed lightly for the trip bought jackets or shirts to wear in the sun shiny freezing temperatures at the summit. Lots of nice places to get your picture taken there. When you look over the edge you can see a mile down. When you look out at the horizon you can see most of Colorado and a part of Kansas. Colorado Springs is such a small town from up there but when you see the airport it gives you a better idea of how big the town really is. Nice view. Many nice views depending on direction you look. Pleasant but not impressive.

In the coffee shop, you can get a meal or just coffee and doughnuts. Anyone who has eaten in a New York coffee shop can appreciate this place. Big, wide open, serve yourself once you go through the line. The best thing about this place is the doughnut. They serve a doughnut like none you can find anywhere else. The doughnut made the whole trip worthwhile. If nothing else in Colorado impressed me, the doughnuts served at the summit of Pike's Peak certainly did.

There will be much more like this in the not too distant future. Found out how to get things out of the Archives.

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