Back in the late 1930s, before they were married, my mother Mary and father Nelson (seen in the photo on the left), along with my mother's parents, William and Louise, and her girlfriend Peggy, took a road trip from the South Side of Chicago to Colorado. My grandfather did the driving, and my mother told me it seemed like the longest trip of her life. My grandfather would drive along at a reasonable speed, then start thinking about something, and unconsciously slow down for a while, before speeding up again, and then repeating the whole process. Plus, they were driving during the hot summer, long before cars had air conditioning.
On that trip, they visited Rocky Mountain National Park, where they went horseback riding; the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, and Cheyenne Mountain, just west of the Broadmoor Hotel, where the photograph of my mother (on the right) and her friend Peggy was taken. In the background of the photograph is the Will Rogers Shrine, which I myself have visited several times while driving up the mountain to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. And why is there a shrine to Will Rogers, born in Oklahoma, on Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs? Beats the hell out of me.
The photograph on the left is of my grandparents, Louise and William Spillard, who were the ones whose idea it was to make the trip. I am not sure where this photo was taken, but I suspect Rocky Mountain National Park. When you drive up Trail Ridge Road toward the top of the Continental Divide, there are viewing turnoffs along the way that look just like it. This must have been quite an adventure back then, driving through every single small town along the way, taking days rather than hours to reach your destination. I suspect it must have been faster than going by stagecoach, but not by much. My mother's most vivid memory of Colorado was how hot it was in the sun, but so cool in the shade. After living here in Denver for 40 years now, I have to say that it is still the same, despite climate change.
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