Disappointment, then Royal Gorge, July 6 – 7, 2021
We arrived in Colorado Springs, Colorado on July 6, after a long drive through the Texas Panhandle, northern New Mexico, and nearly half of Colorado, and immediately proceeded to our hotel. The hotel, an Embassy Suites, was a major disappointment. It was FILTHY and outdated–a far cry from our experience in Amarillo the night before. Neither one of us was comfortable sleeping there, but we were too tired to find another place to stay and we weren’t able to get a refund on the room, so we settled in for a very uncomfortable night.
I was ready to go home the next morning. A whole trip to what looked like a beautiful state would have been wasted, but at that point I was ready to quit. While that might seem like an extreme reaction to a lousy hotel room in which we were ultimately only spending a few hours, keep in mind that Kristi and I are not good at vacationing. The trip, although beautiful and interesting, had been long and tiring. Plus, I think the altitude might have played a factor–I felt unusually tired. At any rate, we decided to find a cafe in town and grab some breakfast–we certainly were NOT going to eat at that hotel.
As we ate breakfast, we decided it was foolish to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and head home. Ultimately, we decided to seek another hotel and just lose our non-refundable second night at the Embassy Suites. If you remember from the first post in this series, we had reservations to ride the Royal Gorge Route Railroad in Cañon City. We reasoned that we had just enough time to drive back to the hotel, pack up our things, and get to the train before it departed.
We made it to the depot right at the departure time! Thankfully, they held the train for us. We were embarrassed, but no one seemed to mind that the train was about five minutes behind schedule.
I’m glad we did it, though. Both of us finally started to relax. And the train ride through the gorge was a lot of fun. They served lunch, too, and it was excellent!
We spent the rest of the day exploring the town, and eventually got a very nice hotel room at a new Holiday Inn Express & Suites.
As we were stepping out of the elevator at the hotel on our way to dinner that evening, we met Patrick’s Kindergarten teacher and her husband! We had no idea that they were in Cañon City. They had, in fact, rode the second train, so it is possible that we walked right past them as we were headed to the truck. After a brief visit, Kristi and I left and ate at Pizza Madness on Main Street. It’s definitely worth visiting if you’re ever in town!
So, the trip was salvaged, but the plans had to change. Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, and the Rampart Range Road were out because they were now too far away. We had one day left before we had to head back home, but what to do?