July 4th - Rest Day in Royal Gorge, CO

Guest Blogger Marcus

Happy Independence Day everyone! On our nation’s 241st birthday, the crew took a rest day to spend time with family and friends. Stacey and I drove over from Beaver Creek and Lauren drove over from Denver on July 3rd to meet Mom, my uncle Michael and my aunt Alicia near Canon City, Colorado at the Lodge at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park.  The Lodge is beautifully situated on the rim of the Royal Gorge.  The Royal Gorge is known as The Grand Canyon of the Arkansas. The Arkansas River runs through the bottom of the Gorge. The canyon formed above the Arkansas River is about ten miles long and the walls of the canyon rise over 1,000 feet above the river.

After settling in at the Lodge, we went to a lovely dinner at 8 Mile Bar & Grill (no relation to Eminem).  The food was fantastic, but the company was better. After dinner we retired to the Lodge at the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park and enjoyed an evening of imbibing and conversing. We were all impressed with Alicia’s phenomenal SAG skills. Though, to be fair,  she gave due credit to Anne-Rene for properly training her on her SAG duties.

On the Fourth we woke up to a great breakfast cooked by Michael. Sadly, Alicia had to return home, so we bid her a fond farewell and the rest of the crew set out for some rest day fun at the Royal Gorge Park.

Some people might feel anxious, perhaps…even scared…to experience all of the thrills available at the Royal Gorge Park. Not our hearty band of travelers! We laughed in the face of fear and rode the gondola 1000 feet above the river. Barely a whimper was heard among the group.  We also bravely stood at the edge of the rim and looked down. Several times!  All of us wanted to ride the Sky Coaster - a ride touted as half skydiving/half paragliding wherein one is hurled through time and space at a speed of fifty miles an hour with a tiny harness attaching you to a metal rod. It is billed as the scariest roller coaster in America.  Sadly, most of us were not impressed by this “coaster” because we were far too brave to try it. Instead, Michael, Mom, Stacey and I bravely took pictures of Lauren from various angles as she was hurled into the sky. Mom screeched in fear as she watched her only daughter being flung to a certain death. But I consoled her, reminding her that she still had a son. 

Once we bravely completed our coaster mission, we all ventured across the highest suspension bridge in the USA (2nd highest in the world). Despite the swaying of the bridge, the fact that people kept looking down despite everyone telling each other to not look down we all made it safely to the other side.

After our day at the park, we had a great potluck cookout with Carl, Tinbet, Elias, Tuda, Zaki, Craig, Eric, and Megan.  Over burgers, brats, beer, whiskey and wine we solved all of the world's problems. And talked about biking a little bit. Apparently these e-bikes are the way to go for any loyal readers who are considering a new bike purchase.

It was an amazing day, and it was great to see family, old family friends, and meet a few new great folks.

Life is good.