Raft and Train in Royal Gorge

Cañon City, Colorado

We finally got our raft trip today. Our guide was an affable Colorado college student named Cody. He is studying real estate. At the end of the trip I gave him two tips. One was wet currency. The other was to change his major to accounting.

We had lots of opportunities to get wet. Cody let me jump out and swim for awhile. Apparently a floating body proceeds at at slower pace than a raft. I had to swim vigorously for five or six minutes while my raft-mates back-paddled to allow me to catch up.

There is a very tall suspension bridge over the Royal Gorge, perhaps the tallest in the world. It is hauntingly familiar. I wonder if Woody Harrell filmed a scene there to Leonard Cohen background music in "Natural Born Killers"? The tune might have been "Waiting for the Miracle"? I'll be shopping for new bungee cords in the morning. My old ones are frayed.

After the raft trip they give you lunch under a tent on the riverbank and provide a dressing room for a change into dry clothing. The Royal Gorge scenic train has an open car, but I went back into the air-conditioning and drifted off to sleep. The train loudspeaker plays a lot of cool train songs by Johnny Cash and others.

I bet there's rich folks eating in a fancy dining car
They're probably drinkin' coffee and smoking big cigars.

Of course you can't smoke big cigars or anything else on trains anymore thanks to the health Nazis...I dream of the days when every airline seat had an ashtray...the navigator's consoles on our C-124s had their own cute little ashtrays built-in...I don't care for the way things are going...before you know it they'll pass laws against spitting on the sidewalk and pull the spittoons out of drinking establishments.

We're planning to spend another day here, possibly hiking, then go look at Pike's Peak and Colorado Springs.