The Last Bit of Colorado

So after the Sand Dunes, we ventured through the Valley once again, home of such sites as this structure which may or may not be a home constructed of a combination of old boxcars and an RV getaway vehicle. We swung by Salida, which I don't think I had ever been to, but it's actually quite a nice town. Your faithful correspondents had hoped to continue their tour of Colorado microbreweries, but it turned out the place in Salida that claimed to brew their own beer was called "Amica's" and featured a sign with a bunch of day-glo-colored blobby people dancing or something, possibly lifted from the cover of a Jazzercize album. It just seems like a natural for a brewpub in a place as unique and relatively historic as Salida to have a dignified name like "Salida Brewing Company" or "Monarch Pass Brewery," and maybe a logo that features a mountain or something. I guess people in Salida are bored with that stuff, which I guess is fair since they have to look at mountains every day. In any case, we gave it a miss and went to the Victoria Tavern, which, as its name suggests, was a much more discriminating locale, to the extent anywhere with a shuffleboard table can be discriminating.

Anyway, we figured our last stop would be the world-famous Royal Gorge, and the world's highest suspension bridge, which crosses it. It turns out to be privately owned, and to cost $25 per person, just to walk across the bridge. Of course the ticket also includes the visitor's center and a carousel ride or some such foolishness. Also, it was closing for the evening when we arrived. We tried to convince the guard to let us pay a discounted price, since they were closed anyway, just to go look over the edge and not even set foot on their precious bridge, but he would not listen to reason. So your intrepid correspondent sneaked out to the far end of the parking lot where the fence ends and snapped the above picture without paying a dime to the rapacious gorge-owning gougers. Take that, pigs!