GT's are the annual main event
for all MGA's. Originally scheduled for 2020,
the GT in Colorado Springs was postponed due to
Covid.
We planned the trip out as a
liesurely 8 day drive through secondary
roads, passing through Georgia, Alabama,
Tennesee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas -
1770 miles to reach the DoubleTree hotel in
Colorado Springs, then on to Boulder to
visit our daughter after the event.
We left on Memorial Day weekend of 2022 on a
beautiful sunny day. The sign on the luggage
says it all...
That
Memorial Day Weekend it was great to see all of
the US Heartland celebrating Old Glory!
We crossed the Mississippi River on a bridge
that was much older than the car - the
Cairo-Mississippi Bridge, built in 1929 - at the
intersection of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri
Each night on the trip out we'd find a nearby
chain restaurant for dinner. One night we ran
into an old friend from back in the days Ken
worked at Top Gun school...
One week after leaving Beaufort, SC, we reached
Colorado.
Soon after arriving in Colorado Springs, we
drove out to the Garden of the Gods, an
incredibly beautiful rock formation just a few
miles from downtown. The garden's red rock
formations were created during a geological
upheaval along a natural fault line millions of
years ago.
From the Garden of the Gods we drove a short
distance to Glen Eyrie Castle, built in 1871 by
General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of
Colorado Springs. The GT-47 Committee arranged
for High Tea and a tour of the Castle and
grounds.
Melon was upset that she forgot to bring a
Fascinator!
Of course, Colorado Springs also has it's own
attractions, with the Broadmoor Estate known as
one of the most exclusive high-end resorts in
the US.
Somehow
the MGA provided us with an air of
exclusivitivity that allowed us on the
grounds and a seat at the bar of the famous
Golden Bee Pub. The Pub Bar was taken apart
in England and reassembled in Colorado
Springs!
One of the most exciting
moments of the trip was our drive out to Royal
George Bridge, about 50 miles south west of
Colorado Springs.
The bridge crosses
the gorge 955 feet above the Arkansas River and
held the record of highest bridge in the world
from 1929 until 2001.
Melon crossed it during an impending lightening
storm...
After the GT we travelled
up to Boulder to visit our daughter and
son-in-law.
We then travelled home,
following basically the same route as going out,
arriving back in Beaufort on Father's Day, June
19, 2022. The odometer showed a total of just
over 4,100 miles for the round trip.
The car ran great the entire time, climbing as
high as 8,800 feet in temperatures over 90°. The
only casualty was the speedometer which "fried"
it's internal gears the last day of the trip -
probably too much high speed combined with
really hot weather! <END>
