The hall itself is cold, though full of 
life and colour and the residue of happy evenings. Jammy and Lucy have great fun on stage, singing and dancing to an empty hall and banging away on a battered old blue piano which sits on the stage. Leadville was almost 30 thousand people at one time, and this was the best darn opera hall west of the Mississippi!
We have a breakfast of steak and eggs and english muffins in the very up to date cafe next door. They claim to be something to do with Doc Holiday, but I don't think the doc was much into english muffins...
From Leadville we tramp east, towards the edge of the rockies, and through the high valleys. A huge grey wall of thunderstorms follows our every step, we get the occasional spatter of rain on the windshield but stay on mostly dry roads until we get to the North Pole and all hell breaks loose...
That wall of noise, light and water, the thunderstorms have caught up to us and caught us off guard. It PELTS down. The skies go grey, then black The views across the valley we're winding down, minutes ago a picture of verdant green grass and forest, begin to grey and then white out completely in the deluge. There is nowhere to take shelter except the North Pole...
The North Pole, a wonderland for kids I'm sure, is a very tacky attraction on the lowest slopes of one of Americas most famous mountains, Pikes Peak (the place that inspired Katherine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful"). I tell the girls that Santa doesn't live here, just people pretending to be him to make money. But we need to use a restroom and there're are none nearby save here... they kindly let us in to sue them - though it invloves a mad dash through the rain, and past empty amusement rides and silent dripping food stands. The girls are not amused to find that the toilets are "automatic" (they flush when you're finished, or just about, and give the girls the screaming mimis..." but we make it out alive, and without having to resort to buying any tacky Christmas oddities.
The rain eases, but Pikes Peaks is still hidden in the low clouds. It's not the highest peak in the state - but it's for sure the only with with a freaking road all the way to the freaking top. The grizzled attendant at the gate informs us the road is not open all the way due to the weather, but that at least it's half price, say 10 bucks. (Thats 90 bucks cheaper than taking the very cramped but rather famous cog railway to the top... being the cheapskate I am though, that was never an option.)
I have faith though. I hand over the 10 bucks and we begin winding our way up from 8000 feet through glorious forest and past chilly lakes. The sky is still low, and rain still flecks the screen, but a solid and reassuring line of blue is proceeding from the East in just the way the British forces never did during the war of independance.
Its needed thought as the road is like 'Going to the Sun' 
but worse, switchback after switchback, muddy and slippery and distinctly lacking in guard rails... but by the time we get to where the road should be closed its gloriously sunny and warming up, we ushered on on ON! by the ranger at the last checkpoint and begin our switchbacks up beyond the timberline and into real alpine territory. The views are stunning. I can see Denver over 80 miles away, we can see the storm, almost below us now, and lumbering out into the praries, we see lakes, forests, small towns, hundreds of them from so far up... at 14,100 feet we top out... its stunning. You can see forever, I've never been on such a high road, not 'going to the sun' nor 'beartooth' was anything like this...
We stop at the top 
- I open the door... and its almost ripped from its hinges by the gale that is blowing (where'd that come from! I think) papers, toys and screams fly around the car until I slam the door. We rug up and then make a break for a concrete bunker up here that houses the obligatory souvenier shop. Even amongst the tacky nick-knacks we can see what is so inspiring about this place...
After catching our breath we slowly wind back down the mountain, in the sun, and work our way toward our stop for the night, the town of Canon City....
