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| Curtis Cline handing his daughter Margaret a snow ball on top of Pike's Peak. |
My father, Curtis Henry Cline, set a goal to eat a snowball on top of Pikes Peak, Colorado on the 4th of July. The picture to the left was taken on top of Pikes Peak in 1949. My Dad is handing me a snowball. At one time, my parents had a picture of Dad standing in front of a large snow bank with the words "July 4, 1948" carved in the snow to mark the moment Dad reached his goal. Over the years that photo was lost.
My parents purchased a new Willis Jeep "Woodie" station wagon for the trip. It was called a Woodie because it had real wood on the bottom half of the station wagon. It was a nine-passenger vehicle with the latest conveniences. Dad and Mom invited their church friends Floyd, Berry Dillender, and their son Mike to vacation with us to Colorado. Mike and I were the same age, so that gave me someone to talk with because my older brothers didn't want to bother with me. My brother Gene was twelve, and C.F. was nine at the time of our trip.
Before the journey, my Dad cleaned the car from top to bottom, even the engine. He took it to a garage and had everything inspected before we left. It took us a couple of days to drive to Pikes Peak, and we stopped to visit points of interest along the way. A few nights we stayed in a motel, and the other nights we camped in tents. Dad built a medium sized trailer which they pulled behind the car to haul our luggage and camping equipment. My brother Gene reminded me that he remembers before dark, Dad looked for the right place to park and camp for the night. After we had eaten by the campfire, the adults slept on cots under the stars, and the four children slept in the Jeep station wagon. Those were kinder days than today; I would not think of sleeping on the side of the road today.
I remember being happy to see the sign "Welcome to Colorado." The cheering stopped once we started the ascent to reach the top of Pikes Peak. My parents found the hairpin curves a challenge. My Dad drove on the way up, and my mother kept screaming he was too close to the edge of the road. My brothers and I were bored by then, as well as Mike, so we began to argue. At this point, my Dad stopped the car and got out. The car was starting to run "hot" on the way up, so Dad stopped the car, walked back to the trailer, and took out a container of coolant. He insisted on changing the cooling system, or radiator, in an available wide spot in the road about half the way up the mountain. I was elated that we made it to the top in one piece. My mother complained about Dad's driving and was not happy about his "cooling" stop, so Dad told her she could drive on the way down.
My brothers told the story of rolling me in the snow on my fifth July 4th birthday on Pikes Peak. I don't remember being pleased about that, but they thought it was funny. When we reached the top, we could see a cable car we could have taken up. I am sure it would have been much more fun than the hairpin curves. It was a beautiful view, but it was cold.
Coming down Pike's Peak was worse than going up. You had to brake a lot on the hairpin curves on the way down. At one point, our tires or brakes started smoking. Again, we had to find a wide spot to pull over, let everyone climbed out of the Willis to let the brakes cool off. Cars were not air-conditioned back then, so it was cooler outside the car than it was inside. Once we started down again, my brother Gene said, "look beside us, that trailer looks just like ours." To our horror, it was ours. The trailer hitch was not fastened tightly enough to withstand the hairpin curves. A man who stopped to help us said the constant switching motion on the trailer hitch caused the connection to fail. I can tell you there was some panic in the car chasing that trailer! My mother said if it hit someone we would be sued. That frightened me, and I began to cry, on top of all the other drama in the car. The Dillender family were much lower key personality types than our family, but even they were concerned with the run-a-way trailer. In the end, the good Lord was with us because the trailer hit one of the broader places in the road, skidded to the end of the emergency pull-off, turned around and lined itself up perfectly for Dad to reconnect it.
After a good night's stay in a motel, we got up the next morning and visited the sandstone formations known as the Garden of the Gods and the Cave of the Winds near Colorado Spring. The cave is also near the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. We took the 45-minute walking discovery inside the Cave of the Winds. It was an educational journey for families and beginning cavers. The visit inside was fascinating. When we finished the tour, we purchased a "ViewFinder" and a dozen or so "3-D slides" at the gift shop. There was also a nice place to picnic, so we enjoy eating our lunch outside the cave. The scenic slides help to entertain us for many miles, and I viewed those slide until I was well into my twenties.
Family members talked about that trip for years. The beautiful vistas and plants along the way also gave my father the idea of starting a nursery a few years later. I sure wish I could talk with my parents about the trip one more time. But alas, it shall not be.
My parents purchased a new Willis Jeep "Woodie" station wagon for the trip. It was called a Woodie because it had real wood on the bottom half of the station wagon. It was a nine-passenger vehicle with the latest conveniences. Dad and Mom invited their church friends Floyd, Berry Dillender, and their son Mike to vacation with us to Colorado. Mike and I were the same age, so that gave me someone to talk with because my older brothers didn't want to bother with me. My brother Gene was twelve, and C.F. was nine at the time of our trip.
Before the journey, my Dad cleaned the car from top to bottom, even the engine. He took it to a garage and had everything inspected before we left. It took us a couple of days to drive to Pikes Peak, and we stopped to visit points of interest along the way. A few nights we stayed in a motel, and the other nights we camped in tents. Dad built a medium sized trailer which they pulled behind the car to haul our luggage and camping equipment. My brother Gene reminded me that he remembers before dark, Dad looked for the right place to park and camp for the night. After we had eaten by the campfire, the adults slept on cots under the stars, and the four children slept in the Jeep station wagon. Those were kinder days than today; I would not think of sleeping on the side of the road today.
I remember being happy to see the sign "Welcome to Colorado." The cheering stopped once we started the ascent to reach the top of Pikes Peak. My parents found the hairpin curves a challenge. My Dad drove on the way up, and my mother kept screaming he was too close to the edge of the road. My brothers and I were bored by then, as well as Mike, so we began to argue. At this point, my Dad stopped the car and got out. The car was starting to run "hot" on the way up, so Dad stopped the car, walked back to the trailer, and took out a container of coolant. He insisted on changing the cooling system, or radiator, in an available wide spot in the road about half the way up the mountain. I was elated that we made it to the top in one piece. My mother complained about Dad's driving and was not happy about his "cooling" stop, so Dad told her she could drive on the way down.
My brothers told the story of rolling me in the snow on my fifth July 4th birthday on Pikes Peak. I don't remember being pleased about that, but they thought it was funny. When we reached the top, we could see a cable car we could have taken up. I am sure it would have been much more fun than the hairpin curves. It was a beautiful view, but it was cold.
Coming down Pike's Peak was worse than going up. You had to brake a lot on the hairpin curves on the way down. At one point, our tires or brakes started smoking. Again, we had to find a wide spot to pull over, let everyone climbed out of the Willis to let the brakes cool off. Cars were not air-conditioned back then, so it was cooler outside the car than it was inside. Once we started down again, my brother Gene said, "look beside us, that trailer looks just like ours." To our horror, it was ours. The trailer hitch was not fastened tightly enough to withstand the hairpin curves. A man who stopped to help us said the constant switching motion on the trailer hitch caused the connection to fail. I can tell you there was some panic in the car chasing that trailer! My mother said if it hit someone we would be sued. That frightened me, and I began to cry, on top of all the other drama in the car. The Dillender family were much lower key personality types than our family, but even they were concerned with the run-a-way trailer. In the end, the good Lord was with us because the trailer hit one of the broader places in the road, skidded to the end of the emergency pull-off, turned around and lined itself up perfectly for Dad to reconnect it.
After a good night's stay in a motel, we got up the next morning and visited the sandstone formations known as the Garden of the Gods and the Cave of the Winds near Colorado Spring. The cave is also near the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. We took the 45-minute walking discovery inside the Cave of the Winds. It was an educational journey for families and beginning cavers. The visit inside was fascinating. When we finished the tour, we purchased a "ViewFinder" and a dozen or so "3-D slides" at the gift shop. There was also a nice place to picnic, so we enjoy eating our lunch outside the cave. The scenic slides help to entertain us for many miles, and I viewed those slide until I was well into my twenties.
Family members talked about that trip for years. The beautiful vistas and plants along the way also gave my father the idea of starting a nursery a few years later. I sure wish I could talk with my parents about the trip one more time. But alas, it shall not be.
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