The Terrible Catsafterme

My one and only visit to date to the central section of our country occurred during our Spring Break from school, which lasted from March 22 – 30, 1986. My Mom, Denise, and I took advantage of our Spring break from school and flew out to Colorado to visit my aunt Darlene and uncle Bob for a few days at the end of the week. Although Dad was living back home again, he didn’t come with us. Most likely we had had the plans arranged before my parents reconciled. Darlene and Bob had lived in Colorado Springs for about two-and-a-half years at this point, Bob having been located there during his Army stint. I had always been very fond of Darlene and was really looking forward to the trip. Bob picked us up at the airport and smiled at us through his now-hairy face. Much to my dismay, he had grown a full beard and moustache, which made him look much older than I had hoped. There is no apparent reason for my feeling on this, by the way. I also soon learned that he had taken up smoking, and all week I was hoping that he would offer me a man-to-man cigarette. It never happened, so I was forced to scour his ashtray on occasion for some usable butts to satisfy my teenage nicotine addiction.

We hadn’t seen Darlene since Christmas and the first thing she remarked on was the onset of puberty which was overtaking me. I remember her exact words were “Gee Brad, not only is your voice changing, your looks are changing!!” True, I was beginning to sprout up a tad, which was also causing me to slim down a little bit. My battle with excess weight was nearly over…for the time being.

Their house was a very nice tri-level which greatly impressed me. The exterior of the house was actually quite similar to the house in which I live now. Bob and Darlene also now had a big shepherd dog named Aspen, and although I wasn’t typically a dog fan, it was the first one that I had some long-term exposure to and I rather enjoyed playing with her. I slept down in the basement, which offered me ample alone-time to loot the ashtray. I brought along some English homework assigned by Mr. Focht, intending to get it done during the week, but wouldn’t even crack the first book until we boarded the airplane for home.

Darlene and Bob’s place, my home for a week

I can’t recall the sequence of events during this very fun week, but I know that the two most significant events were our visit to the Garden of the Gods (where most of our photos were taken) and our day of skiing, which is both the first and last time I will ever stick my feet in those infernal devices again. There was also one night at a batting cage/arcade that Bob took us to, a visit with their long-time friends Karen and Marty,  a night out to dinner at a fancy three-story restaurant in Denver called Casa Bonita with cliff divers and caves and all-you-can-eat food (we’d just put the red flag up on our table when we wanted more), a trek to the Cave of the Winds in the Pikes Peak mountain region, and our final escapade driving in the mountains during which we got our car stuck when Mom tried to turn Darlene’s car around in a ditch.

In fact it nearly caused us to miss our flight home on our last Sunday there, March 30 – which also happened to be Easter. Darlene has missed some of her weekend choir performances at church, but we had already bid her farewell as she went off to the Easter morning service. Bob was traveling alongside of us in the mountains on his motorcycle and had to flag down another car to tow us out of the ditch so we could make it back to Darlene’s house and on to the airport.

 Denise at the Cave of the Winds – in the Pike’s Peak region of Colorado

 Denise and Mom high on the mountaintop

 Denise in the very realistic jail at the Cave of the Winds

 Denise entranced by the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs

Denise and I race to the top

 Mom and Denise at Balanced Rock

 Okay, we made it to the top of this rock, now what?

 I’m wedged inside Cathedral Valley as Denise climbs up it

I’m glad I can say that I have once tackled the slopes, but overall skiing was a disaster. I mastered the bunny slope okay, although my awkward, chubby body made several spills into the snow – which seemed to always get in my face and/or gloves. Thankfully, it was remarkably warm and I needed only to wear my Gumby sweatshirt up in the snow-covered mountains. It was when I attempted to go down the bigger hills that trouble seemed to follow me. Once I got to the top of the mountain, there was a tremedously steep hill that I had to maneuver by going diagonally down the hill back and forth latching onto tree by tree by tree. Finally I made it to the long and winding slope which yielded my worst crash yet, one which Mom and Darlene witnessed from the ski lift above. I ended up throwing my ski gear and pissing off Mom. But overall, I guess it was fun.

Darlene is ready to show us novices a good time

Denise makes her way down the slopes

Mom finally escapes the top of the hill

On my way to certain doom

Mom had already her share of worries while skiiing when she somehow ended up traveling up the ski life by herself for the first time and had no idea how to get off of it. Bob had helped Denise and Darlene assisted me when we arrived via lift to the bunny slope, but Mom just kept going on up the hill…with no idea how to get off. It’s no wonder that throwing my ski pole irritated her!

Me, Darlene, Bob, and Denise on Easter Sunday before we headed out

I have a lot of great memories of this trip, which took me to an area of the country that I would love to visit again. When I got home, I had acquired a nice tan from our time on the slopes. My friend and neighbor Teresa Hurley was irritated and a little envious when I got on the bus for school that following Monday and she saw that I had gotten so tan over Spring break.

We had this photo taken during our visit to Casa Bonita (and Black Bart’s Cave)

1986 will continue…

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 6:59 am and is filed under 1980's - Late, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.