I'M BACK!  And guess what?  I DID have a great time after all, unlike my poor hubby.  It was a very stressful board meeting for him, but by the end of the 4 days, most of the board members were in his corner even stronger than before. . . just that one pesky fella who is creating such havoc.  I think he's jealous; of course that's just my opinion.

Back to the fun I had . . . actually I mean the fun WE had . . . two of the other wives and me.  My friend Paula had never been to the Royal Gorge before and since her husband will be retiring this year, they won't ever be coming back to the board meetings again, so the three of us headed out in our rental car so she could experience the Gorge.  It's about an hour and 15 minutes from Colorado Springs and it was a very beautiful and pleasant drive. 

Royal Gorge Bridge ( 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River)             Photo by Chris Duffy

If you've never been there, it's impossible to describe how high up you are when you're crossing that bridge.  The picture above shows less than one quarter of the distance to the bottom of the gorge.

My other friend, Angie, had been reading the brochure about the gorge and noticed that there was a new attraction since the last time she'd been there.  It's called the SkyCoaster . . . sort of like bungee jumping only you don't do the jumping and you are moving like a pendulum rather than free falling.  She decided she wanted to try it and wanted Paula and me to try it with her. . . and we almost did, but thankfully common sense prevailed.

SkyCoaster ride at Royal Gorge                                                             Photo by Chris Duffy

Pictured above is the contraption you swing from and there's Angie going to take her "flying lessons", while Paula and I went up to a good vantage point so we could get pictures of her playing like Peter Pan.

Angie just before they released her . . . .                                                    Photo by Chris Duffy

There she is as they hoisted her up and up to almost the top of the third tower.  Fortunately we had not yet eaten lunch and they also provided a porta potty and recommended that folks took advantage of it BEFORE they took the ride.   She's a braver soul than I am.

SkyCoaster attraction at Royal Gorge                                                  Photo by Chris Duffy

She said that on a scale of 1 to 10 it was an 8 for fear and a 10 for fun. You can see how high up we are . . . the bridge in the distance is 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River and this was a good climb even higher up than that.  Right after Angie finished, another woman went on it and her husband refused to watch.  Their two kids were taking pictures of their mother, but he just couldn't watch . . . said he didn't approve, but he got out voted.