There is a road rally in Colorado where you can have a grand time spending several Grand driving your very expensive classic car over some very nice roads, stopping at expensive hotels and restaurants, rubbing elbows with the upper crusty folks. That tour is called the Colorado Grand, and I know nothing about it other than what I just told you.
There is also a road rally that starts out in Colorado where you can have a good time spending next to nothing driving your Lotus or “Other” car over some very nice roads, stopping at reasonable hotel/motels and restaurants (especially Subway for lunch), rubbing elbows with some very nice, non crusty Lotus folks. That tour is called the Colorado Good and it is put on by the friendly Lotus Colorado folks. Sue and I decided to participate in the Colorado Good, and I thought I would tell you a bit about the Great time we had on the Good.
I had read about the tour in the Lotus ReMarque (the Lotus Limited magazine). It sounded like a great way to start off Sue’s retirement with a little traveling/sight seeing. We decided that the 2500 mile trip was a bit much to drive the Elan, Elise or Cortina wagon. As it turned out, we had just purchased Sue another “Other” car – a 2015 BMW X1. A small SUV with the M sport package. Stiffer suspension, sport seats, sticky low profile tires, sat nav, sunroof, 8 speed automatic with a sport drive mode and paddle shifters and the same horsepower as my old BMW M3 that I just sold - Perfect!
So we got up early on a Friday morning and did a long drive out to North Platte Nebraska. Nothing special there, just a good stop-ping point for a supper and some sleep in a clean box hotel.
On Saturday morning we got up and made the final 3 hour trip to meet up with the LOCO group in Scott’s Bluff Nebraska. They were to head North from Colorado Springs that morning and we planned on getting to a planned stopping point an hour early. We took a two lane road and there was quite a bit of fog but as we neared Scottsbluff I realized there was a time zone change somewhere in there and we would be actually two hours early. As we were motoring down the road we noticed on the left of the road a different rock formation called Chimney rock so we stopped off there, paid $3 each at the visitor’s center and did some touristy site seeing and reading up on the history of the area and Chimney rock. (Looks like a giant chimney sticking out of a mountain.) Nice stop.
We made our way over the Scotts Bluff, which is a prominent landmark of the Old Oregon Trail. The road takes you up an 800’ rise over the North Platte River. A very nice twisty, tight road up the hill takes you to a breathtaking view. The weather was perfect and we looked out for miles and miles to the horizon in several directions. You can just imagine what it must have been like to be a pioneer crossing our vast country. The roads we traversed in a matter of hours must have taken the pioneers months.
We met up with the LOCO group; a very nice, friendly group of Lotus owners. There were about 30 people in 22 cars including us. Mike & Lisa in their yellow Europa Twin Cam leading the pack, Ross & Ann Robbins (whom we already knew from previous Lotus LTD events) in their M100 Elan, two beautiful, red 1967 Lotus Elans, two Evoras, a half dozen Elises, an Exige and a smattering of “Other” cars. We all dined on previously purchased Subway sandwiches. Simple and quick.
On to the next stop – Carhenge. Located in a field the middle of nowhere, Carhenge is a made out of 38 old 50’s and 60’s cars to resemble Stonehenge in England, Carhenge really brings a smile to all car guys faces. Is that a ‘55 Caddy stacked on top of two old unidentifiable GM relics. Of course that’s a ‘61 Plymouth Valiant on top of two other donor vehicles. Several big finned 60’s Cadillac’s were buried nose down or nose up filling up the landscape. All the glass had been removed from all the cars and the openings covered with sheet metal. Everything was painted rock grey and unlike the Stonehenge in England, you could walk up and touch this monument. At Stonehenge you are supposed to be able to feel the aura of the ancient human workers and maybe space aliens who placed the stones in an intriguing pattern a very long time ago. At Carhenge you can feel the aura of the Union workers and maybe some (ahem) “aliens” who assembled the cars not so very long ago…
Back in our not so old cars, we blasted down some great roads through a couple interesting towns and grasslands and into South Dakota to our Hotel just outside the town of Custer. We all checked into our rooms and then met for some socializing down by the pool.
Now while members of two rival Biker gangs were being arrested in Waco Texas, Two rival Lotus gangs were getting to know each other better. No shots were fired and there were no reported stabbings as we enjoyed margaritas, sodas, beers and cookies together.
The next morning we all met for a coffee and a Continental breakfast where we all marveled at the automatic pancake machine. Push a button and a minute later two fresh, hot pancakes came rolling out. What will they think of next?
We all assembled in the parking lot where Mike explained the plan for the day. Our first destination of the day was only a few miles from the hotel. The Needles Highway is a spectacular drive through pine and spruce forests and meadows surrounded by needle like granite formations. The roads were tight and sharp and the scenery was terrific. The only problem was that we were blasting through it so fast we could enjoy the road or enjoy the scenery, not both. Not to worry, since this road was close to the hotel, we made a mental note to go back at the end of the day for a second, more leisurely drive where we could actually SEE the sites.
Once through the Needles highway we took the Norbeck Scenic Highway (pretty cool) to the Iron Mountain Road (still very cool) and then finally to Mount Rushmore (very, very cool). Sue had been to Mt. Rushmore in a previous life when it was just the sculptures on the side of the mountain. Now there is a memorial building with lots of displays and movies and artifacts from the construction. All very nice, but just to stand and stare at the faces of our past Presidents – just takes your breath away. As we stood by a wall looking up at the sculptures, below us was an open air auditorium where a High School graduation ceremony was taking place. Not a bad place to have a graduation!
We spent a good amount of time taking in the splendor of Mt. Rushmore and then headed down the road to Sturgis for lunch. Now Sturgis is a small town most of the year and then goes crazy for a week when the bikers come to town. This was not the crazy week so things were very calm at a cool biker bar called “The Knuckle Saloon”. We enjoyed their specialty – steak tips. The bar was a normal sized bar most of the year. I checked out the back room however that must only be used during bike week. It had a lot of picnic tables and must seat maybe 300-500 people. The weather had turned a bit sour so there was quite a bit of rain while we ate, but it stopped when we came out so the timing was quite nice.
We left Sturgis, drove through the city of Deadwood (We loved that HBO TV series) and drove by the Crazy Horse memorial. I had heard it was $28 a head for the memorial and we were more interested in taking a leisurely drive back through the Needles highway. So we did. And it was much more interesting at a slower speed.
Din Din that night was at a nice restaurant at a State Preserve. The 20 miles of swooping roads in the early evening light to get there were a lot of fun. After a few beverages, it was a much slower and cautious drive back to the hotel in the pitch darkness. Watch out for those Elk!
Monday morning found us all sipping coffee and playing with the pancake machine in the lobby. Then we all gathered again in the parking lot to listen to Mike’s directions for the day. Nobody had left to go to work. Everyone stayed on for the full trip.
We blasted on down the road to the town of Sundance which is in Crook County Wyoming. What a coincidence, I live in Crook County Illinois. After his release from the Sundance jail in 1888, Harry Longabaugh acquired the moniker “The Sundance Kid”, which entered the popular imagination in the 1969 movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We then grabbed some Subway sandwiches to dine at the foot of the Devils Tower a few miles down the road.
Remember the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”? Well, this is the tower, and I can tell you that the scene near the end of the movie where Richard Dreyfuss climbs the tower to watch the aliens land is a bit of a stretch. We spent a good hour and a half just hiking the trail that goes around the base of the tower. The tower goes straight up all the way around. The only way to get up to the top is by using skilled mountain climbing techniques or a helicopter. If you look way up and squint real hard you can just make out many groups of very experienced mountain climbers on their way up there. Beautiful to watch, no way you are getting me up there!
One more leg of the tour before heading out. We blasted over to Spearfish South Dakota and took a nice scenic tour on the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. An 18 mile cruise through towering limestone walls and dense forests and even a pretty nice waterfall or two.
The rest of the group headed back to the hotel where they would break camp in the morning to head back to Colorado Springs from whence they came. Sue and I started on our trek back home to Chicagoland, taking the Northern route back where of course we had to stop at Wall Drug, Minnesota. The signs for Wall Drug start about 100 miles away from Wall Drug. Originally it was just a little Drug store in a little town. Now it’s a complete tourist trap with many, many kitschy shops all connected together. Walk in one shop that sells sunglasses, and its open to the next shop that sells t-shirts, which is open to the next shop selling fudge. You can just go from one shop through connecting doors to the next. We only stopped to use the restroom and that did not have connecting doors to anywhere - thank you.
We wish to thank the Lotus Colorado group for letting us join in on their Colorado Good tour. Mike was a great tour guide and we had a great time meeting and spending time with all the great people in the club. We had such a great time that we intend on joining LOCO again for the LOG in the fall as well as some of their other future Spring or Fall tours. But we do think they should change the name of the tour to the Colorado Great!
