For Purple Mountain Majesties...

     

One of the truly wonderful things about my husband is that he loves to travel as much as I do. We both really enjoy long road trips-- and we have shared many happy adventures together. This past September we drove from our home here in Indiana out to Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota before driving back home. The trip lasted 2 1/2 weeks and I was able to take over 1000 photos. (Don't worry... I won't post them all!)

A trip like that really helps us understand the size and beauty of our own country. We drove from our home on the eastern edge of the prairie, across the flat prairie, to the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, watching as the scenery changed from flat farm fields of corn to rolling prairie grass... and then the mountains loomed in the distance like a great purple wall. We had reached Colorado, and ahead was Pike's Peak. 

We spent some time in Colorado Springs, a really pretty town on the very edge of the mountains. Of course Pike's Peak dominates. We had to go to the top! There are two ways to get up there-- you can drive the road, which I have done, and it is treacherous at times, and very scary. Rather than put our car through the rigors of such travel we opted to take the train. The train is a special gauge built using cogs that literally pull the train up the mountain. The track goes through some narrow areas, very remote and beautiful. The trip takes about an hour and a half each way with a 30 minute stop at the top. 

The train was very crowded, so it was not the most comfortable ride in the world. But the scenery was unbelievably wonderful. At times we saw rocks and pine trees so close we could have reached out the window and touched them. Water falls and then scenic vistas. Unfortunately, the clouds had moved in on the peak and it was socked in with almost zero visibility... and it was snowing very hard. That meant that the view which inspired the words to "America the Beautiful" would not inspire us that day... but as a consolation prize we were able to share in the joy of 4 women from Florida who were seeing a snowstorm for the first time. Their giddy play and snowball fight made us grin... as did the wonderful hot chocolate and "world famous high altitude donuts" sold at the gift shop! 

We reboarded the train and as we headed down, the clouds parted and we were finally able to see the views that had inspired Katherine Lee Bates in 1895 to write:

 

America the Beautiful

Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
(Melody to the song by Samuel Ward)

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!