Oh my god. I never knew that...I'll have to remember that if I ever come to visit.

It is a running joke around the state. Ever drink a beer in Vail or Breck? It will take you off of your feet. But the bottom line is Don't Drink and Drive!

No question in my mind why. 

It's that @$%&&%$#  mountain that follows everyone everywhere you go. 

Don't drink and drive?  Ha!  Don't try to drive that *&%$^())  mountain or you'll feel like your drunk as the preverbial skunk before you get to 8,000 feet. 

If you're determined to get to the top of the mountain and have someone in the car who can drive the *&%$$&*(  thing, you still have to get down. 

After you've crawled on your hands and knees to the overlook and seen the tops of the clouds that surround the top of the *&$#&*(  mountain in pertetuity because the *^%$%&*  makes it's own weather, you still have to get down.  The trick is to get down without the brakes burning up. 

Drink a beer?  Who needs it?  Just trying to get out of the shadow of that #$&^%$# mountain is enough to make one giddy. 

Or, could folks be getting drunk so they can sleep and not have to watch that *&%#%&( mountain following them all day long no matter where they go.

Monika - You can be my cheap date!

Dena - You are right!

Lenn -ROTFLMAO!!!!! DO I have permission to post your comment on my outside blog version of this post? I am still laughing!

Mariana,

Maybe the tourists like to visit there more and find refuge to drink more? Maybe it is the cheaper booze? But maybe there are more police watching the streets...the sad part is the ratio of drunk driving is probably higher due to that.

Colorado Springs has a super low crime rate and a super high police officer:non-police office ratio. So, you are probably right!

Sure Mariana.

It won't help tourism to Colorado Springs. 

I had a friend who was a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve and did a week reserve training at the Academy.  I went along for the week to fish during the day while he was in class.  I found some lovely fishing spots.  Then on the weekend, we shot skeet at a local skeet range.  It was a blast.  i also got run off the Ute River by the biggest swarm of black flies you ever imagined. 

My daughter told me when she heard I was going to Colorado Springs, "Mom, you've got to drive up Pike's Peak"  It will cure you of the "height thing". 

That "height thing" is severe acrophobia.  Anyway, we headed out to Pike's Peak one day and I started to drive UP.  I got to 9,000 feet and froze.  My friend refused to take the wheel until I told him I would just back down.  That *&%$*()  mountain followed me for the next 5 days.  It makes it's own weather you know. It can be a beautiful sunny day out but when you look at that ((&^%$%^*  mountain, you'll see dark clouds and lightening around the peak. 

I believe it's possessed and evil.

Lenn, really you should loosen up and tell us how you really feel about Americas mountain. It's not good to keep it bottled up. By the way Lenn, don't come down to Pueblo or Canon City - it follows us around from the other side!

Actually, the first day I drove west toward a good fishing spot, I got my first site of the Rocky Mountains.  I was absolutely blown away.  It was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.  It was just that one wicked (**^$$&*(  mountain that got to me. 

I loved Colorado.  I had wanted to go there ever since reading Centennial.  I love the West.  For some years, a friend and I tent camped at Yellowstone first two weeks of July.  We caught Cutthroat Trout all day.  There was a two fish limit and when we had two each, we went back to camp, cooked and ate them and went back and caught more.  Talk about some beautiful places.

I loved Wyoming too.  More Antelope than people.  My kind of place. 

Oh, yes, I "took the cure" at Thermopolous too.  Drove "The Bear Tooth from Wyoming to Montana.  We went in by horseback to the trout streams near Cook City and Redwood Montana.  Fabulous country. 

I love this country.  Every inch of it.

Mariana - what are we going to do with these stats? I agree, it's the altitude and with the amount of visitors we get annually, there could be a lot of people who don't realize the difference. Lenn is cracking me up with her comments - thanks for bringing this to our attention!

There is a lot to take into consideration when we look at these numbers. I wonder what Kristal Kraft thinks ...