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// December 2 [Cripple Creek] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
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December 2

Peggy woke up when I did, which was nice, and I leaned over and nuzzled her and asked her if she knew what her parents were gonna do with us today, and she said that she didn't know at all, but she hoped that it would be something interesting.

Today was gonna be our last full day together—tomorrow I was going to go back to Kalamazoo. That was kind of exciting, 'cause I'd get to see my new apartment and I missed Meghan and Aric, but leaving Peggy would be hard.

Peggy said she'd just take a quick shower, 'cause she thought that she was pretty clean after soaking in the hot springs for hours. And I didn't think that I needed one at all, 'cause I hadn't exercised enough to work up a lather at all yesterday, and if you took too many showers it dried out your skin and washed off the oils on your coat.

So I went downstairs to make coffee, even though it was a little early. That would make Peggy happy when she came downstairs and that would make John and Chrissie happy when they got up.

I thought about finding some things for breakfast, too, but maybe we were going to go somewhere to eat and I didn't want to spoil everyone's appetite if we did. I was pretty hungry, though, 'cause we'd eaten dinner early yesterday and then had only had some snacks after that, which weren't as filling as a real meal.

Peggy was still in the shower when John came down, and this time he didn't ask about the coffee, he just poured himself a cup, and asked if I wanted any. I'd been meaning to wait until the carafe filled up but he said that it was better before that because it was stronger.

We'd both drunk some of our coffee when he said that he had something that he wanted to show me and he had meant to before but he'd forgotten. And he went into his office and he came back out with a little vial with flakes of gold floating around in it, and he said that was from when we'd gone panning, and that he'd taken the time to get most of the water out of his gold. And there was a little label on it that said it was his retirement fund, and so I was kind of curious how much it was worth, and he said probably not even a dollar. But he said that the price of gold kept going up and maybe it would be worth two dollars by the time he retired.

Back in Equestria, we had lots of gold. It wasn't good for too much, 'cause it was too soft. Earth ponies could hammer it flat with just their shoes, if they wanted to. It looked pretty, though. And we weren't allowed to bring any of it with us to Earth.

Even if it wasn't worth anything much, I thought it was still special because it was something that we'd all gotten together.

He said that he was putting it on the mantle, and he'd meant to do that before I came but he'd forgotten.

John also wanted to know where we'd gone yesterday, and I was telling him about Valley View when Peggy came down and she got kind of embarrassed especially when John said that he and Chrissie had gone there a couple of times. I guess some people don't even like talking about being naked, which doesn't make sense. It was a lot of fun, and she'd had fun there, too.

Peggy changed the subject and asked him where we were going to go today, and he said that he thought that Cripple Creek would be a fun place to visit if I didn't mind burros, which were the same as donkeys. And I told him that they were kind of smelly sometimes and had funny ears but ponies got along with them okay.

Peggy said that as long as he wasn't planning on trying to sucker me into a gold mine it would be a fun place to visit, 'cause there were lots of museums and it was really pretty even in the wintertime, and if I wanted to go flying later, it was in the mountains.

So after Chrissie had her coffee and had taken her shower, we packed up and got in John's Highlander, 'cause he said that we might as well have breakfast on the road, and we went through town and stopped at the Omelette Parlor, which he said had the best omelets and best pancakes in all of Colorado Springs.

I couldn’t decide if I should have pancakes or an omelet, ‘cause it all sounded good. I didn’t think I could eat both, because the menu said that the pancakes were the size of a plate, but Peggy said that we could share a pancake, as long as I'd give her some of my omelet.

On the last page of their menu, instead of having more food that you could buy, they had etiquette instructions which was really interesting. Chrissie said that there were lots of rules on dining etiquette, but most people didn’t pay it that much attention any more. I read over some of it but I didn't think it would apply to ponies, although maybe unicorns liked to eat like that.

A lot of their omelets had taco ingredients in them; even one that had a burrito in it, but that one also had meat, so I tried one called No Meadow Muffins Here. I wasn’t sure what a meadow muffin was, but John said that I should be happy that my omelet didn’t come with them. I’d thought about the 11-Miles omelet, but it had ‘almost’ crab in it and so was kind of scared of it.

Both the omelets and the pancake were really good—they were better than Nina’s omelets. Chrissie let me try a little piece of hers, too, which was the Cadet and had really good spinach in it.

We drove into the mountains, and it was kind of grey and gloomy, but John said that it was supposed to get nicer later on, and I hoped that it would. We had to slow down a couple times when the road rose up into low clouds, and he said that there might be ice fog, which would make the road really slippery. Sometimes the ice it made was dark-colored and very hard to see on the road, and even with snow tires, the car could still slide off the road.

We stayed on the US 24 Highway until we got to Divide, and then we went south and it kind of opened up to another high prairie for a bit, which Chrissie said was called Rainbow Valley, before we got back between a couple of mountains again, and the road twisted and wound around through the mountains.

Before we got into Cripple Creek, John took us off the main road and along to see a big gold mine, which had a spot where you could stand and look over the edge. It looked a lot like the iron mines I'd seen in the Upper Peninsula. It was a bunch of really big holes in the ground, and it sort of stepped down like an upside-down cake. And there was a road that went down the middle, and trucks full of rocks that didn't really look like too much and shovel tractors were moving around it in a constant parade. John said that the gold was in the rocks, but they had to process them to get it out, and he said that the trucks and shovel tractors were a lot bigger than they looked from up here. He said that his Highlander could easily fit in the back of one with plenty of room to spare.

There was another mine that was next to it called the Mollie Kathleen Mine, and that was an underground mine and I said that I wouldn't go in there, and he said that I didn't have to.

Then we started to drive around town, 'cause the burros could wander around freely, and we finally found them by the Double Eagle Hotel. They were standing on the sidewalk and there were some people petting them, so John stopped the Highlander and we got out and went up to them. And they were kind of interested in me and came over and we blew into each other's nostrils and pretty soon we were all friends, and there was one young jenny who started to follow me around a little bit. She stayed a little ways back, but whenever I moved she would sort of follow along, and she wouldn't eat any of the carrots that John had brought until I ate one first.

When we were finally done being friends with them, she looked kinda sad when we got in the Highlander and drove away. John told Chrissie that if she followed us home, he was going to keep her. But she didn't—once we got around the block she didn't follow any more.

John said that the first tourist attraction that we should see was the jail, and I was a little curious what they were like.

It was a two-story brick building, and inside the rooms had been made like they would have looked a hundred years ago when it was new, and there were little signs that explained what you were seeing. So there were some rooms on the bottom where the police officers worked, and there was a big square block of cells that had bars on the doors and inside they had beds or hammocks, and a shiny toilet that was made out of metal which was right out in the open, and the sign said that was so that the guards could check on you without having to go inside.

There was a cell that you could go into to see what it was like and I made sure that Peggy stayed outside so that she could let me out, 'cause I didn't like it in there at all. And when she asked if she could close the door all the way I shook my head no, and I kept my ears cocked just in case I heard the hinges squeak. She was a good guard, and put her hand between the door and frame so nobody could close it and trap me by mistake, but I was still happy to get out of there.

There was another row of cells stacked right above that, I guess if the first layer of cells got filled up, and there was a sign that said that some people reported that the jail was haunted by ghosts. I didn't see any, though.

Humans had to wear special clothes while they were in the jail, which were striped black and white like a zebra. And they had some that you could try on but none of them would fit a pony.

The prison in Orange is the New Black is a lot different. They wear orange suits and brown suits, and their rooms had cement brick walls and the whole thing was surrounded by biting fence wires, and they had a big shower, too. It looked a little bit nicer than this.

I decided to go back inside a cell so that Peggy could take a picture of me and I could show it to Gusty. She'd probably like to see it, even if I wasn't wearing the right kind of prison clothes.

Once we were done touring the jail, we went on to Fire Station #3. The town had burned down twice in 1896, which I think was why it was called #3.

It also had signs everywhere that said what you were seeing, but I knew what a lot of it was already. They had a horse-drawn pumping engine that had a big boiler on the back that ran the pumps, and they also had some big hose reels on wheels, which you could tow out to the fire and then unroll if you needed more hose. And there were water tanks, too, in case there wasn't any water near the fire. Chonamare had a wagon that could be backed into the ocean and then pulled back out but we had never used it for that, 'cause the salt water corroded the pump and it was a lot easier to just get some rainclouds and dump them into the back of it, or empty them on the fire directly which was the smartest way to do it. In the summer, it got used sometimes as a wading pool for foals. It would be handy if there was ever a fire when it was really dry, though.

They also had a human-operated pump, which had two long levers that crews could push to pump the water, and that was what they had used before they had the steam-operated pump. That was what we had—Chonamare was too small to need a steam pump—but instead of levers it had a treadmill for stallions to walk on.

The human firefighting equipment was neat to look at. They had axes and pole-arms to get at the fire, and since none of them could fly, they had different kinds of ladders and there were even pictures of big nets that people could jump into to get away from a fire. And the firemen wore special black coats and helmets to protect them when they went inside the building to fight the fire. Now they wore brown coats, but the hats were very similar. And they also had bottles to carry air in, 'cause you couldn't breathe smoke. We knew to push the clouds upwind of the smoke and get them going and then we knew that the wind was going to carry them over the fire, and we could leave the cloud before we were in any danger.

The four of us went to lunch at the Miner's Pick, which was in the Brass Ass Casino. And after we'd eaten, John agreed to go with me into the casino, 'cause I wanted to go in one and Miss Cherilyn wasn't there to tell me that I shouldn't.

I had to give them some money so that I could get chips, and John said that a wise gambler quit when she had run out of chips, instead of getting more. And he stayed with me and explained all the games that I didn't know, which was most of them. I'd learned in Texas that ponies aren't good at poker, so I avoided that. I played the roulette wheel a couple of times which was fun, even though I lost more than I won, and then I played some Blackjack, 'cause he'd taught me how, and eventually lost almost all of my chips at that, too. I think I would have done a little bit better except the dealer seemed kinda impatient when I was calculating the odds of getting a card I wanted.

I had a couple of chips left and I thought I'd keep one as a souvenir and put the other one down on the roulette table on a single number, and he said that I should put it on a lucky number, so I decided to put it on 23, 'cause that was my birthday. And the ball came up really close to my number, but I didn't win.

We went back outside and John said that if I wanted they could go to the Mollie Kathleen Mine and while they were there I could go flying.

John had his contour map, and he pointed out a bunch of peaks that were near us, and it looked like I could make a big loop and land on six or seven of them in a few hours—Nipple Mountain was a little bit further south than the rest but it looked like it wasn't that far out of the way, and John even let me keep the map so I wouldn't get lost.

We rode in the Highlander all the way to the Mollie Kathleen Mine, and that was where I'd meet them when I was done flying. And there weren't any airports too near, so I used the small airplane frequency on my radio to tell them that I was flying and where I was going.

I went to Big Bull Mountain first, which meant that I had to fly right over the gold mine, and so I got a really good view of it. From above, it was even bigger than it had looked from the little overlook, and I wondered how long it had taken them to dig it all. Even with the big trucks and shovel tractors, it seemed like it would have taken forever, 'cause they were so small compared to the mine.

In the air, it was pretty easy to spot the peaks. Cow Mountain and Big Bull Mountain had trees all the way to the very top, so I found a little clearing next to them and stuck a flag in, and then I flew south to Brind Mountain, which had aspens along with the evergreens. A sign at the fire station had said that aspens did well after forest fires, so maybe there had been one here in the past.

After I left my flag on Nipple Mountain, I looked at the map and at my watch. There was another peak a little bit south of it called Cooper and I could have gone there, but it was kind of far, especially since I hadn't started the upwind leg of my flight yet. So I went east into the wind like I'd planned before and landed on Little Pisgah Peak and then Grouse Mountain which was right next to it.

I was really glad that I'd gotten my winter coat, 'cause it was kind of chilly and the wind was really gusty. The mountains made it have all sorts of interesting currents, and I think that if I'd had lots of time to explore them, I could have really used some of them to my advantage. But as it was I could only make guesses about where the wind was likely to be in my favor, and I wasn't always right. I came around a rock formation close to Booger Red Hill, and there was a nasty gusting upwind that almost knocked me into a wall, 'cause it sort of bounced and funneled off of an outcropping that was a little ways further upwind.

And I was starting to get a little bit tired, 'cause I was out of practice at long distance flights and I'd been fighting the wind more than I should have, so I almost gave up on the last mountain.

I had to go almost to it on my way back, though, and it probably wouldn't even add a mile to my trip back, so I climbed up a bit higher where the winds were at least mostly steady, and flew to the top of Mount Pisgah, and after I planted that flag, all I had to do was get up off the mountain and then let the wind push me back to Cripple Creek.

On my way back, I passed over a little creek, and I thought I ought to rinse some of the lather off of me, so I dropped down and splashed around in it, and the water was really cold and refreshing, and I felt like I had a little bit more energy when I took off again.

When I got to the Highlander, it was already getting shadowy on the ground, 'cause the sun was creeping behind the mountain peaks off to the west. Everyone else had gotten done with their mine tour, and they were inside the gift shop.

I named off all the peaks that I'd put flags on, and I wondered how long it would be before anyone noticed. Maybe no one ever would except for the pikas.

The four of us went to have dinner at Dynamite Dick's, and after dinner me and Peggy shared a piece of triple chocolate cake which was a little too sugary and I hoped that it wouldn't make me sleepy later.

John had gotten us all tickets to a play at the Butte Theatre, and he said that it was based on The Christmas Carol, which was a play by Charles Dickens. He said that it had gotten pretty good reviews and that there was a variety show after it was over.

The theatre was kind of small and cozy, and there were a few empty seats but it was mostly full. And the play was about a mean, greedy man named Scrooge who got visited by a trio of ghosts that showed him how he might have had money but he really had nothing because he didn't care for anyone at all, and then he realized what a bad person he was and that nobody would miss him when he died and so he spent Christmas with his nephew and became a better person.

Then after that they had some jugglers come out, and a cowboy showed off some lasso tricks, and then everyone sang some Christmas carols. They had the words printed in the playbills, but I still had to listen through the first time 'cause people have a kind of strange way of writing music.

It was late when we finally left the theatre, and it had been a really fun day. Peggy was yawning and she fell asleep on the way back home and I almost did, too. I think if I'd put my head down on the seat I probably would have, 'cause it was kind of comforting feeling the Highlander gently sway as it was driving. There wasn't a lot that I could really see out the windshield or through the other windows, either. Just a few cars coming the other way, and there wasn't much traffic until after we got to Divide.

Peggy woke up when we turned there, and she was awake for the rest of the trip back, but then Chrissie fell asleep until John stopped at a gas station in Woodland Park to get some coffee.

It was almost midnight when we got back home and I should have taken a shower to rinse the last bits of salt out of my coat, but I was too tired to, and I didn't want to go to bed wet.

I hopped up into the bed and had made myself comfortable before Peggy had finished putting on her sleeping clothes, and I was almost asleep when she got in bed with me.