By Bruce Schlabaugh

When I was 16 and 17, I lived in New York City. It was quite a switch from growing up as a farm kid in Indiana.

During those few years, I heard a lot of tourists asking residents, “How do you like living in New York?” Often the New Yorkers would reply, “It’ll be a nice town once they get it finished.” One of the culprits was Con Ed, the power company, who was forever tearing up streets to redo power grids. In addition to Con Ed the builders were sending their concrete structures skyward and passers-by got to tunnel through wood framed sidewalks to get from here to there.

Nowadays, I’m in Colorado Springs thinking the same thing. This will be a wonderful city once they get all the street work completed. Whoever is selling orange cones to the city must be worth a fortune. My guess is that he has a cottage in Maui facing the Pacific and is there with a margarita in his hand enjoying the sunset.

I can’t hardly go six blocks without finding a new detour. Years ago, my partner and I also ran the Pikes Peak Bulletin in Manitou Springs. We suffered with all the local merchants and residents from the Hayman fire one year and mudslides the next year. What else could go wrong? Well let’s tear up the streets again. It’s summer, the tourists are coming, what better time to reduce the main drag to rubble?

Still with all its growing pains, the Springs is a wonderful place to call home. Traffic really isn’t that bad, the weather is pretty mild and the opportunities to live a healthy life style are abundant. The other parts of Colorado like Salida, featured in this month’s issue, offer low-cost getaways to enjoy the High Country.