Limousine Service

This is not an advertising space, but it's worth mentioning that we have a new service in the valley. I became aware of it be¬cause my mother was delivered to my front door by the Charles Limousine service which, during the summer, will bring you to Estes Park from Stapleton for $16, $29 round trip. Their Denver number is 690-3488. In this case, they had a stop at the Lane Guest Ranch so the owner/driver decided to deliver my mother to my house. He even brought the bags inside. Now that's service.

All of which reminds me that modes of trans¬portation have changed a great deal since my mother first arrived here on a White touring bus. Many of us can remember the Rocky Mountain Transportation Company building, in the building which now houses a number of shops a few doors up the street from the Plantation restaurant in Estes Park. In those days the building’s interior was dark and redolent with the smells of oil and gasoline and rubber. After WW II we had the surplus Jeeps, followed by the green pick-ups, followed by station wagons, followed by new Jeeps and all manner of four wheel drive vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, and All Terrain Ve¬hicles, both three and four wheel. The latter have been very much a mixed bless-ing, since they don't require licenses but they are often driven on the roads, and off the road they sometimes damage our fragile flora and scare the wits out of our fauna.

Still, in spite of the increase in the number of vehicles and the speeds at which they travel, we have relatively few acci¬dents. I was therefore surprised the other day to find an accident on Cabin Creek, in broad daylight in a straight stretch of road. One car had, for unknown rea¬sons, wandered across the road and struck an¬other, left front fender to left front fender. It was very strange to see a state motorcycle policeman taking statements on Cabin Creek road.

Perhaps none of us wants to go back to the days when the stagecoach rumbled down Big Owl Road. On the other hand, is there a good reason to take out all the curves in highway 7? Do we want a still faster way through our little valley and vehicles that raise more dust and make more noise? Those seem like easy questions until somebody offers to bring you up here from Stapleton for sixteen bucks. [The price has gone up. In late 1995 it was $28 one way, $48 round trip]