Manitou Springs is the western suburb of Colorado Springs. Approaching from the south up Interstate Highway 25 (I25), look for and turn left on US Highway 24 (US24). About five miles farther on, turn left onto Manitou Avenue; if you miss the turning you will find yourself on the bypass above Manitou Springs itself below to the left. Manitou Springs is a tourist trap, best avoided by visiting out of season. Fu-Manchu was there at the end of August recently.

Lunch is possible at the Garden of the Gods trading post; though commercial there were few tourists other than Fu-Manchu after the usual hour. Lunch outside in the shade of cottonwood trees by a small artificial waterfall is a short relaxation with the sound of the water, the mild breeze in the leaves of the trees, helped by a glass or two of good beer. Being in a hurry to catch the cog railway up Pike's Peak, Fu-Manchu made a cursory tour of the Garden of the Gods, a giant garden of sandstone rocks jutting out of the ground that was given to the city by its wealthy owner sometime early in the 1900s.

After Pike's Peak, Fu-Manchu got adequate lodgings at the Villa Motel on the west side of Manitou Avenue. Later in the evening a walk through the downtown area took Fu-Manchu to the Common Ground Cafe where he got a decent rueben sandwich and an excellent cup of Maté tea.

Common Ground Cafe is owned by one of the Twelve Tribes messianic communities it has a warm and relaxing atmosphere, which is its main purpose -- to be a refuge at any time of the day or night. To this end, the cafe is open at all hours except Sunday.

Going in search of breakfast one morning, Fu-Manchu walked across the road from the motel into Memorial Park pausing to drink at Soda Spring #7. He was pleasantly surprised by the delicious taste of the effervescent spring water, which had a very smooth refreshing texture in the mouth.

From the spring, he walked on along the back streets of Manitou where he discovered the Cliff House Hotel. Fu-Manchu was attracted by the herbaceous borders of native flowers blooming in the front garden of the hotel, and by what appeared to be Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) sphinx moths sipping nectar from the flowers; these insects are about the size of a hummingbird but look like a moth and are pretty, though these seemed to be lighter and more striped.

So on recommendation of Hemaris thysbe Fu-Manchu decided to have breakfast there too. He walked up to the lobby of the hotel, through to the dining room where he was served a perfect breakfast by Jeremy at a table by the window -- smoked salmon with cream cheese, filet steak and eggs, and lots of coffee.

Cave of the Winds is not more than a mile or two east of Manitou Springs. Take a tour of the water eroded rock. The caves have been artificially enlarged into a tourist attraction, which is what they have been since they were discovered a hundred years ago by a couple of exploring boys. Back then tours took all day at a cost of a day’s wages, fifty cents.

Since the coming of Europeans at the end of the nineteenth century, all the sights in and around Manitou Springs have been tourist attractions. Before the white man appeared there, the soda springs were a neutral meeting ground for the Indian tribes where they came to drink the waters, a palliative for the Indian diet; it was for them a holy place where they left offerings to the Great Spirit. When the white men first arrived, the Indians shared the springs, but it wasn't long before the Indians were found inconvenient and removed by the whites, who bestowed upon the place the name Manitou Springs.

Once the Indians were out of the way, development of the springs was rapid, reaching its nadir in the 1960s when the springs were either capped or paved over because they were seen as a nuisance. By the 1980s, a group of people got together to form the Spring Restoration Society to restore the flow of water and make it safe to drink. Now the waters issue from modern statuary made as fonts. Manitou Springs is bypassed now by US24, removing traffic from the centre of town, making it quiet, quieter during the off-season when the volume of tourist visitors is much reduced.