Cindy and Bob Gillette met climbing mountains and have gone on to climb, bike, ski, hike, dance and share in many other activities all over the world. In the mid-1990s they were part of a “14ers” group – enthusiasts who aim to climb or hike mountains over 14,000 feet. “We weren’t technical climbers – we didn’t use ropes or other gear,” Cindy points out.
“We’re more like hikers or scramblers over the rough or steep parts.” (They would go on to eventually climb all 53 of the “14ers” in Colorado.)
“Cindy was the only woman in the group,” Bob says. “I thought I should get to know her better.”
Later, at 12,998 feet altitude overlooking Breckenridge ski resort “I got down on one knee and proposed. A ski patroller was nearby and had taken a photo which he gave to us.” They were married in 2000.
Cindy and Bob note that there was a strategy to the timing.
Cindy worked for Compassion International, a charity that sponsors needy children in third world countries.
“I was coming up on my 15th anniversary with them. After every five years of service they send the employee and spouse to visit one of the missions. Africa was the 15-year destination and we wanted to go as a couple.”
They honeymooned in Africa, spending two weeks at the Compassion location (Bob jump danced with the Maasai warriors.) and then climbing 19,341-foot Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
“We didn’t bathe for seven days on the hike,” Bob admits.
“We reached the top of the mountain just as the sun was rising,” ever practical Cindy says.
Returning to their Colorado Springs home, Cindy, an experienced SCUBA diver, suggested a diving trip to the Caribbean. Bob, who had not dived before, traveled to a dive school in New Mexico and got his certification.
“I kept looking at the travel brochures and we finally ended up in Bora Bora in French Polynesia,” Cindy says. “Not even close to the Caribbean, but it was the perfect dive destination.”
After the first dive, Bob was hooked. At the start of the second dive he wasn’t sure.
“There were all of these fins circling the boat,” Bob relates. The dive master ordered everyone into the water. “I said that there were a lot of sharks, but the dive master laughed it off.”
It turned out that he was correct. “We were in the water with sharks all around us, but fortunately they weren’t the aggressive ones,” Cindy says.
They count that adventure among their favorites.
Another favorite was their trip to Nepal. Flying into the Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla – rated as the most dangerous in the world – was just the beginning.
“There are no vehicles and everywhere there are prayer wheels and flags, Buddhist temples and shrines,” Cindy says. Although Everest was not on the list, they did climb some of the lower mountains.
They both say that wherever they travel they try to get off the tourist track and meet the local people. “We usually climb the stairs in our hotels to keep in shape,” Bob says. “It’s really interesting the local staff people we meet on the stairs, especially around the 14th floor and up.”
Cindy recalls Bob negotiating a price at a street market in Africa. “The vendor looked at Bob’s name badge and with a laugh said, “Bob, I’m bringing the price down faster than a monkey coming down a tree.”
Cindy grew up in a musical family on a 100-acre property near Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
“My Dad, Dave Fox, was a singer and along with the rest of the family we sang in churches, prisons and nursing homes.”
Bob is a Colorado Springs native who practically grew up on snow skis and has always been a very active and an outdoors person. He often rode his bike to his job as an investigator for the Colorado Springs tax department – summer and winter for 20 years.
“I like riding through a light, dry snow in the evening and be covered in snow.”
The job had other challenges, too. Bob was in charge of seizing delinquent properties and once seized a local biker bar for back taxes. The two owners soon appeared at the tax office asking for “Bob.”
One was a huge man with a giant spider tattooed on his chest and neck. The other had been badly burned in an industrial accident and was terribly scarred. The staff escorting the two to Bob’s office feared the worst.
“Nothing much happened,” Bob says. “They paid the back taxes in cash, peeling off the bills, and got their property back.”
Among their other accomplishments, the Gillettes are dancers – square dancing, clogging and round dancing are their favorites. Round dancing, they explain, is much like ballroom dancing, but the dancers move around the room in a circle while the steps are called out similar to a square dance. In June of this year Cindy and Bob joined 1,600 other dancers in Cincinnati to set a Guinness Record for the largest square dance in the world.
The couple divide their time between their home in Colorado Springs, on the edge of the million-acre Pike National Forest, and their home in the Village of Orange Blossom Garden.
“My parents lived here and I remember visiting them and seeing how beautiful it was. When we retired we moved here because of all of the activities.” Golf, pickleball, tennis, dancing and riding their tandem recumbent bike keep them occupied. “People love to come up behind us and shout, ‘She isn’t pedaling!’” Bob says. “Sometimes when I’m riding alone they’ll say “You’ve lost your passenger!’”
Dogs are a passion in the Gillette homes. Their two giant, black Newfoundland dogs died a few years ago and they now share space with Shiloh, a blind rescue beagle.
“Shiloh was born that way, so she doesn’t know she’s blind,” Bob says. She joins them on hikes, on a leash, and finds her way without a problem.
So far Cindy and Bob have visited every continent except Antarctica, an oversight they hope to remedy soon.
“Perhaps a cruise,” Cindy suggests with a smile. “I’d like to see the march of the penguins.”
John W Prince is a writer and Villages resident. Learn more at www.GoMyStory.com.
