Ahh Thanksgiving…it is a time to stuff your face, lay on the couch and watch the Broncos beat the Giants (or, well, whatever team you may have been rooting for). According to my husband, it’s a time to stuff your face then go hike a  1.02 mile , 2,011ft elevation gain incline. As part of his UpaDowna Thursday night happy hour tradition, he talked me into joining him on this special night. With hesitation and delay…I accepted.

Being that this would be my 2nd time ever doing the incline in my LIFE, I was a bit nervous. The first time was also with my husband, during the first few months of our relationship. I figured it was a “try before you buy” kind of thing, so needless to say, he approved! So, it’s late November, the sun sets a few hours after lunch time, and it’s recently snowed. Hmm. I already prepared for the dark, cold and slick part…now for the running part? That’s right, if you can, you RUN up the incline. Running down the Barr Trail to get back is also expected of you. The really good part about all this, everyone meets up afterward at the local tavern for drinks and MORE turkey!

We started our trek around 5:30 at the “true start” or “first steps” of the incline. These can be found right past the new housing developments to the right of the COG Railway on Ruxton and behind some buildings and through a gate.

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The start is relatively easy, easy as in it’s not the 68% grade part. Making my way past the “No Trespassing” sign, I pause to think…but then run to catch up with Steve so that I’m not left in the dark. The moon is out, (yeah at 5:30pm) and it’s guiding our way, no need for head lamps at the moment. Ice wasn’t a factor at the beginning, although any and all shadowy areas gave us a reason to go around that step. If you’ve never done the incline, think of a rail road track. Now, take away all of the rail parts and picture just the rr ties and that’s what you get the whole way up (with a couple of steps making you use your hands because you are stepping at 90 degrees). Plus throw in a couple of large metal water drainage pipes (with holes in them between the ties), a couple of fence posts that seem to appear out of nowhere in the middle of the trail, and ice…whaddoya get? A whole lot of danger, not to mention, we’re hiking this AT NIGHT.

Other then a few really icy spots (next time I’ll buy AND wear some YakTrax), the trail was great! I was having fun and getting a great workout! Not to mention enjoying time with my hubby! We passed a buddy who was already coming down and then also got passed by another UpaDowna happy hour patron. After seeing other signs of life on the trail, we passed the famous “bailout” point. Why (or how) is it called a bailout? Aren’t we in the middle of a mountain? The incline connects with the Barr Trail halfway through the hike, and right before the really steep part! So, just in case your body (or brain suffering from a lack of oxygen) is telling you NO…you have a way “out”. I was ignorant again and did not pack my own water or energy supplements (usually have some GU, chomps or HEED), just another thing I’ll take along with my new YakTrax!

After the bailout point is the “false summit”. It makes incline virgins want to turn around and go back to the bailout. Be warned! This is NOT the top and you’ll figure that out after you pass it. From the bottom, the real summit is not visible. KEEP PUSHING, the top is really not that far after the fake top! (UltraRob has some great photos of this!)

The last 20 steps or so were clear of ice so I decided to “run” the last couple of steps. It will be my tradition for now until I can “run” up the entire thing. Yes, I plan on running up the incline someday. Cindy O’Neill did it in 24 minutes…can’t I?!? Right now the answer would be HELL NO. I finished at a measly, even 1 hour. The pain and cold was nursed well by a home-brew (luuuuuv the Hefe) made by my husband!

Upon finishing the recovery drink, it was time to “run” down. I insisted on wearing my headlamp (wussy) while my husband insisted on using his crazy-good-Army-influenced-night-vision (tough guy). Ice wasn’t much of an issue since it was cold enough to freeze the dirt and rocks that were kicked on top of it. Got to the bottom in about 20 minutes and headed to the bar for happy hour and yummy Turkey day treats!

I had so much fun* that I decided to do the incline again (my third time) only 38 short hours after this bout. Again, it was fun, made the round trip in 1.5 hours but now asking myself what is THAT muscle and WHY does it hurt like that!?!?

*Photo proof coming soon!

These pictures are from the October 1978 issue of “Bicycle Motocross Action”. They appear courtesy of Bob Osborn. Do not reprint or publish without his expressed written permission.

Seeing the bash guard on the Stormer Jr. made me wonder if it wasn’t the Pikes Peak bike. So I had to find the article. Clearly the bash guards are different. And the bike in the test is a regular Stormer. I have not reprinted the article do to its very long length. I may later on till then try to get your hands on the magazine and enjoy these pictures in the meantime.

http://www.facebook.com/manitousprings#/manitousprings?v=app_2344061033

I took a very quick trip (overnight) to Colorado Springs recently and, although I didn’t get to spend much daylight time there, I visitied the Garden of the Gods and it was absolutely beautiful. Here are a few of the images from my hike through the “garden.”  I wish I would have had the time to explore more and venture up to Pikes Peak but, I guess now I’ll just have to go back for that!

Future Pikes Peak hill climbs may cease to exist as we know them, sadly.

(via 928 Motorsports)

- Gyro

Trout I caught in Lake Manitou, Colorado

Today I had to give myself a pep talk while at the doctor’s office learning how to give myself injections of B12 with a long needle in the thigh muscle.  A fishing story came to mind.

I didn’t fish this summer. I worked during tourist season and I didn’t have any energy after work to drive up the pass to fish. I was THAT sick.  So this picture is of summer/2008. I’m standing in my friend Jack’s driveway.

Well, I’ve never had to clean my own fish until the summer of 2008. I begged Jack, please??? I always had my dad, brother, brothers in law, Erin my niece and other friends do the dirty task. I’m surprised I got by for 45 yrs. Jack put his foot down. He said, “you can use my kitchen sink, but I ain’t guttin no fish!” My eyelashes were just not long enough to blink and get my way. By the way, Jack’s kitchen sink has a view of Pikes Peak that people would die for.  Jack handed me a long sharp knife and said, “you can do it!” I called my Dad. “Daddy, how do you clean trout, Jack won’t do it.” He gave me the instructions. I picked up the knife again and held it over the trout’s neck. Yeah trouts have necks; at least mine do. I started to gag. ” I can’t do it I screamed, jumping up and down, holding my stomach, I just can’t do it!” Jack said, “Nancy, you reeled in those suckers faster than anyone at the lake (I used a Pistol Pete lure by the way), now clean those fish and throw them in the freezer!”  He was standing behind me as I was frowning at the trout’s neck I was to start with, according to Daddy. Jack’s pep talk continued. He said, “picture yourself lost in the middle of the woods by a lake. All that you have to eat is the fish you catch. This means survival, Nancy. Now visualize this and cut that sucker’s head off NOW!” I gagged again and whack. I did it. Then while continuing to gag I finished the task according to Daddy’s instructions. Jack was cheering behind me, “See I knew you could do it.”

Now let’s get back to the pep talk in the doctor’s office. I was sitting on the examining table after taking lessons from the nurse, getting ready to jab an inch and a half needle in to the muscle of my thigh. I didn’t gag but I almost cried. The nurse is cheering me on. “You can do it.” I think of my trout with the neck and Jack cheering me on. I picture myself continuing to feel the crappy way I have felt for several months. I take that needle and JAB at a 90 degree angle smack in the top of my big ole thigh.  It didn’t hurt! Not at all. Then I looked up at the nurse asking what now. I pushed the red liquid through the syringe in to the needle in to my thigh in to my muscle, thinking, I’m not going to die and by next summer I will feel much better….better enough to fish again and gag again while chopping those trout  in the neck! Thank you, Daddy, Thank you, doctor, Thank you, Jack.

We get bored of driving, we get bored on going from A to B day after day, we get tired, we get stressed in traffic jams, we have accidents, etc. Generally, having to drive is annoying to a certain extent, it is why automakers are working on systems that could drive by itself.

However, there still lasts a big part of the drivers that enjoy driving and are delighted watching rally drivers racing, dreaming with a day when we will get the manner to get into this world and having fun as we have never had. To do that, you have to be very good driving and get an excellent finantiation, because drivers who you are fighting against to get a seat are going to push as hard as ever.

So now, what would your face look like when you offer everything to a carmaker, let´s say Audi, and they tell you: “We are not interested, our rally car drives itself”.

As my MotorFull blogmate Eduardo Alonso commented, Audi is supporting a Stanford University initiative so to get an Audi TT-S to the top of Pikes-Peak. It is not going to win, that is so clear, because so to do that the system must be on a more radical car, like the Nobuhiro Tajima Suzuki, but this is the first serious step to a professional sportive driving cars control.

In normal road driving, there is a determined number of factors that influence driving and reaction times that are between prefixed margins so to keep everybody´s security safe. Nevertheless, in sportive driving the car is going nearer to the limit and there are more factors to keep an eye on.

A machine driving a machine lefts less errors to happen, but lefts also less margin to the unexpected because everything has to be between the prefixed parameters. If an Audi TT-S climbs up quickly a mountain is relatively easy, because that is no so difficult as a Rally-Cross race, where there´s a lot of participants and “factors”. Even so, I have to reinforce the statement I have said: it could be the first important step to an automaton rally driver and maybe the first no-human world rally champion.

Behind this, automakers are looking for an automaton normal road driving that could be safer, because with the experience adquired they could make cars safer, but to what extent are we going to let the car drives for us?

Denver is known as the “Mile-High City” because it’s exactly one mile above sea level!

Denver, Colorado is home to the Broncos and home to Invesco Field. Invesco Field is noted* as one of the top 10 tailgaiting stadiums in the country, and for good reason. Because Brono fans have been so into not only the game but the pre-game celebrations there are now actual awards for them. You can get upgraded to catered suites on the field, free tickets and more. To check out the stadium and watch the team hold onto their almost perfect record click here

skyline at night found at punitsinha.com

There are other things to do in Denver besides football and sports though, Denver is a perfect city to start at, to branch yourself out to other locations. Mount Evans, Pikes Peak and Rocky Mountains National Park are all just a day excursion away. Or simply stay in the city just shopping, eating and relaxing!

If you’re traveling to Denver on a budget you can find a list of things to do for free here

*article found at forbestraveler.com

We did not know that the Pikes Peak Hill Climb is about to fundamentally change.

Litigation was pursued by the Sierra Club, in 1998-1999, on grounds of environmental damage from the gravel portion of the road. Pursuant to the settlement agreed by the Sierra Club and the City of Colorado Springs, the unpaved portion of the Pikes Peak Highway is slated to become a hard-surface road, despite concerns that such a project would radically change the nature of the annual automobile and motorcycle race. Stated completion date for this paving project is 2010 (source).

Pity.

- Gyro

I’m guessing if you’re bored then you’re not looking to read about someone moping about life and it’s multiple issues; I wouldn’t be either. But since there is a kevinkelly before the .wordpress up there in the address bar, I can type whatever the hell I want. I will try to eke out a positive ending but let’s get real – life doesn’t always have positive endings neatly wrapped up with a sunset and serenade. I remember some author or creative person talking about how much american storytelling has effed up the public conscience by unwittingly stating that there is a nice, tasty conclusion to all of life’s problems. I wholeheartedly agree.

So ya, I got sick for a few days out here. No worries, I tend to have an affinity to sickness when I travel and jump into multiple physical activities without much sleep. That is common sense. The odd part about this trip was that I started missing home within the first week. This was good for I hadn’t really missed home since I was 18 and had been away for a month overseas, steadily worrying about the social circle happenings I was missing out on that seemed so incredibly important at the time (but which in retrospect were silly and retarded. Ahh, youth.) This was bad because I had just left barely a week ago and I was missing what; life in a basement, over-beered nights, inconsistent people, an overwhelming feel of stasis? I was in Colorado dammit, in the land of ice and snow from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow! Yea I was. But it wasn’t hitting me yet.

I started to gently fit in to a semi-cycle of climbing, laptop working in the library or coffee shop, dinner parties, red wine, more climbing, nature, 12:30 bedtimes (super early for me) and new friends. This was good, I liked this – first week in Colorado is awesome and fun, yaay! The second monday is when things began to shift from lightness to areyoukiddingmeness? It started off very subtle. My facebook account had been jacked up for a few days and now I couldn’t log into it at all. This perturbed me at this instance for I had multiple conversations going on thru the book of faces on my future travel plans and, if you’re anything like 95% of the average 15-35 year old, facebook is a regular part of your day as much as a lightning-fast morning bowel movement greased up with a good night’s sleep, a new food-layer of cereal and some strong coffee. Ah well, what’s a couple days without it. I can quit cold-turkey as I have before in dark lands with no wifi. I kept clicking around idly, heavily procrastinating on work and other demands of my life when I noticed that the clicking was taking much longer than usual. I’m gonna go ahead and sacrifice the play by play of computer malfunction and get straight to the point. After a matrix like pattern of binary code appeared on my screen, my hard drive bit the dust. Luckily i had an inkling that this was occurring and backed up some important things while overlooking other important things (SHIT).

Amid a myriad of other smaller and more personal things I dare not divulge on a public forum, I decided it was time to leave estes and see more of the mountain range. Luckily, I have good friends in Colorado Springs who decided to take me up on this. I made the drive down in the morning as a huge winter storm was nipping at my heels which would ultimately extend my trip by another day. Thru Boulder, Thru Denver, Thru the other mountain range towns I traveled marveling at some new American landscape I had never seen. First stop, Mac Store. No Luck. They didn’t have the hard drive and would take 3-5 Days to get it. Thank goodness I was able to sit there for 2 hours while they were able to figure this out! Luckily I was coming up to the house of some very quality people Jake & Kim. Kim was at work so Jake and I headed out to do the ‘little’ manitou incline hike at the base of Pike’s Peak. This hike turned out to be the steepest, most breath-raping mother****er I had ever set foot upon. Picture in your head (or here) a 1 mile hike in which you cover over 2,000 vertical feet with the aid of thousands of railroad ties and busted rusty pipes as footholds. Imagine starting this hike in nice 55 deg weather and ending in freezing snow covered ties in THE worst possible outdoor shoes (currently described as “A bit heavy, with no traction on slick, or wet terrain.” and they aren’t kidding). I was wheezing like an 80 year old grandmother as this chick glides up past us with her little puppy. Luckily, altitude hasn’t kicked my ass this trip and jake and I were able to finish somewhat respectfully before sundown, even taking the scenic route back to the parking area. My barely-there ass cheeks continued to ache for the next 3 days.

Seeing as how Jake & Kim are originally from St. Louis, we decided to hit the bars that night. After ordering obscene amounts of Thai food, we headed off to the Bristol Brewing Co. for some insanely dark beer and that sand & metal disc shuffleboard game that I can never remember the real name for. A word about altitude & alcohol – They are awesome together. One micro beer to buzz and you feel like you just finished a 6 pack of Bud Light. (Also new in altitude, much more methane production.) Kim had to work in the morning so Jake and I dropped her off before heading out on a little pub crawl via ten-speed in the frigid night air.

The night eventually ended around 2:30 a.m. after many, many dark beers, many rounds of darts, and some of the most inspired farting I have ever had the pleasure of smelling all due to the digestive effects of heavily americanized Pad Thai.

This trip to Co. Springs definitely helped avert some down&outness. Over the course of the next few snowed in days, we watched multiple documentaries, ate much food, read alot, booked tickets for the rest of my walkabout, and played some intense Mexican Train Dominoes, also entering a great new phrase into our vocabulary, ‘The Bone Zone’. Also, I just need to say, that the local Colorado Springs 9 o’clock news may be the most unintentionally funniest and crappiest news program I have ever seen. Real life came whipping back at us on friday when Jake had to return to work and I had to return back to estes.

Before I could make it back, I had a 5 hour wait in the Flatirons shopping mall outside of Boulder so that I could tell the Apple Store employees the exact same story I had just told to Co. Springs employees a few days earlier. I made the most of the time by solidifying my severe hate of malls, eating some long fasted from McDonalds, and watching Zombieland in the mall cineplex for the cheap matinee price of 8 BUCKS! I thought matinee equals cheap?

Amid all of these minor little things that happened and the addition of more personal shit, the missing of a free Tapes n’ Tapes concert at CU in Boulder, the weary drive back to Estes and the continual feeling of losing control over my STL life I was/am feeling less and less of a good/greatful/happy/upbeat/purposeful/unlimited potential vibe than I thought I would as I’ve made my adventure out west…

(How’s that for ending on a happy note? Sorry – this is the truth though. No sense in sugar coating a true account of travels. If there is anything positive to eke from this bleak post it’s that my St. Louis pride continues to swell everyday and I have never felt more connected to my hometown. I actually want to wear a cardinals hat.)

Nos aburre conducir, nos aburre ir de un punto A a otro B día tras día, nos cansamos, nos estresamos en el tráfico, tenemos accidentes, etc. En general, el tener que conducir es hasta cierto punto molesto, es por ello que las marcas se están esforzando en crear sistemas que hagan que los vehículos se puedan mover de forma automática.

Sin embargo, aún queda una gran parte de los conductores que disfrutamos de la conducción y disfrutamos viendo competir a los pilotos de rally, soñando con que algún día encontraremos la forma de poder entrar en ese mundo y disfrutar como nunca. Para entrar en ese mundo hay que ser muy bueno y tener una financiación excelente, porque los pilotos contra los que se va a competir lo van a dar todo por ello.

Ahora bien, ¿con qué cara te quedas si le ofreces todo eso a una marca, digamos Audi, y te dicen: “No nos interesa, nuestro coche de rallies corre solo”.

Como comentaba mi compañero de MotorFull Eduardo Alonso, Audi está apoyando una iniciativa de la Universidad de Stanford para poder hacer que un Audi TT-S pueda subir la mítica montaña de Pikes-Peak. No va a ganar, está claro, porque para ello habría que montar el sistema sobre un vehículo más radical, tipo el Suzuki de Nobuhiro Tajima, pero es el primer paso serio hacia un control de vehículos en conducción deportiva profesional.

En una conducción por carretera normal, influyen un determinado número de factores en la conducción y los tiempos de reacción están dentro de unos márgenes prefijados por la seguridad de todos. Ahora bien, en conducción deportiva se juega mucho más al límite e influyen muchos más factores.

Que una máquina controle a una máquina da pie a menos errores, pero también da menos margen a imprevistos, ya que todo tiene que estar dentro de unos parámetros prefijados. El que un Audi TT-S suba una montaña de forma rápida es relativamente fácil, pues no entraña tanta dificultad como una carrera de Rally-Cross donde hay muchos más participantes. Aún así, recalco que podría ser el primer paso importante hacia un futuro coche de rallies autómata y quizás el primer campeón del mundo no-humano.

Detrás de todo esto está la búsqueda de una conducción autómata por calle más segura, pues con la experiencia adquirida se podrán realizar vehículos más seguros, pero ¿hasta qué punto vamos a dejar al vehículo que conduzca por nosotros?

It was a beautiful spring afternoon, and we had an itch to get outside.

I was in Colorado Springs at the time, with my friends Brian and Raoul.  It was a Saturday afternoon.  We were all bored and frustrated, and needed to go.  We’d made the decision to drive into the mountains outside of the city, and perhaps go for a hike.

Brian walked to his desk, pulled out a large bag of weed, looked at as if considering, then threw it on the couch.  The three of us got in the car and left.

We drove to Upper Gold Camp Road, a dirt pass that runs between Pikes Peak and Cheyenne Mountain.  We were in an old Volvo, orange and in sorry shape.  Driving slowly on the narrow pass, our car stalled.  The three of us got out to investigate.  Just as we got out, from around the curve in front of us, a cop car pulled up.  They got out to see who we were and what we were doing.  They treat us aggressively.  They had all three us put our hands on the roof of the car, legs and arms spread, and then frisked each of us down.  After padding us down, they told us to leave the mountain.

At once pissed to be called out for no reason, and then thankful that Brian left his weed at home, we got the car started and inched back down the pass.  When we got to the bottom of Gold Camp Road, we parked the car back at home and walked to local jazz bar up the street (Brian and Raoul were both jazz musicians, and were good at getting club managers to give them free drinks).  Together we all got drunk.  Our itch was never scratched, and we returned home feeling even more frustrated than when we left.

Just left South Dakota and visited in Colorado for a few days.  Now trying to get settled back into Wichita.  Passed by Garden of the Gods on our way to Woodland Park in Colorado.  Not a fan of all the concrete and fences there, but the red beds are pretty neat.  The formation is called the Fountain Formation and it runs up and down the Front Range.  It is a deposit left from rivers and floods that came off the ancestral Rockies some 200 million years ago.  If you look closely, you will often see crossbedding and places were ancient stream channels ran and deposited this course sandstone.

The red beds are in the foreground and Pikes Peak is in the background.  If you look to the right, you’ll see a window in the rock, and if you use your imagination, you’ll see what they call the ‘Kissing Camels’.  I never once could picture them when I was little, but they’re pretty obvious to me now.

For other Scenic Pictures, click below:

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A couple of days after my big birthday and the record run, I was recovered enough to summit my third 14er – that’s a mountain over 14,000 feet tall. The first was White Mountain back in ‘07, and that was a 10-hour hike after two nights of sleeping at elevation. The second was Mt. Shasta last summer, a grueling, exhilarating 14-hour day after about a week of acclimation in the Eastern Sierras and on the mountain itself. This one took, um, about an hour.

Pike’s Peak has a road to the top!

It also has a lovely cog train that ascends from Manitou Springs, just outside of Colorado Springs:

This would be the end of the line!

As you can see, the view was pretty hazy that day, but my cousin says that on a clear day, you can see – not quite forever – but the whole Rocky Mountain range.

At the top, I ate donuts, did my Christmas shopping, and found two geocaches:
Pikes Peak Summit International
Pike Never Made It!

This is the view from the first cache. That’s my cousin, Richard, over there.

He got this photo of me finding the cache:

Here’s one of the summit plaques:

I even got to play in some snow… in August!

This mountain was the inspiration for a certain familiar song, so I simply HAD to sing it up there:

My cousin and I both had trouble catching our breath and feeling a bit woozy from lack of oxygen, but I actually felt better when I was singing. Others should maybe try that… ha! On the way down we saw some interesting plants:

We ate a pretty good beef stew at the lodge halfway down:

… and found a few more caches on the way:
Inukshuk 1
Bigfoot
Christmas Cache

… and managed to avoid meeting Big Foot, although he’s apparently a road hazard:

… then returned safely to base camp:

Here’s to more caching high points and peak experiences!

A footnote for all you Marzipan fans – that’s the kitten I found back in May at a cache in Farmersville. She’s getting all big and healthy – and rides around on my shoulders. Here she is, and I’m wearing a T-shirt I got up on Pike’s Peak. It says “Got Oxygen?”

Well, the FIA finally chose a successor to the Nazi orgy guy, better known as Max Mosley. They did not choose the former rally champion Ari Vatanen. Instead, they went with the former rally co-driver – and former Ferrari F1 team boss – Jean Todt. Frankly, this isn’t surprising, what with Vatanen making some pretty heavy waves as of late, but it is still news. Personally, I think I would have gone with Ari, if only because he used to do stuff like in the embedded video. It’s astounding the amount of car control that some people have, and he was one of the best. Check out the video and tell me that isn’t awesome.

Will this new election really change anything? Probably not, but either way, I guess I’m happy to have Max removed from his power. Now, if we could all get to work on removing Bernie, everything would be much better.

I really have a desire to go up and shoot another picture. It’s been snowing up at the Peak for a couple days and it’s glorious when it’s snow covered! Maybe I’ll throw on my clothes and go up there now before work this afternoon….

I’ll post a new pic tonight if I do. Below is a link to videos of the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad that takes daily trips from where I live in Manitou Springs up to the top of Pikes Peak, weather permitting. Lightening storms can be deadly up there. The other link is music and history of Katherine Bates and the song she wrote when visiting Pikes Peak, America. Click and

Enjoy, if you have the time.

http://www.cograilway.com/Pikes%20Peak%20train%20videos-A.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/america.htm

http://mazdaoflakewood.com/

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Last week I went to Colorado for a few days to visit my family and a few friends – and to attend my 10 year high school reunion. Sunday evening my dad, the pug and I took a hike behind our house in the ponderosa pine forest.   The foggy air made Pikes Peak seem unusually distant. We were surrounded by a cold, silent beauty.  I know we will find beauty in Nicaragua – but of a very different kind. Here are a few shots from our walk. 

Stay warm everyone!

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Sales: (888) 472-8555
Parts & Service: (888) 481-9966

This morning I found myself back in Woodland Park, after starting my drive down the hill to Manitou Springs. The fog or clouds (?) were so thick and appeared to be crawling up the mountain, so I turned around and made my way back here, the city above the clouds. Today the clouds are reclaiming the heavens and trying to rise above Woodland Park.

I’m at Starbucks and it’s a full house. It may not be my favorite coffee or coffee shop, but I usually love the music and decor. They also bring in the best clients for people watching. What a great thing…to sit here, in my own world, watching people. There’s an elderly couple sharing a piece of pumpkin bread, three men having a business meeting, a couple women chatting about their children, and two young girls enjoying their foo-foo chocolate coffee drinks.

A couple days ago their was a dad with his 3 year old daughter having scrumptious looking drinks while they waited for her mom to pick her up. I’ve noticed this mostly in Starbucks – the single parents treating children to drinks while waiting for parental exchanges to happen. It also seems to be a place to take teenagers, especially in the morning, as a way of connecting with them. I’ve overheard a lot of conversations of single parents with children and it makes me happy to think that a mocha latte something-or-other can be what brings and/or keeps parents connected to their children. At least in that moment.

It appears that the clouds have retreated as I now have a clear view of Pike’s Peak. The windows at the entrance face Pike’s Peak and it’s time for me to leave this Starbucks above the clouds.

Now I pack up and head to Manitou Springs, to meet John, a 79 year old Manitou resident who wants so much to share his knowledge and history of the area with me. He called this morning to find out if I was still willing to listen. But of course, it will be my pleasure.

We are here in Colorado Springs!

On the first night Laura and Max and Madie, the people we’re staying with, organised a chilli party for us! It was cool, and us kids played games and stuff…

On Sunday, our first day, we did several things, like go have a massive brekky at a diner, go to a chocolate factory, etc etc etc…

And today we are going up Pikes Peak which is not that far away from the house and we’re going to a penny arcade which will be awesome. I am also posting my postcards. Finally. I’m doubting they’ll get to Oz before school begins.

Tomorrow we’re flying to San Francisco.

OK. Gotta go put my shoes on before we leave for the mountain.

Finally after the birthday and ball games were over, we decided to take a day and visit a few places in Colorado Springs.

The first place we went to was the Garden of the Gods. This is kind of an interesting location just because it is a bunch of red rocks that jut up out of the ground.  I call them Colorado “Monument Rocks.” One of our friends asked us what is with us and rocks… well our answer is we just find them interesting.   There are trails that you can walk around the rock formations and take pictures or you can even just drive around.  There is a trading post that you can visit that is very touristy if you are into the personalized coffee cup type items.

Garden of the Gods

Pikes Peak from Garden of the Gods

Cave of the Winds