Colorado Springs

We arrived in Colorado Springs on Thursday, August 16, and in short order were nestled into our spot (Space N1) at Garden of the Gods RV Park. The park is large, but we had enough room for our coach and Tracker with the Falcon parked in an overflow area.

The campground has nice shade, with BBQ dinners available Friday and Sunday evenings and a pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. There was also a very talented young lady who sang during dinner on Sunday.  Even better, we also had a bar just across the street that provided more live music on Saturday night. We enjoyed sitting outside with a glass of wine listening and enjoying the evening.  (However, by the time they sang It's Time to Take My Drunk Ass Home just before closing, I was plenty ready for them to stop!)

Our visit to Colorado Springs was short this time.  We were sorry to miss my former classmate Carolyn Stinson Cochran and her husband, Doug, who were out of town.  We enjoyed them so much the last time we were here, and are so glad that the recent fires did not reach their home.

We paid a couple of visits to Garden of the Gods Park. We love this park, and were glad to have a chance to visit in the late afternoon to see the sun on the west side of the cliffs.

We also enjoyed seeing technical climbers scaling the rocks in the morning when they glowed with a rose-red hue.

 

 



The dogs accompanied me on an afternoon photo shoot, and were enjoying their outing until this young lady wearing a zebra mask showed up.  Barks of "Danger, Danger, Danger!!!" rang out from the back seat.  They knew people aren't supposed to look like that.







The Pack also enjoyed their visits to the Bear Creek Dog Park. The creek provides plenty of fresh water, and running on the trails is good for burning excess energy.

 

 

We met a number of other border collies at the park.  This old girl was a real inspiration.  She is 15 years old and likes to wait in the shade at a corner of the park near a busy intersection.  When a big truck comes by, she leaps up and races along inside the fence until she reaches the end of the block-long park. 

This is also the season for local farmers' markets. We found a good one in Colorado Springs and replenished our dwindling supply of roasted chili peppers.  Rob and Donna gave us a big bag while we were in Santa Fe, and we've added to those so we'll (hopefully) have enough to last until we get back to Texas.

　

 

And after we bought those peppers, here's one thing John did with them.  Check out this wonderful pork chop stuffed with cream cheese and Hatch green chilis!  Yum!

Finally, we stopped in Manitou Springs to sample some of the famous healing waters, which tasted like club soda. 

Fortunately, we were just in time for the finish of the finish of the Pikes Peak Run. Here is one of the runners crossing the finish line. He doesn't look like he just ran to the top of the mountain and down again, does he?