A visit in Highland Ranch and Colorado Springs

Colorado

We left Arizona 6 months ago with a list of people to see and places to go as we traveled across this country. Many of the plans changed and new plans added as we went along. We saw grandkids in South Carolina, Mike's family and class reunion in Vermont and spent time working at a boys youth camps in Maine. There were so many stops along the way, we have to refer to the blog to remember it all. Now we are heading back to the southwest earlier than planned but had to make a stop in Colorado first to see Deb's family first.

Sorry Kyle and Tyler. I got you with the sun in your face. These boys are growing so fast and have so much energy.

We loved watching Kyle play soccer as he got a score for the team.

Tyler loved our bike ride along the river, especially when his parents and brother turned around and we went further without them. 

Kyle getting ready.

This trip has far exceeded our expectations. We got pretty tired at times but met some very nice and interesting people and saw some great places, hiked and biked many trails.

Sometimes a person has to be responsible instead of playing all of the time.
When we sold our home, it was easier to place the items we weren't sure we were ready to let go of into storage. Now after 2 1/2 years, it was time to see what was in there and was it worth paying $55 per month to store. We could only remember a few things that we had in it. We had planned to spend a week in Colorado Springs and decided it was the perfect time to go through things and see if we could clear it out.

It was a bit of work with a few trips to the Habitat Restore, Goodwill and Criterium Bike shop. We managed to only keep a few boxes of things that were important to us.

After getting everything done over 4 days, we got to take a walk in Red Rocks Park on our last morning here, one of our favorites in town. No horse poop like the Garden of the Gods trails. Both are beautiful and close to where we were staying.

Red Rock Canyon on the west side of Colorado Springs has many trails for hiking and mountain biking. There are rock walls for rock climbing.

Many of the buildings in the Manitou Springs area were built with the red rock from this quarry.  Five carloads a day of the rock was also shipped by train in the 1880s. 

We knew it was time for a new truck. Our current truck was a 2008 and getting quite a few miles on it. Mike had been watching the websites in AZ but the 2017 F150s with a V-8 and all of the things he felt were important had sold out. We had taken a wrong turn while in town, ending up near Motor City in Colorado Springs and stopped in to see if they had what we needed (wanted). Mike gave the sales person his list of what he wanted.

I told them that the topper on our truck had to be able to go on it if we were going to buy something, even if it did not match. We didn't want the stuff (our bikes) in the back stolen. If not, it was a deal breaker. The topper did not fit but the manager called Timberline Toppers, just down the road. They had one that had been special ordered for someone that changed his mind. It matched two trucks on the lot that met our criteria. We checked it out and bought a bright blue truck and topper. The dealership had the topper and tires we wanted on and ready to go the next morning.

It is definitely "Lightening Blue".

The $6000 incentives and $1200 off the topper were a bonus. Now we (Mike) have to figure out how all of these options work. Why would any vehicle need 12 computers? It seems to have a mind of its own.