A Trip To The CO

A couple of weeks ago, Lacy’s brother Jake and his wife Tiffany had identical twin girls (Here's a pic of them, looking slightly to the left). So, the natural thing to do was to hop in the car and head to Colorado Springs as soon as possible to see them. Dakota and Georgia are their names. It’s pretty simple to drive to Colorado from San Diego. You just take the 8 west to the 85 north to the 10 West to the 301 loop to the 17 north to the 40 West to the 25 north, and wham, in seventeen hours, you’re there. Except, we (Lacy, Lukas, and I) decided that it would be better to caravan with Lacy’s mom, sister, special needs aunt, and 3 dogs, Making Lukas and Fender myself the only male companions on an overnight drive driven by WOMEN who can’t wait to see their nieces/granddaughters, thus leaving ME as the sole sense of male ration. Fun. On top of that bliss, we decided to leave right after church on Sunday, the time of week where I’m the absolute freshest.

Truth be told, the drive wasn’t that bad. We stopped more than we had planned. We woke up Monday morning in the parking lot of a liquor store. It appeared to be a nice strip mall when we parked (Just for a few hours, of course) the night before, but when the sun came up, there was beer, gas, white trash, and midgets involved. Not exactly the Marriot. We arrived in Colorado Springs around six Monday evening. We’re still here, and it’s been nothing but lovely. Lovely and hot that is. We picked the one week of the summer that the state of Colorado decided to set all sorts of heat records. But it’s OK, we have each other, and a car with really good AC.

Three times Lacy and I have made the trek to the Springs, and not once have we seen the sights in this beautiful area. So, yesterday I pulled a Clark W. Griswold and loaded up the wife and kid and went sight seeing. We started with Garden of the Gods. It was grander than I had remembered. I grew up coming out here for vacation with my family just about every year. I have seen everything. Lacy has seen nothing. JULY 22, 2005 Lukas doesn’t count, cause he’s too young and he doesn’t speak English. The Garden’s were amazing. We walked all over. The funniest thing was watching all the people climb on the rocks at the entrance, as if they didn’t know the REAL cliffs and rocks were around the corner. IQ’s were showing their true colors.

We then set out to climb Pikes Peak. In the car, of course. We were almost to Pikes Peak Highway when I thought it would be better to keep driving down Highway 24 into Green Mountain Falls, and show Lacy the cabins that we used to stay in when I was a kid. There’s a row of about 6 cabins that go right along a nice little stream. Currently, >two of them are occupied by old friends of the family, Jerry Jones in one, and Sam & B.K. Steerman in another. We ended up running into all of them, and had a great time. Sam Steerman is undoubtedly my favorite old guy. He makes anyone he talks to feel like a million bucks in three seconds or less. I have no idea how he does it, and I’ve never seen, nor will I ever seen anyone like him again. Truly one of a kind.

What a day. It was one of the best single day’s I’ve had in a while. To be out in the wild with my wife and son was truly great. It made the caravan with Woman and K9 worth it.

Today, I helped Jake find and purchase an old Jeep Cherokee. It’s pretty sick, and he’ll have a ton of fun with it.

We’ll probably head back tomorrow. Not sure when we’ll actually arrive home. I’m not in a hurry. This blog will not be posted until I return because… Oh I didn’t mention, they have no Internet or TV here, so we’re pretty lost as far as communication with the world goes. I’m not sure what I miss most about home. My Airport Base Station, which provides me with, wireless Internet in my house whenever I want it, or, AIR CONDITIONING!