This is the third year that I’ve sat in the HoJo in Colorado Springs looking at my favorite mountain and taking a great big sigh of contentment. I’m not sure how it’s planned this way, but it seems we always start out going to Pike’s Peak. It’s almost like a good luck charm from hundreds of years ago. Visit the mountain first and have good blessings for the rest of the trip.
This year, we decided to fly again, so most of the day was spent in airports or on flying tin cans. But I was prepared! I made a ton of thick and chewy granola bars. I packed fruit and snacks so I wouldn’t have to depend on whatever the complimentary snack happened to be today.
Unfortunately, my granola bars are now individually wrapped granola bites. I’ll see how many ways I can use them up this week. 10 ways to use granola bars that have been smushed to smithereens. Yeah, that’s a GREAT title for a blog post 😉
Lunch deserves a moment of silence.
Pappas real angus beef burgers in the Houston airport. Total yum. I had to make sure it was real beef and not that ammonia sprayed dog food bits turned filler for 90% of the fast food and school nutrition program burgers. Jamie Oliver is shriveling my few weakness down to nothing. If I find out Jalepeno Cheetoes are made from wild boar toe jam, I’m done watching him. But I digress…back to the burger. Between this burger, some of those fries, an apple, and a big girl beverage, I barely noticed the three screaming children on the second plane. I was cruising without a care in the world. Next time I fly, I’m finding some mellow meds….or just another fruity big girl beverage.
After we landed, we managed to back into this sweet ride for the cost of a smaller vehicle. It will take the rest of the trip to figure out how to turn on the radio and add gas to it. So many bells and whistles.
Gertrude, the GPS lady, highly approved. She was in fine form today.
“Go left. Stay left. Keep left. Keep left…keep left…keep left”. EVERY EXIT ON THE FREEWAY. I think Gertrude needs an attitude adjustment.
With a few hours left to the day, we found the flagship REI. 
It used to be a train station and now it is a multilevel dream for the outdoorsy people. We spent a good two hours dreaming and buying a hat, water bottle, and Starbucks. Naturally, I had to take a picture of the first stream I saw, which happened to be right in front of REI.
After settling back into the HoJo, we found a light dinner since lunch was ginormous.
Salad. I even tried some radishes. This was good, but after this and soup, I was stuffed again.
Tonight, the mountains had that gorgeous purple color after sunset. There was a lot of haze even at 7pm so no pictures. I hope to get some great sunrise shots in the morning. Tomorrow, we go back up the Pike. If tomorrow is like today, then I will feel like I never left the peak. It will be like a good friend welcoming us back.