Day 4

 We said goodbye to the Limon congregation today.  We took pictures and swapped emails.    What a great group of people.  Hopefully we will be able to come back soon.  After the meeting was over and our goodbyes were said, we headed back out to the territory to finish up some last few roads.  I gotta tell you, it really is desolate out there.  I have NO idea how people have ranches out there - it's all sand.  We found about 6 dogs, 2 cats and 1 person (who was baffled that we were there).  She immediately assumed we were lost. 

The rental car!!!

Mule Deer

trying to harden my KitKat bar on the AC vent

Right as we were finishing up, we came to a fork in the road:

I also finally got some shots of the antelope.  They are really hard to photograph!  They are usually too far away or they immediately run off; even before you really get close enough to them.

We also found this nifty little monument out in the middle of a field for an old stagecoach trail.

Then we started our trek to Colorado Springs.  Even though the land is mostly flat, I could tell we were climbing in elevation because I got so much pressure in my face!  I just still think it's so weird that even the flattest part of the area out here is still higher than our mountains back home.  We crested a ridge and there it was:  PIKES PEAK!!!  I could not believe it was really there!  Really there right in front of me.  We had to easily still be an hour out and yet it already looked to be the same size as our mountains.  And it just kept on growing!!  Soon we were able to see the whole ridge. 

Pikes Peak

bluffs along the highway

Colorado Springs is huge!  It has everything under the sun.  We found our hotel and then headed off to dinner at where else:  Ted's Montana Grill!!!! 

Lance's Rocky Mountain Redhead 

Had my first taste of bison.  Bison short ribs!

 Then we had a very convenient surprise:  we found the Briargate Mustangs!!

Tomorrow it's off to the top of Pike's Peak and the Manitou Cliff Dwellings!!!!  Let's hope the weather men are wrong when they say there's a chance of strong thunder storms on the mountain.  Yikes.