Today was planned to be a work day…which turned out to be a good thing since Connie didn’t feel good most of the day with tummy issues and it rained on and off from about 1000 on, sometimes pretty heavy. Connie’s plan was to stay home and do some work…and catch up on everything she needs to do for the next week or so and then we have the rest of our time here in Colorado to do fun stuff.

Neil took the Mazda over and got the oil changed and a minor repair on the front bumper…it got sideswiped in a parking lot somewhere and one of the clips holding the bumper on was broken so it needed a little hillbilly engineering to help hold it in place. It wasn’t in any danger of falling off but was loose and rattled in the wind at highway speeds.

After he got back from the Mazda place Connie was feeling a little better so he cut up an avocado for lunch for her and got some lunchmeat and cheese for himself. After that he went on a quick run…and thinks he’s starting to acclimate to the altitude a little since it didn’t hurt quite so much today…then had a shower and listened to the Security Now podcast from twit.tv. Following that they ran out to the commissary to pick up a few groceries we needed and mail a package for Connie’s work to Chicago.

Getting back home we watched a little news and are going to have some rotisserie chicken with cheese tortellini for dinner and then settle in for some of Connie’s favorite shows on TV. We also picked up a couple of packages (new power supplies for Neil’s Macbook Pro and Connie’s work laptop) that we ordered on Monday.

Tomorrow we’re off to see the Garden of the Gods state park and the Manitou Indian Cliff Dwellings and then have a date at the Trinity Brewing Company for dinner. Friday we’re going to on a hike to see Helen Hunt Falls and then take a drive up to the top of Pikes Peak and back. I’m sure we’ll have some great photos from those adventures…and then we have additional adventures scheduled for Sat through Tuesday. Wednesday we will get ready to travel and Connie has to go and get her new crown installed. Tuesday is Neil’s birthday and we’re planning on going to Tomo Sushi for dinner…it was recommended by Dr. Koo the dentist we saw here as having the best sushi in town.

While it rained most of the day it was pretty nice early this morning…here are a couple of photos of the 14,114 tall Pikes Peak. It’s the snow capped peak in the center background of these pictures; Colorado Springs is located in the valley to the immediate east of the Front Range which is the part of the Rocky Mountains that passes west of Colorado Springs and Denver. Both photos were taken from the side of the road through the Air Force Academy to our campground but he zoomed in a little bit for the second. They were taken with his iPhone…hopefully we’ll get some more detailed ones later in the week as we have our fun.

Pretty impressive, huh? These shots are looking southwest from the road toward the peak. The road to the peak that we’ll be taking Friday leaves the freeway a little north of Colorado Springs then goes west and basically comes up the back right side of the peak as you see it from this viewpoint. I’m sure glad we aren’t doing any serious hiking at that altitude…we are having a hard time catching our breath here in town at a mere 6,100 feet and the summit is 8,000 feet higher than we sit here. Nonetheless; we’re looking forward to it.

Cyas.