The first thing we did was go to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Yesterday, on our way to Colorado we made a pit stop to purchase walkie talkies. BEST DECISION EVER. Each car had one and we communicated back and forth the whole way. They have been very handy. At random times, each car will randomly belt out a song to the other car.
At the Garden of the Gods, the weather was foggy, so we couldn't really see the landscape when we drove up.
Our site leader, Gunnar, insisted that we stop at the information center first to learn about the park. We learned that their was a unique dinosaur discovered there and it showed us how to identify various types of "scat."
Then we drove to the Garden, and started hiking around on the trails. We didn't stay on the trails for long, though. Pretty much right away, we would trek as far as we could before signs told us we could go no further (without risking fines... also mostly ignored). That was the tone of how we behaved for the rest of our time there. We ran around, climbed any rocks that we could, sprinted up hills, and made strangers take pictures of us.
The Garden was wonderful scenery. Anywhere you looked, you could see breathtaking landscape. After we would run up big enough slopes, we would have to stop to admire what we saw, even though we could barely stand due to this thin air up in Colorado. We got out of breath a lot.
After we wore ourselves out enough there, we were ready to move on. As we left Garden of the Gods, the fog lifted and the sun came out. This resulted in the Pike's Peak Highway being reopened so we headed there. Our convoy consisted of our two vans, Red Rocket and Blue Ivy. We communicated via walkie talkies and occasional pilot impersonations.
We drove 13 miles up Pike's Highway and saw some pretty incredible stuff. There was a water reservoir with the top of the mountain right behind it. Totally picturesque. Our form of photography to capture that moment is something known as a selfie. We attempted to recreate the infamous Ellen selfie with Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains in the background. The view may have been sacrificed to fit all of the people, but the 33+ retweets was totally worth it.
Unfortunately, we could not make it to the summit due to poor road conditions. But it was probably beneficial for the group that we stopped where we did. Gunnar was basically dying and out of his mind from the sudden altitude change. It was a drastic personality change. He had to rest in the gift shop and muster the strength to ride the car back down. He was pale and couldn't string together a sentence.
Our next stop was the Cave in the Winds. It had a beautiful canyon right next to it. However, we did not go in the cave. It was $20 a person... so gross. Some people did choose to spend $20 on a zipline along the side of the canyon. There was also a three story ropes course next to the edge that partially extended over the side.
We still had some daylight after that, so we went to a small, historic town called Manitou Springs. We walked around in the shops, had some coffee, fudge, and/or ice cream. There was some pretty interesting outdoor paintings too.
It was getting pretty late in the day after that, so we decided to head back to our church and do some grocery shopping. Grocery shopping was chaos. Nobody really knew what they wanted to get, so it was more or less a free-for-all.
Carleigh and Jonathan cooked our first dinner. It was chicken pasta, cheesy bread and vegetables. It was hearty and delicious and we were quite grateful. At dinner, we went around and talked about our favorite part of the day. The consensus was the Garden, but the main takeaway was that our group had bonded immensely during this single day together. We are excited for this week to continue to bond, get to know each other and serve others.
It has been decided that Gunnar is the dad for this trip. The reasons are numerous:
1. The way he walks (he kinda has a dad butt).
2. The way he wears his pants.
3. His insistence on visiting a mining town.
4. His unsuccessful search for an oxygen tank while at Pikes Peak.
5. He loses everything, but he always has his file folder in tip-top order.
6. He wears the walkie talkie on his belt loop and always communicates with phrases like "10-4" and "Roger that".
7. HE LOVES PAMPHLETS. He picked up a bunch for random activities at a gas station on the way to Colorado. He also made us stop at the information center at Garden of the Gods to pick up some more and so that we could learn some of the history behind the Garden.
8. Wants to stop at every museum possible.
We had an amazing free day, and packed as much as we could into it. We got lost in our activities and became closer from them. We are excited for the week. This is being written as two of our group members are performing the "Moral Dance" from Mizzou Dance Marathon. I guess that's a testimony of how the bonding went.
Peace. Love. Cheddar bunnies.
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