colorado day 3: colorado springs and tumbling river

When Zach and I woke up Monday morning neither of us could move very well. I guess it makes since considering our bodies had hiked 13 miles the last two days and we weren't exactly used to that much exercise :) We were planning on a lot driving this day and not much walking so it worked out pretty well.

Colorado Springs was an hour and a half south of where we were staying and has a lot of things to see so we spent the majority of the day there. Our first stop was the Air Force Academy. Zach's cousin Caleb is a graduate of their and now flies fighter jets, plus, it has a beautiful campus and an amazing Chapel as well.

Growing up in Alabama it was cool to see a statue dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen all the way in Colorado.


The stain glass was gorgeous and the colors just brilliant when the sun came through.

Next stop was the Garden of the Gods. It is a red rock formation made of sand stone and was donated to the city of colorado springs in the early 1900's to be a free park for the public. It had started to rain right as we got there and I had somehow forgotten my rain jacket at the hotel. My sweet husband let me borrow his while he just got wet. We would have liked to hang around here longer but it was cold, wet, windy and slippery so we saw what we could and got back in the car.

My poor exhausted and sore body had enough by the end of this destination so I fell asleep while Zach drove to the Pike's Peak entrance. We were planning on driving to the top but when we got there we found out it was $15 a person, an hour and a half drive one way, and the top was closed due to a hail storm so I went back to sleep while Zach figured out what we were going to do next. I woke up sometime after sitting in a shopping center while Zach went out and took some pictures. It had cleared up some and he had a good view so there ya go! When he got back in the car we just happened to be next door to the Focus on the Family headquarters so we went to their welcome center.

Zach's brothers and sisters listened to a radio show when they were growing up called Adventures in Odyssey that is produced by Focus on the Family. They downstairs of their welcome center is a huge museum/playground for this show. We went and had ice cream in Whit's End and walked around the bottom while Zach attempted to explain to me what I was seeing. Since I'm sure he's going to buy all the CD's for our kids when they're old enough I'll have full knowledge whenever we go back to visit with the kids!

Our last event of the day was driving down to Tumbling River Ranch in Grant, CO where Katie and Jered have been working the last few months. They had invited us to come out and tour the ranch and have dinner as guests. We weren't really sure what to expect since the only ranch either of us have seen are in movies. It was quiet, relaxing, quaint and full of mountain atmosphere. Katie showed us around and explained everything they do on a daily/weekly basis. We bought souvenirs from the trading post, borrowed boots from the barn and ate ribs, potatoes, cowboy beans and smore's outside next to a fire. VERY COOL!

We said our final goodbyes to them until they come home in October and drove the dark mountain roads back to our hotel to get a good nights sleep before our last day in the west!