Colorado Springs, Colorado

Good morning, my friends. It's a sunny morning here in Colorado Springs. Miss Sadie was soaking up the sun until she got too hot. We're in a very nice state park, Cheyenne Mountain State Park, just southwest of Colorado Springs. Colorado has very nice state parks. We stayed in one a few years back when we visited Ouray and Silverton. 

This was our view for much of yesterday's drive.

It was another good day for barns.

We hadn't driven too very far when the mountains came into view. It's been quite some time since we've seen mountains like these.

Continuing on, we saw more barns.

We drove through the tiny town of Simla, Colorado.

Wikipedia tells us that Simla was founded in 1909 by a man with the name of Altman. Simla was named because the daughter of a railroad official was reading a book about India when she came across the name, "Simla." It's a small town with just 601 residents at the time of the 2020 census. Nevertheless, Simla received national attention when it became the place where the first so-called "English variant" of SARS-COV-2 (Covid-19 virus) was diagnosed in the United States.

Also, we passed through the small town of Calhan.

Wikipedia tells us that Calhan was established in 1888 as a water station for the now-defunct Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. The first steam locomotive arrived on November 5, 1888. The town was named by and for Michael Calahan, who had the contract to lay railroad tracks from the Colorado/Kansas border to Colorado Springs. However, when the town's first U.S. Post Office opened on November 24, 1888, the middle "a" had been dropped and the town was registered as "Calhan."

Calhan has a population of just 762 people at the time of the 2020 census. Nevertheless, it celebrates a home-town hero in former resident Jesse N. Funk. Funk was a rancher in Calhan when the United States joined the First World War in 1917. Having enlisted in 1915, Private Funk was sent to France to support the Allied efforts at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. There, on October 31, 1918, Funk rescued two wounded officers from no man's land while under machine gun fire. For that, Funk was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

And there were still more barns.

Eventually, we cleared the power lines that were ruining any chance for a good image of the mountains, and I was able to get this shot.

I barely caught this structure out our back window as we drove through Colorado Springs. So...what do you suppose they make here? (Actually, I've already inquired of The Google, and so I already know. It wasn't nearly as much fun as the things I dreamed up on my own.)

From there, it was just a few more miles to our final destination.

This is the view from our site. The green circle in the middle is a frisbee golf course, and we've seen more than a few folks playing. There's also a view of Colorado Springs off in the distance. We could see the city lights last night. 

Our weather radio sounded an alarm last night, giving us a few anxious moments. It was telling us about quarter-sized hail in the area we'd stayed the night before. Peyton, Colorado, was specifically mentioned, and we'd just driven through there. In any case, all the bad weather was to the northeast of Colorado Springs, and we were happily sitting in the southwest. We felt a few wind gusts and we heard some thunder, but nothing scary to speak of.

After our arrival yesterday afternoon, Sadie was happy to relax, giving us her cheesecake pose.

Smitty got outside for a good long walk.

He remembers this Colorado grass from our last trip, and let me just tell you...this is some righteous weed.

It occurred to me to cut off a hunk for Sadie, and so she enjoyed her portion from the safety of the RV.

On today's agenda is a visit to Garden of the Gods. I'm not sure why this place didn't make it onto our itinerary in previous visits to Colorado, but we'll set right that omission today. The nice weather is supposed to hold until after noon, and so we'll probably get in a hike or two. Also, there's a brewpub in town that I've read about. We might be able to score another t-shirt for Erik. 

So, it's a full day ahead. We have to work fast since we move on to Centennial tomorrow. And with that...I'll start working fast right now.