Where's Waldo? Burning up the Colorado mountainside..

Went to Colorado for an extended weekend, little relaxing mini-vacation and ended up with an adventure. It's funny how something is "supposed" to be one thing and ends up with a totally different vibe. It makes me laugh but it also makes me sad for the people that are not flexible or want to just complain when a wrench gets thrown into the works.

Looking back the best I can describe it is like the cooking competition where they hand you a box of stuff and you and you alone are responsible for a delightful creation. No recipe, no pre-planning just raw creative gumption.

And Lori here is your box of ingredients:
1 pound  turnips
6 kiwi
A bottle of soy milk
2 fresh Maine Lobsters
horseradish
and........some limberger cheese

Good luck!

The trek started just as any vacation might, leaving early - VERRRRY early to get a full day in once we got there. It all went well, settled in and went to play in the very colorful Manitou Springs, weather was a little warmer than usual but beautiful. The next day first stop - Garden of the Gods. Great place, the beauty is breath taking but.....what on the horizon did to my wondering eyes appear? but a little puff of smoke......then we start hearing sirens - LOTS of sirens.

Waldo Canyon Fire 2012

We continue on then start hearing the rangers talk. Closing the park? really? sending employees home? oh my.  OK, so we have to take the back way out because many of the roads are closed, it happens. But then we hear Pikes Peak is closed......the roads to a few of the attractions we wanted to see.....closed. We were disappointed but I really felt bad for the residents of Manitou you could see in their faces the worry and distress. You could look to the mountain and see flames, you could see the houses directly in the path of the fire. My heart truly went out to them. And the animals, we were seeing animals that were frightened and out of place.

Then we settled in for the night and at 1:30AM and knock on the door, Manitou was under a mandatory evacuation. YIPES!

After we shook the cobwebs out of our sleepy heads we decided to go stay with friends in Loveland. And yes, even a bigger fire near there but we could go. A side note here- a true friend is one that says, I haven't prepared for you at all AND it's the middle of the night but you are more than welcome to come here. Yep, and we did. And yes, at times the drive between Manitou and Loveland looked and smelled like we were driving through a campfire.

The next day we spent goofing off and decided on the Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour. It was really interesting. Another funny event was the rainstorm on Sunday evening. We went into Ft. Collins to Walrus Ice Cream and it started pouring, the students all went out in the street and were dancing in the rain. The residents were yelling and cheering, it was a sight to be sure. Had a great day with lots of laughter (that makes ANYTHING more fun) and found a hotel for the night- hospitality is nice but no one wants to wear out their welcome.

So, was the trip like planned? Not at all, but was the outcome a positive one? Most definitely. Destinations are fun, but the human journey, that is where the joy is found.

Thanks Colorado for making me a deeper person this past weekend.