Fun in Colorado

We’ve been enjoying Colorado summers for decades, more often in the mountains than anywhere else. This time, we’ve spent more time “down the hill” than above, although that will change later this month. Since we’re booked into this park for a month, we decided to take in more of what Manitou Springs, Old Colorado City and Colorado Springs has to offer.

I mentioned earlier that we were going to go to the open house and the Olympic Training Center. We watched wrestling and extreme BMX bike demos and saw para-olympians swimming. It was fun to see the children lined up for autographs from athletes, most of whom we didn’t recognize. One day I’m sure we’ll see those same faces on the medal platform.

Last Monday was the Austin-Healey Conclave 2011 in the park here in Old Colorado city. I’ve never seen so many Austin-Healeys in one place in my life!

It brought back fond memories of 1965, right after we got married. We spent lots of evenings and weekend time at the Continental Motors dealership, Broadway and Williams in Wichita. We drooled over, sat in and drove Austin-Healeys, Sprites and MGBs, both new and used. We even had a favorite salesman who almost persuaded us that we couldn’t live without one. We knew exactly what we wanted–British Racing Green with a Saddle Tan interior. (We didn’t see one with that combination this time.) Eventually, we decided not to buy. Big mistake! One of the cars we saw this weekend was still in the family of the original owner and is probably worth $30-$70,000! Of course, we would probably have traded it long ago anyway, so its current value doesn’t matter much.

Later in the day, we went to the Air Force Academy (along with 50,000 of our closest friends) to hear the Colorado Springs Symphony provide the prelude to the fireworks. Not too long after we arrived, cadets wearing bright yellow baseball caps started filing in. And filing in, and filing in. These were more than 1000 members of the class of 2015, who have just arrived on campus in the last week or so.

We also heard several Air Force groups after the Symphony. Who knew the Air Force had a small vocal group reminiscent of Glee? The little girls in front of us knew every word of their songs! I wish I had the name of the group, but I didn’t get it. The Air Force also has a country band, Wild Blue Country, and as country music goes, they were pretty good. These groups provide entertainment and encouragement to servicemen all over the world. The Air Force Academy band joined the Symphony for the 1812 Overture, with cannons provided by Fort Carson.

Fireworks are banned to private citizens in this area due to high fire risk, but we all enjoyed the master pyrotechnics provided that evening, including the sisters who oohed and aahed in front of us.

Fireworks are beautiful, but what impressed me was that we are blessed to be in a nation where thousands of people can gather without threat of government interference. And during the 40 minutes or so it took us to get out of the parking area and back off the Academy grounds, almost everyone just took their turn inching up the lane. We played leapfrog with the same couple time after time in the half mile or so to the interstate and finally waved good-bye as they turned off to go home.

The preacher Sunday morning asked if we thought Christian people in other countries asked God’s blessing on their country. I would hope so. I’m not naive enough to think that God’s blessing is limited to citizens of one nation. We are blessed and I will continue to ask God to bless America!