Colorado

Our friend Joe (from Sierra Leone) was able to visit America in July of this year. When he came home he told people here that America was corn fields and beans. That's because he spent most of his time in Iowa and just inside the bordering states. After hearing that one of my goals was to have JK see a bit more than just corn fields and beans, as well as more than just the forests of the great North. Colorado seemed like a place to start (and with the time we had along with the budget- it was also the place we ended- next time).My friend Brok and his wife Amanda just recently moved out to Denver. Brok was so kind to pick us up and drop us off at the airport. Amanda cooked us a GREAT dinner and Wonderful breakfast. We were able to see a bit of downtown and just hang out and catch up a bit. Brok then drove us to Colorado Springs where we hooked up with Christy and Kirk. Christy was my college roommate and we managed to see a bit of the US together ourselves. Always somewhat last minute with some crazy moments- and this trip didn't let us down either. Since we only had two days (and not really even that) we had to cram a lot in. We were able to meet Kirk for lunch before Brok headed back to Denver and then the sightseeing whirlwind became. We had only 2 hours to drive to the top of Pike's Peak and back down again. With a bit of ice on the road, pretty much no guard rails (I would not call 3 corners out of 50 having guard rails), and Christy driving made for a heart pumping drive. It sure was beautiful but both JK and I were ready to kiss the ground when we got to the top. It doesn't help when your driver is saying they are freaked out and yet still accelerating. :) It makes for a good story though. We took a couple pictures at the top and then had to run inside the store as we were FREEZING. One more picture and then we started the drive back down.We stopped a few times on the way down. There was this guy wind snowboarding (I am sure it has a much more technical name), a few drivers who were crazier than Christy- though I have to say she really impressed me on the way down- we even got passed by a grandma, and the friendliest fox ever greeted us just before the bottom. He even stopped and posed by the car and we had to eventually leave him.Next it was straight to the Garden of the Gods as we only had about an hour of daylight left. It was beautiful and we managed to get a couple shots in before it was just too dark to see anything on film. It was beautiful in person though. The starts and moon created a perfect back drop for this place. I hadn't ever really seen something like this before. I am looking at the photos I uploaded now and realize I didn't upload a photo that really shows how thin these mountains are- and now I am not on my own computer anymore. You'll just have to take my word for it. They were like skeletons of mountains. Like paper thin mountains.

We had a great Taco dinner- JK's first taco. I haven't seen Christy and Kirk since their wedding- which seems just ridiculous, so it was good to spend some time together even if it was short. JK and I were also able to bring a thank you gift for The Well Church in Colorado Springs who gave a gift of money to our school here. We appreciated it so much and I have to say it was a lot of fun to bring them some pictures of the school and the school children as well as a sign JK's friend was able to carve for them. I love being able to connect the people here with what they have been able to help us with there.