New Brakes and Labor Day Weekend Balloon Liftoff, Memorial Park, Colorado Springs

On the way home from the Cliff Dwellings, on Thursday, our brakes began to make a funny noise.  Not ha-ha funny, but ODD funny.  It sort of sounded like a tummy growling.  Neither of us had ever heard that kind of noise before, so we were a bit perplexed.  Luckily, Dick knew that there are "wear indicators" that make noises when your brakes are beginning to need replacement, and the worse they wear down, the worse the noise.  Apparently, it's annoying and scary, specifically to make you do something about it.  I mean, who needs brakes failing?  Especially up here in the mountains!  Soooo, early Friday morning, we suited up the pup and headed in to Midas Muffler and Brakes.  I didn't know they even DID brakes, so that was my first surprise.  We were extremely fortunate, as the manager was able to work us in.  At first, he asked us to leave it and he'd get to it late afternoon, but when Dick told him it was our only transportation, he managed to work some magic and said he could get it up on the rack in about 20 minutes.  Whoohoo!  That was the good news.  And after said 20 minutes, he was came back with the bad news.  Yup, we needed new brakes in front.  To the tune of 3 hours (plus another for lunch) and about $500!  Oh.My.  Well, we are in the mountains, and we plan to be here another 5 days or so, so it's certainly not like we can do without, is it?  And we'd heard several times "sorry, we don't have any more appointments till Tuesday" or "sorry, we can't get to it this weekend, you might try Jiffy Lube, but I think they're booked up too," so it's not like we could pack up and take the car somewhere else.  I wouldn't have thought Labor Day was such a great weekend to get your car worked on, but apparently, it is. 

And that was how we spent Friday!  We had originally planned to go square dancing in the evening, but after spending the whole day either walking to and from the mall and Best Buy, or sitting in the waiting room, we weren't really up to spending another 40 minutes (each way!) in traffic.  Plus, it's Parents' Weekend here on base, and they have already set up traffic cones, limiting cross-overs and turns, promising to make an adventure out of driving on, off, or around the base.

So, Colorado Springs has an event they call Labor Day Liftoff, where they invite about 80 hot air balloons to a park downtown, to lift off at the crack of o'dark-thirty.  Actually, Dick said it was to start around 7 a.m., Saturday morning, but when we arrived at 7:15 or so, this is what we saw as we approached.  It appeared as though half the balloons were already well on their way to "up in the air" status.  Yes, for this we got up EARLY!  

We decided that maybe only about half were up, so hopefully, the rest would be still on the ground, filling, and beginning their ascent.  We found a parking place (just off the sidewalk, in front of an abandoned car lot) and hiked up and over the hill, to the park.  We were rewarded by getting to watch the dragon lift off, just as we came upon the launch field.

As we watched, more and more balloons filled and began to lift in the cool morning air.

It really was a pretty sight to watch them all go up and sail away so quietly, off into the bright blue sky.  The announcer made mention that there would be an Air Force flyover, and a parachute team would be dropping in, but it was still 45 minutes away, and there really wasn't anything else for us to do while we waited, so we didn't stay.  He also invited everyone back for a "glow" starting at 7 or 8 pm at night, but the weather was predicted to be pretty poor at that time, so we didn't plan to return.  Good thing, too, because the forecasters were correct, and the "glow" was nothing more than the fires spouting off periodically.  No balloons, no glow, no liftings, just some fires from propane tanks.  We would definitely have been disappointed if we had traveled 45 minutes through horrific traffic and hiked another half mile only to see some propane tank flare ups!

Once again, we took the scenic way back home.  Seems like I-25 is the backbone of the city, but it always seems to have crashes and slowdowns, so we look for back roads and alternate routes every time we can.  So, now you have the backsides of some of the rock features from Garden of the Gods.  

Remember Balancing Rock and Steamboat Rock?

The Gateway Rocks (North and South)

And who could resist these adorable little Christmas decorations??  A vintage trailer and a vintage VW hippie bus.  Oh, yes, I did say Christmas!  Yes, last I looked, it wasn't even Sept 1st yet.  Merry Christmas to all, courtesy of your local Sam's Club!  Oh, yeah, by the way, we resisted.  Not only are they costly, at $34 bucks a pop, but space is limited, even in our 44 footer!  Sooo, no.  We didn't get either one, and nooo, I don't miss 'em a bit!

Till next time....