Matt’s Homecoming from Iraq #3

Zippy and I headed out to Fountain Colorado to welcome my bother Matt home from his 3rd tour of Iraq. The boss let us out of work early on Friday so we got to hit the road around 2:30. We didn’t waste any time getting out there and drove straight across Kansas until we got burnt out and took a nap in the car. I woke up behind the wheel and got us to Matt & Crystal’s house around 9:am on Saturday. It didn’t take any time at all for us to pack up and head out on our Colorado Adventures! After loading up the BBQ in Matt’s truck and a quick stop at Safeway we jumped into the Labor Day weekend traffic and found an awesome spot at the Garden of the Gods. If you’ve never been there, the Garden of the Gods is a sight to be seen. Lots of very large boulders, rock formations and sheer cliffs with trails weaving in and out of them. It’s a great place.

There are TONS of pictures.
My Flickr
Crystal & Matt’s Flickr
Zippy’s Flickr

I love em all. After we ate lunch and wandered around Garden of the Gods for a while Matt decided to take us up to the summit of Pikes Peak! Crystal wasn’t a fan of the ride up, especially after it started sleeting/snowing/raining. I thought the ride up was great and with weather brewing the summit was crazy. ‘Snow’ flying everywhere, electricity brewing. If you lifted your hands up in the air static electricity would start to crackle on your own hair! I thought that was just a trip. It felt strange. Some of the girls could get their whole head of hair to start crackling with electricity. After an hour or so up at the top of Pikes Peak we idled our way back down in 1st gear like we were told to do.

We went back to Matt & Crystal’s house after Pikes Peak to sit around a nice little camp fire in their back yard. They still had some of the wood we left from our last snowboarding trip! Actually, they still had our Skis and Snowboards that we accidentally left behind last time as well. lol. We sat around a fire all Saturday night talking and catching up on sharing the good times over a few beers. It was a great time, as always.

Sunday morning we woke up, made another trip to Safeway and headed for the Royal Gorge Bridge! Again, if your scared of hieghts then a walk/drive across that thing probably isn’t going to put you in a good mindset. It’s the highest suspension bridge in the world. Zippy and I really enjoyed ourselves n’ spent quite a bit of time sitting on the back of Matt’s truck drinking a couple beers simply taking in the view. Most all of Colorado is really amazing to look at. Matt, Crystal and Liam sought out the petting zoo while Zippy and I enjoyed the sites. We initially drove across the old bridge n’ parked on the other side. Eventually all of us walked back over the bridge and snapped a bunch of pictures. Matt, Zippy and I ended up going back across the bridge yet again to get the truck. This time Zippy and I sat in the bed of the truck for a better view as Matt drove the truck across the bridge navigating pedestrians.

When we packed up and left there I was beat. 100% beat. My body hit the pause button and I immediately crashed out at some early hour while Zippy, Matt and Crystal sat up chuckling at me n’ trying to get me to wake up to the smell of beer. No such luck. I had too much fun and burnt too much energy. It was a great time. It was sad to leave Monday morning after breakfast.

Matt, it’s great that you made it back safe! Now fire up the grill!
Crystal, I think we need another excuse to immediately return to Chicago!
Liam, You’ll start remembering Zippy and I pretty soon!

Thank you guys! I can’t wait for next time and if we are lucky Chris will get stationed out there with ya! That’d be quite the calling!