The Keener Way

  The scene you are witnessing is a view not dissimilar to what I imagine the Hebrews experienced as they exited the Arabian wilderness and approached the Promised Land. It is, in fact, a view of leaving the Great Sand Dunes National Park and approaching the peaks of the beautiful San Isabel State Forest. I woke up on Tuesday, June 1, 2024, with a very woeful anguish inside, knowing that this was my last day in Colorado. Tomorrow, I would be taking my east-bound roadtrip. Dreaded for being multiple thousand miles, and dreaded for going into later timezones. It would feel significantly longer than coming. Yet that was not today, that was tomorrow. I still had one more day to play hard and adventure fully. And I was going to make the best of it. Assembling a group of four, we first headed to Walmart for a supply of bananas. Why? Don't ask. We simply randomly decided that we needed some bananas, and that's all there was to it. Once our mission was accomplished, we happily munched ...

  So, to continue from the last story, how did we manage to walk ourselves into a spectacular view of sunset over Nipple Mountain, while wandering around in the Pueblo downtown? Well, after exploring Garden of the Gods and touring Glen Eyrie Castle, we headed to Cave of the Winds Adventure Park. The first agenda was to take some pictures from the parking lot, because the view was still as breathtaking as ever. Step two of the adventure was to do some rock wall climbing, Geronimo's leap, and a high ropes course. But wouldn't you know it, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in, closing all the attractions right before we started. So we strolled around inside the visitor center, looking at the gift shop, watching the rain and lightning, and talking about life, till the storm finally blew over and we stepped out on a balcony to take pictures of the canyon below us while waiting for the attractions to re-open. Thirty minutes after the last lightning, the adventure park activities final...