Colorado Springs
This morning I’m preaching in Colorado Springs, a city that’s been important in my life since I was three years old (the first time my parents brought me here—a celebration of their graduation from the University of Texas).
When my dad was about twelve, his family began living between Neosho, Missouri, and Colorado Springs. My grandfather, a carpenter, would come out here to work on Camp Carson. My dad would get various jobs, including driving a semi for Coca-Cola when he was fourteen!
So through the years, I’ve come out here every chance I’ve gotten. I have a routine: I get up early, early—in time to watch the sun hit the top of Pike’s Peak and then the Kissing Camels at Garden of the Gods, causing the slab to explode with orange. Then I go jogging through the park.
Here are a few photos I’ve taken, plus one of my father climbing the Kissing Camels (no ropes!) when he was a boy.
Though I’ve never lived here, in some ways it feels like home.
Not to mention, of course, Josh ‘n’ John’s ice cream downtown.
qb
Was you dad Bear Cope?
David – Well, I think he was at least part cougar. I’ve looked at that big slab at Garden of the Gods many times trying to figure out how he and his older brothers free climbed it. Or more to the point, how they got back down!
There’s simply no explaining the mind and heart of a climber. I’m just thankful in retrospect that your dad did get down safely!
Had communion with our HS kids, including your son, at the foot of all of this. Great memory.
Multiple times per year the search and rescue team is called to retrieve climbers from the top of those rocks… Your dad was a machine!
Wow, Mike, Kenneth was a daredevil! I grew up going every year to Colorodo for vacation when finally we moved to the Springs when I was thirteen. I always loved the scenery, the fishing and hunting. My youth group had a sunrise service at the Garden of the Gods when I was 16. I looked a couple of times at moving back but the cost of living seemed so high after Abilene. Thanks for the memories
Any state that doesn’t have an X in it sounds appealing to me right now. On a little different note, fantastic article in SI a couple of weeks back regarding summiting at the Tetons during a lightning storm. Breath-taking story.