Day 8: Colorado

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Day 8, Saturday August 1st.
We stayed overnight in that crappy motel outside of Colorado Springs.
There is one more fact, that I forgot to write yesterday: Just after we passed Las Vegas, NM we checked odometer on my VW... we had driven 2000 miles so far!
Back to Colorado. Outside Colorado Springs we went to see the Garden of Gods, a public park with several rock formations, like Balanced Rock and Kissing Camels. The park is very popular for hiking and rock climbing. Next stop was Manitou Springs, a small town with natural springs and a very nice downtown are. We sat in the sun and enjoyed some late morning lazy time. From Manitou Springs we headed north, but stopped a couple of miles outside of Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy. They have a visitor center (very interestin), a souvenir shop (sure!) and you can walk to the Chapel (very impressive aluminum structure). From the chapel you have a good overview over the whole area, it's huge!
Back on the interstate heading north we checked with Carmen, because we wanted to meet up with her. She's just been at the lake, so we decided we want to do the same. Need some sun bathing and beach feeling 2500 miles from Charleston! The Aurora Reservoir is a park with a good size lake, a public beach, boating etc. We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours, got some sun and relaxed. Even if it was only 80 degrees, we got some sun burn. It was really hot there, I guess the nice breeze was missing that I know from Sullivan Island or Folly Beach.
Later in the afternoon we met up with Carmen at her house. Her parents were visiting from Germany and Ursula with her 3-year-old daughter Elise as well. But they were so kind and offered us a bed for the night. We camped out in the basement. Thanks Mrs. Friese for making us a bed. At night the four girls of us (Carmen, Ursula, Regina and myself) went downtown Denver for dinner, drinks and even went clubbing. Haven't done that in a long while. The Club was in a somewhat weird area, music was not danceable, but Regina made a new friend there. It was a fun night out!

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