“This time it wasn’t my mom’s crazy idea, it was my own. That’s right. The secret agent you all know and love got her own crazy idea to climb up to the top of the seven waterfalls that make up the end of the “grandest mile of scenery” in Colorado Springs.
Well, it wasn’t entirely my idea. The idea was partially inspired by my crazy mother, a quick Google search, and the fact that a good friend of mine had never been there. I hadn’t either, but I’ve lived here my whole life. So prices were researched, and we made plans for the next morning.
In the morning, I woke up a little before 8 o’clock. After playing with my rabbit, feeding cats, brushing teeth, separating cats who were trying to eat the other cats’ food, instructing my brother on the difference between Swiss cheese and cheddar cheese, and then making (and consuming) a Swiss and cheddar microwave mug muffin for breakfast, we got into my mother’s car, and were off. As we drove down the county road that leads out of Black Forest, we were singing loudly trying to outdo each other- all a part of a FNTAKL day, and one also filled with laughter and hope.
After we picked up my friend (whom we will refer to from now on as ‘T’), we headed towards Pikes Peak, where we teased my mom as she navigated the twisty mountain roads at 25 miles per hour (she says she was stuck behind “slow people” who were going 5 miles over the speed limit. Apparently my crazy mother wanted to zoom around those hairpin turns.)
After some banana bread and some “quick, roll down the window and take a picture before a guardrail or a tree gets in the way” moments, we made it to the top of the peak. When the day started, the temperature in Black Forest was 73 degrees. After picking up T and heading into town, it was 87, and by the time we got to the Summit of Pikes Peak, it had lowered to a mere 53 degrees. We even passed some dirt-encrusted snow that had been there for who knows how long. (T and my brother proclaimed that the next day they would bring flamethrowers and melt the snow because snow didn’t need to be there in the middle of July.)
We wandered around on the peak, me fully engaged in photographer mode, my mom and brother fully engaged in posing for photographer mode, and T fully engaged in the troublesome act of being cold. It was a laughing matter, and anyone who didn’t know us would’ve been fully convinced that we were tourists. Tourists in our own town! After that, we went back down the mountain, my brother shifting my mom’s car from the front seat, and my mom’s car making a strange whiny sound whenever it needed to be shifted, and my mom proclaiming “SHIFT!” with a bounce or two whenever it began to whine. With a quick stop at Taco Bell, we were headed towards Seven Falls.
We got rained on. Twice. The first was walking from the parking lot to the Seven Falls shuttle, and the second was walking from the ticket booth to the falls. The way that the sunlight sparkled off of the raindrops was refreshing, and T had taken her shoes off. It was eight-tenths of a mile from the ticket booth to the falls, and then we rode up an elevator in the middle of a mountain to a viewing deck where you could see the falls and the 224 stairs that take you to the top. It was decided that we would ascend those stairs to the top, observe, and then descend. Back down the elevator, and a short walk to the bottom of the falls. My mother took some cute pictures of my brother and me, and we began the ascent.
I have strange knee problems, and so about 122 stairs in, I was in pain. I continued the rest of the way very slowly. We arrived at the top breathless and weary, but the view at the top was positively breathtaking. You could see the entire park, and the beginning of the waterfall, which was simply a smallish creek. The way down was harder than the way up, as I was already very much in pain, but I was determined to finish it out. I was hopeful that my knees would just miraculously stop hurting as they sometimes do, but they didn’t. I made it to the bottom of that staircase, and looked back to where I had been, and again, my breath was stolen.
When the Israelites were brought out of slavery from Egypt, and Moses was leading them toward the Promised Land, they weren’t very hopeful. They were experiencing some doubts, and eventually turned away from God and were led down a path of hopelessness. Unlike the Israelites, I could see the end of the path and it didn’t seem completely hopeless. But could you imagine what would have happened if I had suddenly lost hope and just sat down there on the stairs and given up? Not only would I have gotten incredibly sunburnt, I would also have prevented the people behind me from getting down, and I would have prevented the people in front of me from coming up.
When you lose sight of Hope, you could cause other people to stumble, and just like the Israelites, you might wander in the desert for your whole life. That’s why God created Hope so that we can press on, regardless of the situation. Even though you may not be able to see the final end goal, if you have a relationship with Jesus, he promises to give you a future you can look forward to with hope. As Emily Dickenson wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.”
True Story.
~The Crazy Tourist living next door~
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Polly (Thursday, 04 August 2016 16:22)
Beautifully written! Except for the crazy mother part!