The Night Before the Climb...

Friday night seemed to be one that would let us rest and get some good sleep before our big hike in the morning. We needed to get up a little before 3am in order to be on the road by no later than 3:30am. We wanted to hit the trail head and start our hike by 6:30am. Really wouldn't be a problem, we had our packs ready, water filled, cooler set for our after-hike goodies, and small child in bed zonked out from another big day with his grandparents. Murphy had other plans...

Jeff was fairly lucky in that this is the time of year his allergies kick him in the butt, so he had enough drugs in him to knock him out for a while. I, on the other hand, made it to bed somewhere around 10:30pm, 30-minutes later than I wanted. Then I was up at 11:30, midnight, and close to 1am because my small child decided he couldn't sleep. It didn't help that every dog in the neighborhood, ours included, was barking. A lot. Granted, Luke usually sleeps through this, but not tonight.

I had just managed to get Luke back to sleep and my head barely touched the pillow when there was a knock at the front door. I leapt out of bed with a bit of anger, peeked out the window and saw my next door neighbor there. I felt an immediate fear because they've had one heckuva time as of late. One that includes 2 ambulance calls within 3 days, damage from baseball-sized hail on a vehicle, and some other stuff that's just not very fair. Anyway, I open the door and Carly tells me that 4 or 5 kids are running around breaking into vehicles and they caught the kids at our truck (which stays outside due to size and the fact we only have a 2-car garage). The cobwebs cleared and I headed out with a flashlight to find all was fine. Moments later there were 7 Sheriff's cars dashing about the streets, complete with spotlights looking for these kids. Jeff did join me shortly and said he was tempted to sleep outside...I talked him out of that. By the time we got back in bed it was after 2am. Oh boy...

The cops kept their patrol up and we dozed back off. The alarm went off about 25-minutes later, but we hit snooze. After the excitement we figured we could just delay our start about an hour. I was up at 3:30, Jeff about 3:45. We left the house at 4:15...and the cops were still patrolling. Given the problems Colorado Springs and El Paso County are having with the police (there's not enough and some calls just can't be answered due to lack of manning and money), I am so extremely grateful to be in a spot where we have a near instant response and resources to see that even the most minor of incidents is looked into in a very timely manner. And I'm grateful for neighbors who look out for each other. It makes chaotic nights, which are rare, worth it....