Sunday, July 10, 2022- Colorado Springs

     We were up late last night waiting for calls from Avis and the towing companies.  After an unnecessarily complicated series of phone calls and long waits on hold, it was finally decided that the car would be picked up sometime this morning.  Avis had told Julie that the towing company would take her to the airport in Denver where she could get a different vehicle.  The tow truck driver was at first not going to do that, but finally agreed.  He had some stops to make before us.  By 11:45, the truck was not here yet, so Julie called an Uber to take her to the Denver airport.  It would be an hour and a half there and an hour and a half back, but by doing that, we might still be able to do something today.

     In the meantime, we were stuck at the hotel.  It's has a very labyrinthian and confusing layout.  We were making many references to the Shining as the morning wore on and Julie looked like she might snap like Jack Nicholson.  We took Abby to the playground in the hotel where Emma had to go in with her because it's one of those that she will get stuck in if someone doesn't go with her.  We then had her back in the indoor pool for about an hour.  There's a sweets shop in the hotel lobby that sells Starbucks products, but first mysteriously closed on us when Scott went to get his wallet, and then sold Emma something that was definitely not the usual strawberry refresher that she and Julie usually get.  There's a gas station nearby- closer to our room than the front lobby is, actually-- and Scott went there to get some food and drinks.  Abby didn't want to take a nap, though.

    Julie's Uber driver was named Mary, and they had a little time to talk about the area in the hour and a half that it took to get to the Denver airport.   It was the first time any of us have taken an Uber, but Julie did like the conversation and talked with Mary the entire way.   In Denver, Avis replaced our Ford Edge with a Mitsubishi,  which was slightly smaller than the Edge (and remember, we still had paid for a minivan originally).

   The tow truck didn't arrive for the Ford until about 1:30 in the afternoon and didn't leave with the car until 1:45.  At 2:30, Julie returned from Denver with a replacement car.  (By the way, Avis called us at 5:00 and said they didn't know where their car was.  It wasn't our problem anymore.)  We went to a late lunch at Burger King and got drive-through.   

     To salvage something of our sightseeing today, we went to the Air Force Academy and its visitor center.  Abby had fallen asleep on the short ride there and didn't end up getting much of a nap.  While Julie was waiting outside with Abby, Emma and Scott went in to the large gift shop there.  Emma thought that it looked a lot like UB's because of all the blue and white t-shirts and jerseys.   When Abby and Julie came in, they both had some shopping to do.  Abby ended up getting a blue and white Air Force academy soccer ball and a set of four small jet planes.  We all went in to the 20-minute movie about a year in the life of a cadet, but Abby's new soccer ball kept rolling down the aisle.  Emma was nice enough to take Abby out of the theater and let Mom and Dad finish watching the video.  We looked through the museum, which includes a representation of a cadet's room.  Scott liked the information about the falconry here, since the Falcons are the academy's mascots and nickname.  After the visitor center, Scott and Emma walked the 1/3rd of a mile path to get a look at the famous chapel, even though they knew that the chapel itself was closed for renovations.  Not only is it closed, but it is also underneath an enormous boxlike scaffolding, so nothing of it can actually be seen now.  We saw a model of it in the museum, anyway.  As they started on the path up and over the hill to the chapel, they saw Abby and Julie chasing the soccer ball down the hill from the parking lot.  When we reunited, we saw a group of wild turkeys that live on the academy's campus.

      As we were driving back towards the hotel, we discussed what to do next.  We knew our options were limited because it was Sunday and now after 5:00.  Julie spotted a movie theater from the road, and suggested that Scott and Emma should go see Thor: Love and Thunder, and they both jumped at the chance.  The movie was ok, but not they both agreed it was not the best of the Thor movies.  (They would later watch YouTube video breaking down the Easter eggs and references from the movie when we were eating back at the hotel.)  When they were in the theater, a real life thunder storm rolled out of the mountains and through the area.  Julie and Abby were getting ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins when the power went out briefly.  They then made several stops to get dinner for everyone for when the movie was over.

      After the movie, we took the food that Julie had bought and the leftover popcorn from the movie and we went back to the hotel to eat.  Abby wanted to start her macaroni and cheese before that though, so Scott fed her in the back of the car.  As we were driving, the sun was setting over the tops of the Rockies and the remnants of the storm were still obvious over the city to the east.  This situation created some of the brightest and most brilliant rainbows we have ever seen.  Abby liked seeing the rainbows too.  It was a nice way to end a trying day.