Every year, sometime close to the Fourth of July, there is an car and motorcycle race to the top of the mountain.   This is for the seriously crazy racing enthusiast.   Like many events, this started off with a bunch of guys getting together to indulge their shared passion.  Now of course it is a corporate event, so people from all over the world come to participate.   Some money is involved, but a lot of the prize is in the bragging rights.  We were on our way to the farmer’s market this morning, and stopped to chat with some members of the Honda racing team.   They had come from LA, Ohio and Japan just to give it a go.   (We love tourists who come here, spend lots of money, then leave).   They had come by three weeks earlier to practice, but there was too much snow and the road to the top was not yet open, so they were going to practice today.

We wished them good luck, then it was on to the market and the first peas of the season.   And lunch and a mimosa.

From the name of my city, one might assume that it was loaded with natural springs.   But that is not the case, it was just a real estate come on.   Manitou Springs is a town just to the west and in the distant past it was a popular health resort famed for it’s mineral springs.   (This was apparently based on the idea that if water tasted bad it was good for you.)  The mineral water was even bottled and sold once upon a time.   It is mainly a tourist destination now, with people wandering aimlessly about it’s many shops.   But the springs are still there, and if one is so inclined, the mineral water is free for the taking.

This spring was recently redone and is very attractive.

This spring is on the back wall of a very popular candy store. This is probably a mistake as candy tastes much better than mineral water. It faces the arcade, which has loads of vintage and modern pinball machines and games.

This is another spring that is set into a wall and it is in it’s original state.  Some homeless guys washed off in it, but I noticed that they did not drink it.

In this picture you can see the spring house, and the rather plain spring outlet in front of it.    Because there is a spring house it may be that the springs are actually being pumped out and don’t just flow.

This is the spring of Colorado Springs, located in a park by a creek.   It was capped off some years ago.   A group was looking into restoring it, but it will cost a lot of money to fix, so for now at least we are spring-less.

I confess that when I am driving around I am always happy to see hawks,  Canada geese, or Great Blue Herons (Oh curse you blue herons, I have often tried and never been able to get a good picture of one of you) flying around.   But there are also lots of static images of birds around town.

This guardian spirit looks as though it has been protecting this building since the 1920’s.

There is a hole conveniently left in this building for a bird to swoop through.

This perch on the front of this store is a great place to take off from and soar to the skies.

Some birds are just there to be gorgeous.

Like this one too.

This one is a school mascot, ready to inspire the students (not much chance of that happening).

This totem pole carved from a dead tree obviously protects this house and perhaps the entire block.

There is currently an exhibit of bird painting inspired by Audubon and surrealism that is absolutely wonderful.   So these posters hang downtown from the light posts.

The newest members of the flock are parrots.   These birds hang across an alleyway downtown and are part of the downtown art project.

This area has had humans living in it for centuries, but my neighborhood has not.   My house was built 35 years ago, before this only cows and wildlife  lived in the area.    But we can see traces of things that once were here and now are gone.

The train once ran on this side of the creek.   It was moved to the other side of the stream when they put in the freeway (motorway).  They made these railroad culverts to last, and they have.

Barbed wire kept cattle off the tracks.

US Highway 85 ran along beside the tracks.  This bridge was built for the highway.  This bridge over a nearby creek was built as  a WPA project during the depression of the 1930’s.   (My grandfather worked for the WPA  in another state and said that he made a dollar a day and was glad to get it.) I presume this project had a similar pay scale, but the workers did a great job and it was in use until very recently.

US Highway 85 was an important north/south route.   It ran for over 1400 miles, from the Mexican border to the Canadian.   Before it was replaced by the freeway it went through every little town along the way, it was the main road along the length of the Rocky Mountains.