Welcome to Tomato Alley

Day 7: Colorado Springs, CO to Salina, KS
When you have a kiddo with articulation issues, it takes extra focus and attention  to follow what your child is saying.  For years it has been this way with Cami, but with years of therapy and hard work, she has made leaps and bounds.  There are still a couple of hold-over words that make me smile when she says them wrong.  For example, she has called Tornados, "tomatoes" for YEARS.  She is afraid of storms because of the tomatoes.  She doesn't want to go to tomato alley, and is worried when her cousins have a tomato watch.  It got even better when her teacher taught the class about Tsunamis. We heard all about the "salami's", and how they can kill people.  I will start to miss this when she finally gets the words right.  -Just something to ponder as we head into tornado alley later today...

The morning started out at the Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs.  They have tours year-round, and I am so glad that we didn't pass up the opportunity to see where the best of the best athletes train.  We were given a tour by an Olympic air rifle shooter. We saw the weight/exercise building/track.  We were able to view the Basketball, Wrestling, Indoor Shooting, Swimming, and Gymnastics training areas.  The movies and media center at the entrance were completely awesome and fun to watch, as they showed highlights from previous Olympic and Paralympic games.  It was great to watch the girls get excited about this tour.  The grounds are filled with flags from countries around the world that we compete with during the Games.  I spied the flag from the African nation of Djibouti in the way out. Of course I giggled.  My immaturity aside, I would highly recommend visiting this privately funded American treasure.

The rest of day featured me driving Winnie straight into Tomato Alley. We pulled into Salina, Kansas just before 9pm among clear skies.  We grilled some Carne Asada, watched fire flies light up the dusk, and settled into one of the largest fireworks shows we have ever seen.  Apparently the owner of this KOA campground bought out a Fireworks tent in town (according to his adult daughter) and decided to give us campers an early 4th of July treat.  It was insane. It was fantastic. It was dangerous.  It was loud. It was smokey. I loved every minute.