Now that the weather is getting warmer, I've been signing up for some outdoor activities with the Senior Center. This week, we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. It's an interesting concept in that the zoo is literally built into the side of a mountain. So to see the animals, you have to walk up switchback trails to get to them. Our leader told us we could save ourselves a lot of work by taking the gondola to the top and walking back down. The "gondola" turned out to be an open chairlift like they use on the ski slopes. I tend to hate those things, but at least no one was swinging their skis next to me. Unfortunately, when we got to the top, all the trails were closed for construction. So, we had to get back on the chairlift and ride it back down (an even more frightening feeling to me that you're going to fall out).
Being from St Louis with one of the best zoos in the country, this zoo was a bit of a disappointment. It reminded me more of a giant farmyard petting zoo than an actual wild animal zoo. This chicken kept looking for handouts when I stopped to do some sketching at one of the outdoor cafes. There was supposed to be a giraffe, an elephant, and a rhino in the zoo, but with all the construction trail closures, I never found them.
Instead, I laughed my head off at this goofy goat. He was standing on top of a tower begging people to put food pellets into his cup at the bottom of the tower. When someone did, they'd ring the bell, and the goat would turn the wheel on the pulley to bring it up to his platform. Quite a clever animal.
On Saturday, I volunteered at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at our new Community Center. This center is like a mini-clubhouse adjacent to the family-side pool. It originally started as a utility garage to house the lawn mowers and snow blowers, but they expanded the design to include a few meeting rooms, a small kitchen, and a large patio. I'm anxious to see what kind of events they come up with for using it. BTW, I'm setting up the dinosaur dig for the little kids. We hid plastic dinosaurs and crystals in trays of sand - kind of an Indiana Jones thing.
I struck off another trail on my biking bucket list. The Toll Gate Creek trail runs north and south through Aurora up to the Sand Creek Trail. It was a very nice trail, but had a few too many street crossings for my comfort level. I actually added a trail to the bottom of my list - the Flint Hills trail in Ottawa, KS. I rode a tiny piece of this trail a couple years ago, but I signed up for the Moonrise Bike Ride over Labor Day weekend. We're going to ride 20 miles from Ottawa to Pomona State Park. The main ride is in the afternoon, but there is an optional bike ride around the lake after the sun goes down (hence, the "moonrise" title). It will be interesting to see if I can stay awake for that.
