June 30, 2023
Very busy day today. First we have our standard site cleaning to do. Then Nancy has the 1:00 to 5:00 PM shift at the front gate. The reason is that the gate will be open from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM today. The event is actually being held across the street at Fort Carson. They are hosting a festival with food trucks, games and things for the children, etc. This is all open to the public. Then the main event is at 10:00PM. Fireworks. Due to our ideal location across the street from the fort and being elevated above the fort, we are the ideal location to see the fireworks. So as not to miss out on an opportunity to bring in a little money, the gate is open.
When we finished our clean up for the day I put some dry wood in our fire pit. Don’t know why but we have a lid that fits over the fire pit. This lid will keep the wood dry in case it should rain, as a little rain is being called for in the early afternoon. Sure enough around 1:00 PM the rains came. Naturally this would slow the gate down a little. But then an hour or so later, the sun was out again. The radar showed clear skies. Around 4:00 PM I went out and started a campfire. I had decided that tonight we would cook outside over the grill and enjoy s’mores during the fireworks. We had taken steaks out of the freezer several days ago so they needed to be cooked. Bree and I sat outside after starting the fire and I was enjoying a cup of coffee. Rough life, huh? Then I heard the rumble of thunder. I threw another log on the fire and hoped I could get dinner cooked before the next rain. Once Nancy came home I put the steaks on our tripod. The tripod is something left over from our early tent days. It is a tripod with a grate that you set up over a campfire to cook on. It is wonderful. I also decided to cook up some potatoes with onions and peppers. So I put those in a cast iron skillet and set those to the side over the campfire on the fire pit grate. The thunder rumbled more and the sky darkened. I managed to get dinner cooked and then I covered the dry wood and added another log to the fire to see if I could get it to stay hot enough for s’mores.
Fortunately it never really came a bad down pour. At 6:30 PM we had been invited to the Camper Services building for a get together hosted by Carla and Angel Amen, our fellow work campers. They host one every year to coincide with the fireworks. Even though we had eaten, we went. We met a few of their friends and family. It was an enjoyable evening. Even though we were full we thought we would try some of their dishes. They were wonderful. And I picked up a few new recipes. ;) We left the catering and came home. The weather was clearing so we decided to sit outside by the campfire to wait for the fireworks. Fortunately I had dry wood and the fire had continued to burn. At 10:00PM the bugle started playing Taps at Fort Carson. That must have been the cue as the fireworks commenced. We sat our site and looked out at the fireworks. It was wonderful. The fireworks continued for a solid 15 minutes and then the grand finale. What a great night! And then it was time for s’mores. Nancy likes to soften her chocolate over the campfire so the tripod gets lots of usage. After the s’mores it was almost bed time so I cooled the campfire and we went inside. Have to work tomorrow!
