I got up Monday morning and packed to go hiking and grabbed items for my accountant.

Later I discovered I missed some getting items in my car for both places. Including the Chai I had set on my counter to wake me up. But fortunately I had put in all three of my rechargeable batteries for my camera, as I took lots of pictures on the hike.

I filled up my tank with gas and got some banking done on my way to my appointment.

The weather was predicted to be near 70 degrees. But it didn’t get near that on our hike. And I hadn’t quite dressed properly. Again, lucky I have a variety of coats that just hang out in my car. But I somehow hadn’t put any of my many head bandana’s in my pack, but there was scarf that sort of worked to keep my ears and head warm on the hike.

At my tax appointment, I discussed all the things I thought I had done wrong for the LLC. She mostly focused on if I had accounted for all the income, and I had definitely done that. We discussed how I could do it better this year. And she felt that since I had such a good record for accounting for income and expense, including cash income, in the past, that the first year would not be a problem even if audited. And we decided what would be a reasonable rent for the business to pay, and should have paid last year. She will work on making that show up in my taxes, even if not specified in my notes. I left feeling much relieved and with a good understanding of what to do this year to correctly handle the LLC business and my other businesses that are not under that umbrella.

My hiking partner wasn’t quite ready for me to pick her up, so I went to get some supplements. The owner there was in a talkative mood, and we chatted a short time about life and Commonwheel. He also mentioned that it was predicted to be windy today. He had lived out East of Colorado Springs for many years, and said if it was windy in the Springs, it could feel like a tornado out East. Yikes!

Picked up my hiking partner and headed out on highway 24 to the Calhan Paint Mine Interpretive Park.

We spent a delightful 4.25 hours hiking around the prairie that opened up to spectacular formations in many different areas.

At one point we could see Pikes Peak that towers above Colorado Springs.

The views one gets are amazing. The black line on the horizon is the Black Forest.

I had been here once before and had always wished I had more photos of this incredible place.

Now I have over 300 photos that show the many facets of this area.

Some of course better than others. But I think there is a book or two waiting to be written using these photos.

These spectacular formations rival any seen in Arches or the Garden of the Gods.

And the colors, my, oh my, purples, magenta gold and greens contrasted against a very pure white make this a very unique place to hike.

Some of the trails just wander through the park’s prairie until one is surprised by a view of spectacular formation.

Then there are the trails that let you wander among these incredible formations.

Many times on this hike I got lost in wonder and forgot about everything except being in joy and feeling blessed to have this natural wonder in my backyard.

You will have to visit my Spirit Renewing Hike Web Site and search for Paint Mines to see more photos of this awesome landscape.

Walking out, the wind was of epic proportion. The expression of “leaning into the wind” was one I thought of then. I could literally lean forward and get supported by the wind as we headed toward my car.

We had planned on eating at a cafe in Calhan, and I was pretty hungry at this point. But my hiking partner wanted us to drive back to the Springs, which she tried to convince me was only 15, 20 minutes max away. I knew it was more like 40 minutes, no less than 30. But she convinced me that an Italian restaurant that was having Family Day Meals on Mondays was worth going there for a great meal at a very reasonable price. I told her to give me some of her peanuts, as the only food I had left was pistachios that would need shelling, and off we went.

Just a few minutes out of Calhan, my car began to act very strangely. I kept feeling like it was hesitating, not actually losing speed, but sort of like a power hiccup. Not much to do but keep driving. It kept doing this, and closer and closer together, having me very nervous. I had actually felt this hesitation a few times in the past, but never this consistently. When we got to Falcon, I pulled into a shopping mall where there was a JiffyLube. The young men there were very kind and helpful. My steering wheel is at such a place, I hadn’t seen the Check Engine light. But after checking my fluids and I started it up again, the one young man could see it was on. He plugged the computer into the car and it came up with 3 codes all relating to the Throttle. He said he had a similar problem in his manual shift vehicle, and that was a better situation than in an automatic. We asked if I should continue driving and he said we would probably be fine, but get it to my regular mechanic as soon as possible. My hiking partner asked if he would stop for dinner on the way home if he was us, and he laughed and said, “Sure.”

This was a very nerve-racking situation., but I put my trust in my Spirit Guides and set off for Colorado Springs. But my hiking partner lost her bet about how soon we would have been at the restaurant, as it was past her estimation of time when we stopped at the mall. Not that I really cared about that at this point in time.

The restaurant was very pleasant. The food was good and plentiful and very reasonable when we ordered a Monday Family Platter. I had a Sangria that helped calm my nerves and went well with an Italian pasta dinner.

When we got back in the car, encountered a major construction zone and the car made a nasty KALUNK sound a number of times. Breathe, I told myself. Asked my Spirit Guardian to just get me home safely please, and they did.