Garden of the Gods is probably the most popular tourist destination in Colorado Springs. For one, it is a free city park, which really helps. For another, it is amazingly beautiful, and while it can't be seen from 100 miles away like Pikes Peak, it is pretty spectacular. This morning after the 5:30 dialysis run with my mother-in-law, I went over and took some morning shots. The sunrise did not quite cooperate like I had hoped, but I got some nice shots I'll share over the next few weeks. The one above is from the Mesa overlook, not inside the park, but gives a nice teaser of what is inside.

I'm a little ashamed to admit I have not been there this early in the morning before. It was so peaceful, hardly any people, just the sounds of the birds (the pigeons cooing among the rocks is a little eerie), and lots of little rabbits running around. I saw some deer, a couple of nice bucks actually, but not from too close up. I guess we all forget to be tourists in our home towns sometimes.

I've been working on a pre-foreclosure / short sale purchase for a while now for some folks, and thought it would be worth sharing a couple of things.

#1, it is SUCH a slow process, no wonder there are still so many out there. We've been in "hurry up and wait" mode for almost 45 days, only to find out yesterday that another offer had just come in (and this only was discovered after more followup phone calls). #2 There is ZERO communication. The un-answered phone calls and un-replied to emails make you crazy. While some of this could be unique to the property itself (I have had some better luck with true bank owned property), all the fingers in the pot really make this an agonizing process. We'll see how we do, the clock has almost run out finally.