Our Kind Of Town

Yes - that is Pikes Peak!  Ron and I spent a spectacular week in Colorado Springs.  We timed it perfectly, as they were having record high temperatures in the upper 70s and 80s.  At first, we weren't too crazy about our location, as we were in a campground near a busy road, but we soon found out that we were close to a lot of great things to do.  Across that busy road was the beautiful Midtown Trail, that led to American the Beautiful Park on the west side of downtown Colorado Springs on one end, and to Manitou Springs, a beautiful historic town, on the other end.  Most of the walkway was along a creek.

Only blocks from us was Old Colorado City, an area with a lot of history that has great shops and restaurants.  I think my mom & dad lived in this area when I was born and my dad was stationed at Fort Carson.

We did take a drive out to Garden of the Gods, which was unbelievable in the late afternoon light, unfortunately, I don't have any of the 1000s of photos I took because my memory card chose to malfunction - argh!!!  Any suggestions?  I also lost photos of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings except for this one:

They were fascinating to see, and because it was during the week and off season, we almost had them to ourselves.  You can climb all through them and really get a feel for how the people lived.  They must have been tiny people!  Families lived in rooms that were hardly big enough to lay down in.  There was also a museum about the native people who lived in the area.  One of our favorite displays was of skulls!  They showed how babies strapped to a cradle board developed skulls that were flat on the back.  Later, the native people started padding the backs of the cradle boards and it helped.  We also saw the horrible problems they had with their teeth!  The sand that was in the ground corn that made up a big part of their diet wore their teeth down quickly, and  the sugars in the corn caused abcesses and gum disease.

One morning, we walked to an area called Red Rock Canyon.  The views were beautiful, and the trails were open to people, bikes and horses.  Hard to believe this was only about 3 miles from downtown Colorado Springs.

This was from the top of the canyon, looking toward the Garden of the Gods.  We also spotted this guy - who wasn't very afraid of us.

As the weather reports started to predict a drop in the temps, we started our trek south, hoping we would stay ahead of the cold front.  We were sad to say goodbye to Colorado Springs, and Colorado in general - it does have its advantages!!!

(I meant the mountains, not the cannabis!)

See ya next time....

A "Shining" Visit

I figured that this time of the year, most RV campgrounds would be pretty empty.  Not the case in the Denver area!  We wanted to stop and see our friend, Jack Sajevic, who lives in Broomfield, just north of Denver, but the closest I could find was a campground just west of Loveland, which is about an hour north of Denver.  It sure was nice to be back in the mountains!

 

View to the east

View to the west

 

Luckily, we were able to meet Jack in Longmont at Oskar Blue Brewery for some great beer, nachos and, of course, good conversation. 

Next day, we decided on a trip to Estes Park, to try to get on one of the tours of the Stanley Hotel.  However, this being the Halloween season, and the fact that the Stanley is supposed to be haunted, and, my favorite fact about the Stanley - it is where Stephen King wrote and based the book, "The Shining".

The drive up to Estes Park is breathtaking any time of the year, but in the fall, the aspen trees are amazing.

 

 

The road winds through high cliffs and past mountain streams.  Poor Ron had to concentrate on the road, but I couldn't help but ooh & aah.

 

 

When we reached the Stanley Hotel, we found out that

 all of the tours for the day were full, but we were free to wander the grounds.  There is information everywhere about the history of the hotel, but its real claim to fame is "The Shining".  Stephen King wrote the book based on the hotel when he stayed there in Room 217 (the haunted room with the lady in the bathtub in the movie).  He wasn't happy when Stanley Kubrick decided to film the exteriors at the Timberland Lodge in Mt. Hood, Oregon (because Estes Park didn't have enough snow or electricity), and built the interior sets after the Ahwhnee Hotel in Yosemite.

 

He also didn't like the casting or changes in the "tone".  He even made a TV mini-series of "The Shining" himself filmed at the Stanley Hotel.  Of course, we had to watch it that night while we were drinking wine out of our "Redrum" and Stanley Hotel wine glasses.  The mini-series is pretty bad, but it was fun to see the hotel.

I also couldn't resist trying on this hat!

 

Next, we are spending a week in Colorado Springs.  Hope the weather holds - it can snow here this time of the year!

 

 

 

 

 

Finds In Nebraska

When we arrived at our campground in Grand Island, I noticed a billboard for Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer.  I thought it might be interesting, so Ron & I drove over to the 200 acre sight of the Museum.  Unfortunately, because it is off season, there were none of the working craftspeople in their shops in the 1890's Railroad Town.  They are also doing extensive remodeling of the Stuhr Building where there are exhibits on the 1860-1910 period in Nebraska, so we were not able to see them.  There was, however, a really interesting collection of American Indian & Old West memorabilia in the Gus Fonner Memorial Rotunda.

The weather was a little cool & cloudy, but we decided to walk through the beautiful arbor, and met these characters.

Then wandered through the shops, homes and other structures, most of which were 600 years old, that had been moved here and restored.  One of the homes is Henry Fonda's childhood home!  We got in the truck and drove through the rest of the 200 acre museum, to see the Rural Schoolhouse, 1893 Farmsted, Taylor Ranch and, my favorite, the Pawnee Earth Lodge.

It would be really fun to see this unique museum when it is up and running!

 

Our next stop - Ogallala!  I always like seeing the farm lands become ranch land, and the area around the North Platte River.  I had never seen it in the fall, so the brilliant yellow along the river banks were beautiful.  We stayed at a really nice little campground - the Sleepy Sunflower RV Park, just across the river from the city of Ogallala.  Our first sightseeing stop was an unusual one - the Petrified Forest Gallery. One of the volunteers, who also happened to be a collector of arrowheads, took us through the galleries.  There were little replications of buildings made entirely out of petrified wood hanging on the walls, show cases of petrified wood from all over the world, arrowheads and Native American tools, plus some beautiful bronzes, pewter sculptures and modern Native American artwork.  I am sorry I don't have any pictures!

The next stop was Boot Hill, where gamblers & horse thieves, together with residents were buried in the 1800's.  Named Boot Hill because they were buried with their boots on.

The cemetery was abandoned in 1885, and most of the bodies were moved, but in the 1950's the city acquired the property and in the 1960's it was cleaned up & "restored".

Also, on Boot Hill is a huge bronze, "The Trail Boss" to commemorate the importance of Ogallala during the days of the cattle drives from Texas.  They estimate that over a million cattle came up the Texas (Western) Trail between 1870 and 1885.

We also saw that there was a state park not far from Ogallala, so we took Guido the next day to Lake McConaughy State Rec Area.  It was a beautiful day, and the park is gorgeous.  Expansive beaches with white sugar sand, together with the fall foliage made it a great place to visit.

We have been trying to see a little something everywhere we go, and it sure has resulted in some great finds.  Next stop is Loveland, Colorado - then on to Colorado Springs.  See you soon! 

Back on the road - heading SOUTH!

We had a great time in Minnesota - the Minnesota Arabian Horse Breeders Fall Fest weekend was warm, sunny and beautiful.  Ron & I enjoyed our Ringmaster duties and it was fun to catch up with our "horsey friends".  Time flew by, though, and the weather cooled considerably, so we knew it was time to head South.  I am sad that we weren't able to catch up with more of you.  Our friends and family are the things that we miss most on the road.

We wanted to take a different route to Colorado, so we headed down through Sioux Falls to Yankton, SD.  Another beautiful South Dakota State Park - Lewis & Clark Recreation Area.

This was our view from the front of our trailer.  We were one of maybe 3 in the campground, so it was like our own private lake.  There were some beautiful (and challenging) trails to hike.

The overlooks along the trail were awesome & there were plenty of benches to sit on to reflect & enjoy - or just take a break.

 

We would have loved to have stayed longer, but the nights were getting a little cool. So after enjoying this beautiful sunrise

we headed down through Nebraska with our destination of Grand Island.  It is nice taking the State Highways that pass through the small towns and give you more of the personality of the country you are passing through.  I didn't know that Norfolk, NE is the boyhood home of Johnny Carson!  We drove by his boyhood home (nicely preserved) on Johnny Carson Blvd.  Arrived in Grand Island, staying at a very nice KOA and look forward to seeing a few of the sights!  More about that later.