July 24, 2014

Nice sleeping in a bed again.  48 degrees when I got up.  Did a light jog/walk--here are some of the views I had:

Drove to Cripple Creek stopping at the Flourissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  The fossil beds featured some giant redwoods like the ones in California.  I made a three-mile walk along a trail and enjoyed the park.

Cripple Creek was WAY out of the way and was a bust.  The neat little historical mining town has now been turned into a casino area--not like when Devin and I last visited.

There are several narrow-gauge railroads scattered around Colorado and I rode the one at Cripple Creek.  I really enjoyed it.

I had planned to go to Royal Gorge next but it won't be open until next month due to the damage from the wildfires last summer.  That was kind of my last stop on this trip so I headed to Fowler where I lived until I was six.

Fowler hasn't changed much since I left in 1952.  The old train depot:

Where I went to the first grade:

The town park:

Where our house used to be:

The old movie theater:

Downtown:

After that, I started home and made it to Boise City, Oklahoma just north of Amarillo.  With a hard day's drive tomorrow, I should be home Friday night.

July 23, 2014

Relatively light day driving today from Salida to Twin Lakes and Leadville.

Started this morning driving back in to Salida and having coffee and breakfast at the Cafe Dawn.  It was here last year that I hatched the idea of a Colorado road trip.

On the way to Leadville, I stopped at the old historic town of Buena Vista.

Leadville is the highest incorporated town in North America at over 12,000 feet.  I ate at the Silver Dollar Saloon.

No less than Doc Holiday ate here and played cards.

On the way back down to Twin Lakes, I stopped to shoot a photo of Mt. Elbert--the highest mountain in the Rocky Mountain chain at over 14,000 feet.  Devin and I climbed it in 2012.  It had started raining

At Twin Lakes, I checked into the inn.  Devin and I have stayed there several times as has Alida.  It has been called the Inn of the Black Wolf, the Nordic Inn, and now Twin Lakes Inn.  It is an old 1800s stagecoach inn and bordello.

From the bordello days, they have given plaques to each room.  I stayed in "Cora's Room."

Twin Lakes is a small village on the way to Aspen.  To get people to slow down driving through, they put a Sheriff's car with a dummy on the side of the road.  When word got out that it was a trick, it became a tourist attraction in itself with people stopping to get a photo in front of the car giving the officer the finger.  One of the taillights had been stolen.
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July 22, 2014

Drove from Pagosa to Salida over the infamous Wolf Creek Pass and Continental Divide.

The sign in the background stated that it used to take two days in a Model T or Model A to drive over the pass.  In the parking lot I met this guy in a 33 Ford--however he had a 454 hp V-8.

Stopped for breakfast at a Colorado canyon diner at South Fork. 

The scenery was amazing.

Cut over to the Great Sand Dune National Park. and came across some cowboys herding cattle. 

Great Sand Dunes

Lunch was a picnic at the park. 

Stopped in Salida before finding a campground. 

Tent is about six feet from a slow moving stream. 

July 21, 2014

Fresh coffee with a press this morning.

Rio Grande Gorge near Taos

Chama and Toltec RR at Chama, NM

Had damn good hamburger and Shiner Bock at the Chalma saloon. Watched the waitress return a $50 bill to an old guy who had dropped it out of his pocket.

Hot sulfur springs at Pagosa Springs. 

Home for tonight.