Cripple Creek, Colorado

Here we go, dropping down into Cripple Creek. This was a gold mining town and made a few rich. I guess it is still that way for it is now a casino town. So, it still sends a very few away rich, but most leave broke and dejected.


Look down the main street and it seems a lot like many old towns. But, most of the buildings along the street are casinos.





When the conversion to a casino town started, the casinos were placed in rehabbed buildings, some of which dated back into the 1890's. One of my favorites is the Brass Ass, just for the name.











Gold was first discovered in 1878 by a ranch hand named Bob Womack. However, Bob must have been known as a story teller because no one believed him. It took him until 1890 to convince the necessary backers that he had actually found riches in the dirt. But, Bob was only one of the players, this mother and son played a big role too. Donkeys were vital to the mining operations, not only hauling goods, but also hauling ore to the surface from inside the mines. The poor donkeys were not treated well and as the claims were abandoned, so were the donkeys. Often they were left underground where they perished, but some were just turned loose. A few relatives of those released still roam the area.

Leadville, Colorado

Nicknamed Cloud City (because it sits at 10,152 feet?), Leadville is one of Colorado's famous (maybe infamous) old mining towns. In 1877 it was the best known silver mining town in the World. By 1890, thanks to it's more than 30,000 fortune seekers, it was the second largest city in Colorado. It was fairly sophisticated for a mining town and unexpectedly featured an Opera House.

It takes a long time for it to warm up at this altitude, as demonstrated by Sharon on the sidewalk. If you look closely at the other pictures you will see snow on the buildings and streets, as well in the background mountains. The high temperature was 32 today.

There are many old buildings that have been a part of the Leadville skyline since as far back as 1880.






Many of the old building in the city's heart have been handsomely refurbished, like the courthouse. Some of the old stately homes have been refurbished as well. However, the general area still shows signs of poverty and the scars of the old mines and their tailings are everywhere. Leadville also suffers from high levels of heavy metals in the water supply and this is constantly monitored.

Leadville is also known as the home of "Texas Jack" Omohundro. He, and his good friend and business partner Buffalo Bill Cody, started the first wild west show in America. He must have had a fast and exciting life because he didn't get to Leadville until he was 16, he started the wild west show at age 26, and he died there at the age of 33.

Salida, Colorado #1

Here we are, sitting at another unplanned stop. The last one was just a week or so ago in Waco, Texas, over a truck problem. We are again stopped for the truck which is knocking and belching smoke. It appears to be cracked injectors. We also had a blowout on the trailer, so here we sit.

I guess we are lucky to be in Salida, even though the events that brought us here could not be considered as very lucky. This is one of the many Colorado small towns, nestled in the Rockies, that are great places to visit. It sits in a valley created by the Arkansas River. It is only 15 minutes to good downhill skiing at Monarch Peak. The river is perfect for kayaking, rafting, and fishing. There are plenty of old mining and logging roads for four-wheeling, and lots of hiking trails too. Of course, there are also plenty of good restaurants and family entertainments, because this is a tourist destination.

The town is really a classic. Many of the historic downtown buildings were built in the late 1800's (and most nicely restored). There are also many classic old homes, mostly stone and brick with plenty of gingerbread.

In Salida every view is a good view.

The old buildings are a treat to look at.

It is early enough in the season that few tourists have arrived. So, we had easy access to all the shops (well Sharon did, I was just drug along).

The Salida Hot Springs Aquatic Center. Pool temperature is in the 90's and is just over 100 degrees where the hot springs water enters.

This turned out to be my favorite place. It is the inside of the Victoria Bar and that is my Fat Tire in the foregound.

Salida, Colorado #2

We seem to stumble into interesting events as we blunder around the country. Rarely are our finds intentional, they just happen. While here in Salida, on a walk through the historic old downtown, we saw kayaks all over the town park on the river. Of course curiosity drew me into the park to see what was going on. It turned out to be the finish line for a triathlon. Now this was not your every day triathlon. This was ski, bike, and kayak.

The race started at Monarch Peak with a cross country ski leg, then mountain biking, and finally the kayak leg into the heart of downtown Salida. I asked several onlookers, but none seemed to be in the know about the exact course or mileage. One thought the course was 35 miles. Regardless, watching the racers pull their kayaks out of the river and stumble up the bank and trot to the timers table, I knew it was a tough race.

Sorry, but all my pictures are from the final quarter mile of the course (all on the river).

This is the sight that drew me to the park.








Doesn't this guy look tired to you??????

Salida, Colorado #3

While walking around town I saw a couple of interesting sights that I wanted to share with you all (I guess as a transplant to Texas I should say y'all).

They do a lot of biking in this area. Conditions were great today, for getting some air.

There is a lot of four wheeling done around here. Some of the four wheelers are customized and have a unique look, like this Bronco convertible.

OklahomaCity-Day1

This stop gave me a pleasant surprise. Okkahoma City is really OK. I hadn't been in the city in probably 20 years. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of it was either new or handsomely refurbished.

The first stop was accidental, because I spied it as we drove along I-40. It was a small air park at the gate to Tinker Air Force Base. The park had 6 aircraft on display along with a statue of Rosie the Riveter (you have to old enough to remember WW II to remember Rosie) and a statue honoring the Tuskegee Airmen (WW II all black fighter wing). This is a B-52 Stratofortress (wingspan 185', bomb load of 40,000 pounds, top speed 660 MPH, and a range of 10,000 miles).

We searched out the Oklahoma City National Monument. It was built to honor those that survived, died, or were part of the rescue effort of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Everything about the monument has a significance. The two gates (East and West end) have a time stamp on them. One end, marked 9:02, represents the city's innocence before the bomb and the other gate, marked 9:03, marks the moment we were changed forever. The reflecting pool is intended to help soothe wounds.

Each one of the 168 chairs in the "Field of Empty Chairs" symbolize a life lost. Nineteen of the chairs are smaller, representing the children in the day care center.

This was written on the wall of an adjacent office building, attributed to an unknown rescue worker. Several hundred people were injured in this building, but amazingly no one was killed. All this death and sadness because of one deranged man...

OklahomaCity-Day2

Now this is the part of Oklahoma City that I thought really stood out. The area is called "Bricktown" and it is a part of the old business distirct, full of old businesses and warehouses dating back as far as 1890. This area has been cleaned, preened, and turned into a money makin' machine. To top it off, the city father's put in a canal, boats, walkways, parks, and gardens. Officially it is known as the "Oklahoma City Historic Entertainment District". Call it what you want, it is "the" area to visit in warm weather.

The area contains dozens of restaurants (including a Hooter's), shops (inlcuding a Bass Pro Shop SuperStore), bars and night spots, hotels, and of course, for the ladies, shopping. The Bricktown Baseball Stadium, Cox Convention Center, Coca Cola Events Center, and Ford Center are all within easy walking distance.





We did make one special stop for Sharon. She has an affinity for country music so into Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar" we went. Now she stopped for coffee and a look around. This I felt was a totally inappropriate use (the coffee part) of a bar, so I had enough beers for both of us. Never did see Toby....

Remind anyone of the San Antonio Riverwalk?????????

Thackerville, Okalahoma - Turner Falls

We entered Oklahoma and exited I-35 at exit 1, a mere mile into the state. We stayed at the Red River Ranch in Thackerville. The RV park had more people in it than the entire town of Thackerville, so we had to scour the area for sights.

This is the hottest spot any where near Thackerville. It is the WinStar Casino. It is one of the mirad of Indian casinos that have grown up all over the country. I think this one belongs to the Chickasaw nation. The picture was taken from a half mile away, looking across the most common scenery in the area, an open field. It was a very nice casino, new, big, full of people, not smoky, and a free breakfast for seniors.

We did find a beautiful park that belonged to the town of Davis. It is a grand little place on 720 acres. It was very nearly empty when we drove in, but it obviously gets very busy in the summer. This is a shot of Honey Creek which is fed by springs in the surrounding Arbuckle Mountains (looked like hills to me).

The park is named for this waterfall, known as Turner Falls. It really is beautiful. The falls stands 77 feet high. Swimming is allowed under the falls and in pools along the run of Honey Creek. I am sure that during the hot sweaty summers the pools are elbow to elbow. Turner Falls is the largest waterfall in Oklahoma and has been a popular recreation area for locals since 1868.

More Waco - Dr Pepper

This one is going to be a bit difficult. You see, a cleaning frenzy irrupted and the brochure from the Dr Pepper Museum got trashed. Now I am not laying blame, but, I don’t have cleaning frenzies. So, the accuracy of the info contained herein is subject solely to my faltering memories and the passage of a week since I was in the museum.

The museum is housed within one of the original bottling plants in Waco, Texas, where the drink was invented. Originally you would have asked for a Waco because that is the only place you could get it. The name Dr Pepper came later, as the drink began distribution.

Say “Hi” to Doc Alderton, the guy who perfected the mixture of 21 fruit flavors that became Dr Pepper. By the way, if you’ve ever heard that one of those flavors is prune juice, well, the company won’t say what is in Dr Pepper, but they will say that prune juice isn’t.

This is the original drug store soda fountain where Wacos were served. The drink was formulated and created by the Doc in a storage room in the back of the drug store. Doc wasn’t a doctor, he wasn’t even a pharmacist.

This is one of the early bottling machines, circa 1910 (I think). It was more manual than automatic (and I’ll bet you worked in a pile of broken glass). Remember when bottle caps had a cork seal in them? This machine can, and so can I (just barely).



Worthless Trivia:
>There has never been a period following the Dr in Dr Pepper. That is because the original font picked for advertising had a period that looked more like a comma. The decision was made to drop the period and it has remained that way for over a hundred years.
>The origination of the drink’s name is unsure. The most popular version is that it is named after the father of a woman that Doc Alderton wanted to marry. His name really was Pepper and he was a doctor. The doctor thought little of the Alderton, so Alderton tried to impress him by naming his drink after him. Apparently this didn’t work because he never got the Doctor’s permission to marry his daughter.
>Dr Pepper is owned by Cadbury/Schwepps. They also own a bunch of other drink and candy companies (like Orange Crush, A&W, RC Cola, etc.)

Waco, Texas - The Unplanned Stop

Here we sit, in Waco. The stop was unplanned, seems as if the truck just decided it was tired and quit climbing hills. Now if that trailer had been on my back I would have quit four years ago. We found a campground and then a GMC dealer.

Waco had its first inkling of birth in 1837 when the Texas Rangers built Fort Fisher. They pulled out a short time later because "the location was too far beyond the limits of civilization". In early 1849 and enterprising business man laid out the first streets of Waco and sold lots for $5 apiece. I don't believe any of those lots are still available for $5......

While here, we decided to look around a bit. First stop was for lunch at the Brazos Belle Riverboat. Unfortunately the Belle was riding a little low. Waders were required dress, and we'd left ours at home.

We moved on to a steak house that bragged about the biggest steaks in town. Sharon fell off her diet and ordered the ultra super duper whole cow T-bone. This is all she left behind.

Also dropped by the McLennan County Courthouse, which was built in 1901-2. Nice looking building, especially from a tourist's point of view and not as a customer!!!

We moved on for a peek at the longest (475 feet) single span suspension bridge West of the Mississippi, at least it was when it was finished in 1870. The "toll" bridge was built by a private company that had been granted a 25 year monopoly. No other bridges or ferries were allowed to be built or operated within 5 miles up or down river. This monopoly lasted only 19 years until public outcry forced the county to buy the bridge and open it for toll-free crossings.

After the bridge was built the town began to boom and the railroads came. The bridge became the main crossing point for cattle drives on the Chisholm trail. During the cattle drive era Waco was known as Six-Shooter Junction. During the 1890's Waco became the largest inland cotton market in the world (or so claimed the town father's). Now Waco boasts a city population of about 120,000 and a metro area of more than 215,000.

Our stay was short, fortunately the truck problem was not major. Waco may be worthy of a longer visit sometime in the future. Oh yeah, Waco is the home of Dr Pepper. We did visit the Dr Pepper Museum and that will be published soon.