A Few Days in Denver...

We had the wonderful opportunity to spend a long weekend with some special friends while passing through Denver this time.  We met Deb & Rich on our first year out when Jack spotted their rig and noticed that it was "just like ours!"  We met up with them that evening and spent the whole evening talking around the campfire and realized we had more in common than our two rigs.  We have visited with them before and always enjoyed their wonderful hospitality and growing friendship.

 
This trip, our "tour guides" took us to a few of unusual places... First up, was Tiny Town, in Morrison.  Tiny Town is almost a hundred years old, and started by a father who wanted to build a small town to entertain his small daughter.  As the saying goes...it grew!  To 124 building by 1924.  By now he had opened it up to the public and over 20,000 people were coming to visit it. By 1927 it had become as well known as Buffalo Bill’s Grave and Pike’s Peak, and the project outgrew George Turner’s spare time so he sold out.

Over the years, it's suffered floods & fires, it's closed and reopened several times, volunteers, and finally a foundation is established to operate it and help restore and maintain it.  It's back up to 90 buildings, several of them from the original 1920's.

The day that we visited, it was closed, but a young man, Jason, was there cleaning, and said that he didn't mind letting us in and would give us a little private tour.  As we toured, several other people stopped and asked if they too, could come in.  Jason, ever gracious, let each small family in, taking the time to tell us about each small building, it's history to Tiny Town and to Denver.  It was quite something to see.  

In our many conversations, I had shared with Deb & Rich my love of unique cemeteries, so they said they knew of one they thought I would enjoy seeing, so off we went to the  Bear Cañon Cemetery in Sedalia.  They were right.

One of the first things you see is a large rusted metal cello!  There's really no marker other than a large rock with a picture and some silk flowers and a small American flag.  I did some research and found out it all belongs to Aaron Pope, but that's all.  No dates, etc.  One can only guess that Aaron played the cello and lived and died in Sedalia Colorado.  That's probably all anyone needs to know I guess.  That's the way this Cemetery is.  It's full of very personal, individual, unique memorials & headstones.  Everything from Aaron's cello to another's simple wooden cross & pink stone heart, or one with a small blue cowboy boot & small metal cross.  Some had big family areas that included a bench telling about the plane that went down while ranching and then all the rest of the family headstones surrounding it.  The oldest dated back to some Confederate War Veterans in 1823-1899.  Many had mementos surrounding them, tools, baseballs, toys, pictures, even boxes or bottles filled with notes & letters.  One had beautiful rocks & geodes circled all around each of the five graves.  A truly heartfelt place.  I left there pondering where I might like to be "remembered" one day...

The next stop was a quick one, for laughs and a photo op!  We had looked up the "Roadside America" to see what funny thing there was to see, and "Sun Spot" came up!  Rich knew just where "he" was too!  A 20' tall dog covered in pet tags, out in front of the Denver Animal Shelter!  To cute to pass up, so we didn't!  ;-)

From there, we finished off our day at the oldest bar in town, and as Rich said, one not to miss seeing either! The Buckhorn Exchange (est 1893) in Denver.  Wow, it certainly made your jaw drop, that's for sure!  We weren't hungry for dinner, good thing too, as we didn't have reservations and needed them, but had some nice appetizers and drinks upstairs.

Colorado is such a beautiful state, we love traveling through here.  We often think about if this is a place we could settle down in some day, and with such wonderful friends like Deb & Rich, it wouldn't be hard.  Who knows what the future brings...

...on the road,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

One more visit to Texas...Floors, Family & Fort Worth

This visit was going to be a different one, in that it was to have our much anticipated new floors installed in our coach.  Ernie Ekberg has a year waiting list to get floors installed, so when he got a cancellation for October 1st, a full nine months before our scheduled apt. date, I grabbed it with glee!  We were in Michigan at the time, but as I told Ernie, "our coach knows how to make U Turns!" So, with excitement, we headed back to Texas!

I've been wanting new flooring for almost two years.  "Who", I've wondered, "ever came up with the idea of putting cream colored carpeting inside RVs?"  It's crazy! RV'ers camp in campgrounds (or boondock) in places with gravel, dirt and grass - all of which gets brought into the coach all day on our sneakers and sandals.  Keeping carpeting clean was a full-time job, and I gave that up when I retired!

So, I started researching "who & where" to go.  Found some blogs, and found out that Ernie Ekberg out of Weatherford TX was "the best".  He only does wood, carpeting and some limited vinyl tile.  When I hesitated because the wait was a year, I got dozens of e mails from his "fans" that said to "just throw down some rugs and wait, he's worth it!"  That convinced me, so I did, and I'm glad! With all the changes in the coach this year...it brings new meaning to the phrase "happy camper"!

Weatherford, it turned out, is less than two hours from where my son lives (outside of the Dallas area), so when we had a couple of free days (days we weren't working with Ernie, making decisions, getting supplies, etc) we took off and made a dash over to their place to visit with them and see our newest grandson, now just four months old.  I was there when he was born, but this was Jack's first introduction.  Four months makes a big difference when they are that tiny, and what a wonderful difference!  Nothing like seeing a happy, healthy, chubby, cooing baby; especially when he had such a difficult beginning.

There were a couple of other times - a day or half a day where Ernie would tell us to "get lost", well, he probably said it a little nicer, like "go have some fun, you can't really do anything today while I'm working on this section..."  So, with phone in hand (in case he needed us) off we went - to Fort Worth!

Looking for something a little different to visit, we chose to start off with a visit to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's Western Currency Facility.  This is one of only two currency printing facilities in the US and the home of the new $100 bills.  As you can imagine, they didn't want anyone "taking pictures", so, alas, no cameras, phones, etc. allowed.  Darn.  So, I don't have any pictures, but I can share that it was an interesting tour that has you walking overhead, looking down on billions of dollars being printed, cut, banded, stacked and packed up to be loaded into the vault.  Afterward you go into a fun area that shows you the history of money, the changes over the years, counterfeiting, a sample of what the new bills are going to look like and what goes into all of it.  All in all, an interesting and fun place to visit!

I really wasn't up for any more museums, per se, but the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame caught my eye.  It sounded a bit different from anything we'd seen so far, so we gave it a try.  I no sooner snapped a couple of pictures at the entrance when they said "no pictures inside", darn.  Beautiful place, and really impressive.  Nice to see a museum dedicated to honoring the achievements that women in the American West, in this case, make.  It honored everyone from Sacajawea, Annie Oakley to Sandra Day O'Connor.  Women are nominated in five categories:  Artists & Writers; Champions & Competitive Performers; Entertainers; Ranchers & Stewards of the Land; and Trailblazers & Pioneers.

Sacagawea & Jean Baptiste by Glenna Goodacre

They had fun displays showcasing each of these areas highlighting the successful women in that area.  They even had a mechanical bull you could ride yourself!  I thought it was particularly interesting how they showed the evolution of the cowgirl in the rodeo doing stunts dressed in skirts & fancy outfits, even sitting side-saddle sometimes! 

They also had various videos of women ranchers talking about their daily lives.  Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week lives...loving it.  They have my respect, but I sure don't know how they do it...and I sure do know it's not a life I could ever do.  I left there feeling proud to be a woman, and a little humble in comparison.

High Desert Princess (c2003) by Mehl Lawson,

 From there we drove over to what Fort Worth calls their "Stockyards".  We missed the twice daily cattle drive of longhorns down the street, which is the big draw, really.  About the only thing truly left of the real Stockyards are the pens.  It doesn't seem like they are used anymore at all, so no cattle in them any longer.  All we saw was a tourist town of shops and restaurants and a couple of statues and murals.  We were so happy that we saw the real Stockyards in Oklahoma City!  We did manage to get a good burger and listen to some fun live music before we left and headed back to our coach.

With the coach completed, family hugged we are on our way again!  Time to hit the road again and start heading back to see family in Washington...

...on the road,  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

Further adventures in Oklahoma City...

With so much to still see and do in Oklahoma City, we started out early.  Our first stop of the day was to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  Both Jack and I like western heritage, so we were really looking forward to this particular museum.  In our travels, we have been to quite a few throughout the various states, but I have to say, this is one of the very best!  I'm sure that the fact that Oklahoma City's heritage is uniquely western, starting out with the Land Run of 1889 has a lot to do with it.  This museum does an outstanding job of showcasing it with more that 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts.

Beyond that, I loved how they had different, fun galleries - Native American: representing American Indian life in western North America;  American Rodeo: a lifelike 1950s era rodeo arena that showcased rodeo history, including champions, clothing and various memorabilia;  Western Performers: a really fun gallery that was a tribute to the shaping of the movie cowboy, including Western stars such as John Wayne;  and Prosperity Junction: a replica frontier town complete with the sights and sounds of the settlement at dusk. 

The End of the Trail (c1894) by James Earle Fraser

James Arness & Roy Rogers in the Western Performers Gallery

Jim Shoulders, Bucking Broncs in the American Rodeo Gallery

It took us all morning to visit this place, it was so fascinating!  We ended up staying and having lunch in their on site restaurant, that was also a delight.  Jack got to talking to one of the guards while we were there that makes knives as a hobby (and sells some in the gift shop).  They enjoyed sharing stories about blacksmithing techniques etc.

Once fortified, we headed over to the Oklahoma History Center for some more insight into this interesting state.  They too took great pride in the stars and people in the film industry that have come from Oklahoma, such as Joan Crawford & Brad Pitt (who still comes to visit his grandmother here), and movies that have been filmed here, like "Grapes of Wrath" and "Twister".  But one of the most unusual things inside the museum, I thought, was The Century Chest.  It was a chest that had been sealed into the basement of The First English Lutheran Church back on April 22, 1913, then opened a century later by that same church.  Inside were documents, a quilt, photos, newspapers, paintings, clothing, recordings, books, poetry, and messages from individuals and organizations in 1913 to the people of 2013.  The project had been embraced by the entire state as citizens, tribes, businesses, community organizations and legislators all participated.  All was on display and very cool.  So many times we see things go into one of these chests, but this is the first time I've ever seen anything that has come out of one!

Outside was another cool display, it was Devon Oil & Gas Exploration Park, of all the really early oil rigs and various equipment.

We ended the day with a last stop at the beautiful Centennial Land Run Monument.  What a magnificent multi-piece sculpture.  Bigger than life, but so realistic you feel caught up in it, part of it.  The energy is incredible, hard to describe.  It's placed among Prairie Grass, as it would have been then, in a park along a creek, that takes up at least a block.  Truly something to spend time at.

We saved Monday for the famous Cattle Auctions in Stockyards City!  I had heard about it for years and really wanted to check it out.  After all, how many places are left that have real stockyards where you can see, hear & smell thousands of cattle being herded into pens, then brought into auction?  Here, and Texas, as far as I know.  So, off we went!  Jack was a little dubious at first, but like the willing husband that he is, he went along with me.  Camera in hand, I was ready and anxious!  We barely got out of the truck before I was grinning from ear to ear, I could hardly wait to get up on the catwalk to see them!  What fun!  After about 10 min. up there, we got to talk to one of the cowboys working below who answered some of our questions for us (a really nice guy who was equally curious about us) and he explained that this time of year they tend to have a lot less cattle (about 6,000, back in the 70's it would have been around 11,000).

After shooting outside for awhile, we went inside to catch some of the auction.  There were about 25-35 or so men in a theater style room with an auctioneer and his two assistants in a front booth with TV monitors overhead giving the audience the stats.  The individual cattle brokers would come in and stand in a front pen and present the information about the cattle that were being herded through for the auctioneer, then the auctioneer would do his thing and the customers would wave a finger or nod or what ever subtle thing they had a habit of doing, and away they would go, on to the next group!  You could tell the auctioneer knew his customers, and their ways of bidding...I had fun trying to figure out who was doing the bidding and who wasn't half the time!  Fun!

Later that night we came back to the famous Cattlemen's Steakhouse for dinner.  I had to try their signature steak, the 20oz T Bone!  Of course I took half of it home, but boy was it great, and what a wonderful way to end our stay in this terrific city!


...on the road to Texas!  Marie

If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/