Well we just got back from Leadville...what a trip. Very nice town. I like it a bit more than Breckenridge since it's not striving all that hard for atmosphere.

We went to the Mining Museum. That was neat. Bought a big geode
stone. Went to the cabin Baby Doe Tabordied in. Quite a rags to riches to rags story there. In the late 1800's the Tabors spent 15K on christening dresses for their daughters.

After that we had a picnic lunch and fed the squirrels some scraps. The next stop was the horse riding stables.
We got to the stable fine and were put on our mounts. My daughter has done some horseback lessons so they put her on a more spirited horse. My son and wife got gentle mounts and I got one named Little Bit. Name should have been "One who knows where every low branch in Colorado is" but I guess that's a little long. The horse was pretty bad about rubbing right up against the trees, many of which had stubs on them.

The ride was 3.5 hours long. We saw some gorgeous vistas and glens. There were several abandoned cabins still left from the gold rush days. Also some mines and exploratory holes. Most of the trail was pretty vertical. Often times we were completely under the canopy of pines and aspens. There were hundreds of tree stumps left from logging. I figured maybe from the '40's or 50's. Come to find out they were from 1880. Seems there are no termites up that way and it is so dry most of the time that decomposition takes forever.

After we finished our ride we went back to Leadville to eat at Quincy's Steakhouse. They only do Fillet Mignon's. You have your choice of sizes but that's it. The 15 oz one is only about 16 bucks. A really great deal and the steaks were top notch.

After that we went back to our rooms. Maggie (the navigation unit) gave us directions back that took us through Frisco for no reason what so ever.

We are now back in our room. Kids are racking out for a bit, may go to the spa later. Wife is editing the photos, I may post later. I'm having a Fat Tire.

Sure is pretty up here. The Merc made it up Summit Pass ok, the tach never went below 4200 but the temp was ok.

On the way back in some idiot talking on her cell phone pulled out from a stop sign on Highway 9 right in front of us. Got the car shut down but it sure scared us.

UM, I'm enjoying this trip with you. Good to hear that you all are enjoying our neighbor state...
LBS

Sounds like a great trip PH. & it's really funny that you call your GPS (Magelleon, no doubt) "Maggie." That's what we call ours as well. The Admiral started it all from when she was travelling for business and had the GPS unit in her rental car.

WhaddI tell ya about Leadville? Neat place. Eat at Quincy's everytime I am in Leadville for dinner. They used to do a mean prime rib on Saturdays for $10 too.

I like the Mining Museums 'walk thru' display areas. Just like being in a mine. Great history here as well. You can spend a whole afternoon in there and not see it all. Doc Holiday has some great history in this town. I think they still have a museum there for him too. Glad you like my little area of the world...... sounds like fun.

I love museums...any kind. This puts me on the outs with my family. They want to do a museum in 30 minuets or less. I can spend 3-4 hours in a simple museum, no problem.

Today we went to Buena Vista and rented a Jeep. The guy renting it to us was very nice and gracious but not entirely organized.
We drove up to Cottonwood Pass, on the Continental Divide. Didn't need a Jeep for that. Drove down to the other side and went to Taylor Lake. Very pretty.

We went back across the divide and drove over to Lost Canyon.
On the way up there we stopped off for a picnic at a place the Jeep owner recommended. From a granite outcropping you had a view of the entire valley for miles in every direction. Sure made a nice accompaniment to the company and the food.


We went to a working gold mine near Lost Canyon. When we pulled onto the location we were nearly the only ones there. The mine is for sale. It's the type of mining, called passer I think, where the gold is found in the soil, not in veins. I visited with an older woman who was in a Jeep as well. Found out she and her husband were the owners. They had sold the mine two years back but had to foreclose on the buyer. She explained to me the mining operation. They let hobby prospectors work the claim. She and her husband are from Indiana and have a farm up that way. They were getting ready to leave and asked me to lock the gate to the place when we left. We scouted around a bit and then left.

We drove up to a couple of abandoned miners cabins. Man, the stories they could tell! As we were headed back down the trail we saw a mama beaver and three of her offspring. They each reared back on their haunches and looked at us. One of the little ones barked at us repeatedly.

The drive up and back was fun, a little narrow with extreme drop offs but really nothing too bad.

I was wanting to do more but the S and D team were bushed so we headed on back to camp.

One thing I really like about Colorado is the folks here really seem to take pride in their state. We have seen almost no litter. The vacant camp sites we saw were clean.

Well, got to get some dinner and then sit down with a good book to relax with.

Later.....

PH, glad to hear you are enjoying Colorado. I lived there over 20 years and grew up there. If fact, my 2 kids have been there the last 6 weeks spending time with various family. They are currently in Estes Park at a family reunion we all should be at but for the fact my wife got rear-ended in the end of May and can ride in a car that long. Hope you've had a chance to visit Breckenridge Brewery. I've spent many a night watching the Colorado Avalanche play while drinking an Avalanche Ale.
The trip to Buena Vista must have been quite a long one (considering) for a day trip.
If I may be so bold to ask, where are you staying? The last 2 years my father-in-law has rented a cabin called Lauraway. And by cabin I mean 3 floors, 5 bedrooms, pool table, hot tub, and decks on all floors. Great way to enjoy the views.
Enjoy your vacation!!

We are staying in a condo at The Village. A unit that is set up to where it could be rented out as two one bedroom units with one of those having a kitchen. Kind of odd but a very practical arrangement.

I will go by the brewery today. I planned this day as an off day. Daughter wants to go shopping with wife. I will use the GPS to do some Geocaching.

Wife is editing the photos we have taken. Will probably put them online later today.

Later....

Are you working for the Colorado Tourist Board because your making me want to go there again?

Enjoy your day PH.

Well I took a walking tour of Breckenridge today. Must say that now that I have walked the town I like it a lot more.
Found two geocaches, the Garmin eTrex walked me right up to them.

I stopped by Breckenridge Brewery and had an Oatmeal Stout and a burger. Bartender told me it was happy hour and I didn't look happy enough. Ordered an English Pale Ale. My thanks to TEG and his countrymen for this fine addition to our cuisine.

Walked on down to the firehouse museum. You go next door to the fire station and a fireman will give you the tour. Angelo was my tour guide. After a bit the squad was alerted and he left.

Walked over to the Barney L. Ford Museum. Barney was a ex-slave who became a successful business man. He twice fought statehood for Colorado until it the statehood movement put language into the state constitution granting blacks voting rights. As a child he only had his first name.

I also walked over to a monument to the U.S Army Tenth Mountain Division..
My wife had a great uncle who recently passed away. He was an officer with the Tenth just started up. He was selected for this unit due to his background of having worked with farm animals and having learned how to snow ski.
He had lots of funny stories about the US Army coming to terms with the Norwegian instructors. Seems the instructors were not to thrilled with the Army's choice of OD Green as a uniform.

He later fought at the Apennine Mountains in Italy. After the war he was a member of the Army of Occupation in Japan.

He had a lot of stories, some funny, some not.

Finally wandered back up to my room where I picked a fight with the kid who were watching TV instead of being outside.

Later...

The Admiral/Navigator has informed me we are headed back Saturday with a stop in Wilson, KS to partake in a Czechoslovakian (thank you Mr. Spellcheck..)festival. Sounds like fun to me. We will spend the afternoon at the festival and leave the next morning for home.


You know what you call it when Czechoslovakian woman gets an abortion??





...a cancelled Czech.....


I'm horrible....

BOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Make sure you try a O'dell's 90 shilling ale. I don't like Fat Tire (HATE Single Track - vomit taste...).

Glad you are having fun!

Have a safe trip home - the road you drove past the climax mine coming back from Leadville I might have once exceeded xxx mph - with a group of s2000's... probably never happened.

No bar too far,
We drink to sink.

Man does this bring back memories.... it has been years since we did Cottonwood Pass, but it used to be a favorite easy drive into the Colorado peaks/Twin Lakes/Mt. Yale area. I still have a few pics from a trip up there in 2000, bunch of us smoking gars of course..... area look familure Parrot Head?

If you look close Jim has a cigar in his hand in first pic..... Taylor Lake at the bottom.... Enjoy!

Hey CM,

Yeah, that's just the way it looked.

Friday was our last full day in Colorado. We went back to Buena Vista and did a raft trip. A full day one with lunch down Brown's Canyon.
This by far was the best day of the trip. We were in a group of four rafts but our raft was a smaller one with just my family on it. The guide says smaller is better. Brown's Canyon is mostly class II and III rapids but one section is IV. Our guide would call out if we were to paddle forward or backwards and how much. We were able to easily follow his commands. Since he felt we could follow directions pretty well he took us right through the middle of several of the rapids. We got tossed around a bit but no one fell out.
At one point my S and D team bailed out over the sides and hung onto the ropes. Daughter got a bit of a scare when the raft started to pass over her.

We stopped for a lunch of sandwiches along side the river. Nice scenic area where we could watch the other rafters.

The guide suggested that next time we raft we go on a section of a river called "Numbers". It's almost all class IV.
If we had done this adventure earlier we would have canceled the Jeep or horse ride to do the rafting twice.

The water was fast, clear and cold. The scenery was dramatic and colorful.

We packed up and left Colorado early Saturday morning. We made it to the Czech festival but it only took about ten minuets to see all of it. Decided against staying another night on the road and instead just drove it straight back to Oklahoma.

It was nice to pull up in our drive. Our neighbor was watering our plants for us with her kids. They were soaked from it.

I will post photos as they become available.