Colorado Springs Area

Monday September 5 (Labor Day)

Last night, we had Barbara Taylor visit us in the motorhome.  Barbara is the former wife of a cousin of mine and we have always stayed in touch.  Unfortunately, her husband Ron, had a heart attack Saturday morning and is in the hospital.  He is doing well and will be out of the hospital tomorrow (Tuesday).  They were kind enough to loan us a car for our stay here.  We hope that he continues a speedy recovery and that we are able to get together under better circumstances in the future.


Looking out on the plains from campsite



The view behind the campsite

We moved a few miles to the most spectacular campground we have ever seen - Cheyenne Mountain State Park. It has the best camp sites and the most spectacular views of any place we have ever stayed, or are likely to ever stay.

After getting settled in, we decided to take the Pike Peak Cog Railroad. 
 
We forgot that today is a holiday.  We couldn't get reservations so we took a chance on the standby list and were able to get aboard.
 
We left the bottom of the mountain the temperature in the high 70's/low 80's and ascended to 14,100 feet where the temperature was in the 40's. 
 
It took about 1 1/2 hours to make the trip up.  They say we went through four life zones, from the high plains to the alpine tundra.  It was truly a spectacular ride - and the view from the top was breathtaking.
 
This is the first time I've been on a mountain this high since Slade and I backpacked up a 14,000 peak in Colorado when he was a teenager (over 20 years ago).  We actually climbed two fourteeners (as they are known) in that one trip.
 



Spectacular Views





This is the Cog Rail Train

The grade got up to 25%

 
We got back to the RV in time for a nice dinner and watching a spectacular light show as the sun set and the lights in the valley started coming on.

Tuesday, September 6

This is the view out the front of the RV this morning.  We got up to early.  Actually, Clara got up early and saw some balloons flying in the valley and woke me up.

We regretted having to leave this spectacular setting.  We could have stayed here a week and been perfectly content to not leave for any reason.

Today was another day of spectacular beauty and diversity.  This is what we suffered through Kansas for.

We went to a remarkable Colorado Springs City Park - Garden of the Gods.  There are no pictures that can do this remarkable rock formation justice.

We left here and went to check in at the military campground at the Air Force Academy.

We spent the afternoon touring the Air Force Academy.  It is one of the best colleges in the country.  I hope that one day, Anna and/or Evan will choose to come here for their college education - and maybe become Air Force pilots like their Papa. 

The Academy is located in one of the most beautiful settings in the world.  Probably the most recognizable feature is the chapel.

In the visitor center, they have the cockpit portion of the T-38, the plane I flew in pilot training.

And at one of the gates, they have a memorial to the B-52.  This particular B-52's claim to fame is that it is one of two that actually shot down an enemy aircraft in combat.

It may also very well be one that I flew on one of my 94 combat missions in Southeast Asia.  I wish there were someway that I could confirm this, but I didn't keep a log of the aircraft tail numbers that I flew and don't know where that record may be.

The two biggest machines I ever drove!

Tomorrow we travel up to Estes Park

Colorado Finally

September 3

Today we left Dodge City, Kansas headed further West.

In only a couple hours we finally entered Colorado.  It's already getting cooler.

We stopped at a Colorado Visitors Center in Lamar, Co.
Here we stocked up on information because we plan on being here for about a month.

We thought about staying around Lamar.  It seemed to be a real nice area, but we pushed on.

Different ways to get out West

Blade from a wind generator (that's me way down at the end)

It has been an interesting transition.  A cool(er) front went through last night (we actually heard a little (very little) rain on the roof last night, plus we are gaining altitude.  Tonight we are at 3,800 feet in the John Martin Reservoir State Park at Lake Hasty Campground.  The temperature is in the 70's.  We set up the RV and for the first time since leaving NC, we do not have the air conditioners on.  The windows are open and a nice breeze is blowing through.  It's really nice not having all that noise.

Lake Hasty Campground, John Martin Reservoir State Park

The campground is just below the Army Corps of Engineer flood control dam.

This afternoon I took a nice long bike ride around the area.  As I rode, I reflected on the federal governments projects of the 1930's and 1940's - that's when this dam was built.

As we look around at some of the great things that the government accomplished back then - the great dams, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the tremendous infrastructure development and a multitude of other LASTING, ENDURING projects that we enjoy 60 - 70 years later, I can't help but think of the tremendous waste of our government today and how little future generations will see of the tremendous amount of  money being spent.

Sunday, September 4

We drove casually across Eastern Colorado, stopping when something of interest got our attention.

I try to stop at National Sites of Interest.  One that we ran across today was the Boggsville Historical Site near Ls Animas, Co.  It was a settlement on the Santa Fe Trail.

It is the burial place of Kit Carson, a famous settler and pioneer.

The site is rather isolated, and I don't think it has a lot of visitors, but it was interesting to see the 150 year old homes and to read about some of the history.

As we were driving into Pueblo, Co, we saw a sign for an aviation museum and of course, I had to stop.  It was a huge museum that has been built over the past 50 years or so, with most of the aircraft in two huge building that have been built.  They have a rare B-29 as their centerpiece.

The T-37 that have on display is the same as I flew in pilot training, only ours were not painted.

We've made it to the mountains.  Tonight we're in an RV park just outside Colorado Springs.  We are finally getting into the Rockies.  It has been cool all day and it probably will be in the 40's or 50's tonight, certainly a lot different from a couple days ago when the lows were in the mid-80's.

Golden Ranch RV Park, Colorado Springs, CO

Going our West - Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas

Sunday, August 28

After leaving the Lady Luck Casino, which did not get any of our money from gambling (although I tried to talk Clara into using the penny slot machine), we headed South a few miles to take a "stroll down memory lane".  When I was flying B-52's from 1968 to 1972, we were stationed at Blytheville AFB in Blytheville, Ark, which in the Northeast corner of Arkansas.  We were so close by that I could not go past without checking out the place.




Blytheville AFB closed in 1992 and has been converted to a small town with commercial, industrial and residential facilities.

As we drove through town, we did not recognize anything.  I don't know if the town has changed, or our memory doesn't work (most likely the latter), but nothing was familiar.  As we neared the former base, a few things began to look familiar. 

We immediately went to the former base housing area, which is now a senior housing project.  After driving around for a while (looking a little out of place on Sunday morning driving around in a big RV), we had to call Jill Pimentel (our former neighbor at Blytheville) and see if she could help.  We finally narrowed it down and eventually found where we lived for most of 4 years.

Where we lived while in the Air Force

One spot that I did remember was the Alert Facility, where we use to have to live for a week at a time, waiting to take off with nuclear weapons loaded and ready to go bomb (destroy) Russia.  Seems rather strange to think about that today, but back then, it was serious stuff.

Google Earth view of the alert parking area

After this nostalgic couple of hours, we headed off Northwest back into Missouri to Mountain Grove, Mo to visit some friends,  Jerry and Mary Ruth Armstrong (Mary Ruth is Diane Howell's sister, who Clara worked with for years at Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville, NC).

Jerry and Mary Ruth Armstrong in Mountain Grove, Mo

 We spent a delightful evening with them.  Mary Ruth runs their local Chamber of Commerce, so we had a lot of fun talking about running Chambers (which I did for a while).  Jerry is a retired school teacher/coach whom we learned was on the 1966 NCAA Division 1 National Basketball Championship  team from Texas Western University.  They made history as the first integrated team to make it to the championship and a movie, "Glory Road" was made about that experience in 1995. 

A great evening.

August 29

Monday morning we headed toward Branson, Missouri, a place that we had heard a lot about for their live theater shows.  We had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be a much larger place than we had anticipated.  We found at that there are a total of 10,000 theater seats in this town and I have no idea how many live music theaters.  Of course, all the touristy trap stuff that goes with any place that attracts people has grown up around the theaters.   In some ways it reminds me of the way Cherokee, NC was (and still is to some extent) combined with what I imagine Las Vegas might be.

Anyway, so far we've enjoyed 3 live performances and heard some great singing and a lot of comedy.

Pierce Arrow at the Pierce Arrow Theater

The "Blues Brothers" impersonators at the Dick Clark Theater

A great Elvis impersonator

Comedy at Baldknobbers

Baldknobbers theather

Along the way, one of our air conditioners in the RV has stopped working, so we've found a place to work on it.

It's a good thing we got the AC working.  The temperature was 97 today.  It really wasn't too bad - low humidity.  They've had temperatures here of 111 degrees this summer.  I looked at some of the forecast for Kansas for the next few days and it is likely we'll be seeing over 100.

On our last night here in Branson, we saw the best show that we've seen here.  "Six" is a group of 6 brothers who perform as an entire band and vocals - with only their voices.  It was really terrific.  Without a doubt, the best show here.

One has to look a little different

Some real up close and personal with the audience

Thursday, September 1

I think we are about "showed" out, having attended four shows in three days in Branson.  It's probably not a place I would choose to go back to, but it was worth one visit.  That last show with "Six" was really great.

We took the back roads heading West from Branson and gradually worked our way toward Kansas.

The further West we go the flatter it gets - and hot.  Hot, Dry and Hot! and windy.  I think the wind must blow all the time. 

We stayed at a Corps of Engineers lake, Falls River Lake in the middle of nowhere.  We had a nice site next just below the dam (flood control) and enjoyed a quiet evening.

 

We watched the video Jerry had given us about his college basketball team,  "Glory Road".  An excellent movie and it made it more interesting because Jerry (or his character), played a significant role in the movie. 

Friday, September 2

Hot, Dry, Hot, Windy.

Today the temperature is 102 - in the shade.

We worked our way Westward across Kansas, stopping at the Andover YMCA near Witchita, Kansas.  It was undoubtedly the nicest Y I have ever seen.  They had an outside water park to equal any I've seen, and two indoor pools.  An incredible facility.

Wind mills dot the landscape - because it's windy!

Flat - you can't see hot!

Tonight we are at "Gunsmoke" Campground in Dodge City, Kansas, home of Wyatt Earp and other various recognizable names from TV and real life.

 

Kansas has lots of cattle. 

Cattle feed lot

Another Cattle Feed Lot

Grain Silo

Tomorrow, Colorado.  The scenery should improve - and hopefully it will be less than 100 degrees.