A Drive in the Country (Part 2)

Having explored (all we dared to) Ramah, Colorado we headed west towards Colorado Springs. I'm now in the "searching for weird" mode. Ramah has turned loose the weirdness and I'm on the hunt. The rest of the day was not to disappoint! After about a half hour of driving, my weird radar starts pinging and as I slow down to figure out what's going on, I see an amazing sight....

You know, when you're investigating weird, you run into a lot of collectors. People don't have just one thing, they have a collection of them. It must be something in the nature of man to collect stuff. I'm guilty myself. I collect old mining company stock certificates. I collect old bottle openers and a certain type of book. I have a small collection of antique radios and a half dozen or so old cameras.

All of my collections are small potatoes compared to what I had just discovered. This discovery wiped away any possibility of recrimination from the bride for any and all collections I have now or might undertake in the future.

I had run smack dab into a collection of.................................windmills........................yes, windmills!



This is serious collecting, folks. This is not something you just happen into. Not something you see at the flea market and think will look cute in the flower bed. This is premeditated, over the top collecting!

In the picture to the left, you can see ten full size, working, antique windmills. This is only about half the collection. I didn't have a wide angle lens wide enough to get them all in one picture.

I can imagine this person's spouse just shuddering every time they hear the car pull up to the house, wondering if there's a new addition.

Snug in my new sense of security from snide remarks and rolling eyes regarding any "questionable" conglomeration of things I might desire to accumulate in the future we pushed on to Colorado Springs and our planned highlight of the day.

If you will remember, in February I was in Colorado Springs and found a great old sign for the Navajo Hogan road house. I said at the time I wanted to come back and eat there. Well this was the planned highlight of our drive in the country.

As we got closer I could just feel the history, the kitsch, the ambiance waiting for us! This weird hunting was hungry business and in addition to a craving for kitsch, I was craving food.

Pulling into the parking lot, I could tell that this was not going to be quite what I thought! The parking lot was full of motorcycles and they weren't Honda's. They were Harleys. With my best nonchalant look I turned to the bride and said, "Stick with me, hon, and I'll take you to all the finest places".

When we got inside most of the bikers were wearing jackets that said "Sons of Silence" on the back.....Did they know I just came from Ramah? Were they tailing me? I tried to look innocent but I really wanted to take a picture of them too. The bride said I was crazy. If they saw me taking their picture they'd probably kill me, she said....."What are you gonna do then?" she said. I said I'd tell them I'd trade my woman for a picture! That seemed to calm her right down.

Using all the cunning and stealth I learned as an Intelligence Officer 30 years ago, I pretended to be taking a picture of the unusual ceiling and surreptitiously recorded them in full color!

My day was complete. We ate a mediocre hamburger, watched the bikers parade in and out and then left to return to the world of normal. The world of bland. The world of ho hum. My weekly fix of weird had been fulfilled. This would have to do until next weekend.

As we got to the parking lot, I saw one more bit of weird. I can't explain this and don't know which one of the bikers arrived on which. This is a bit of an Alice in Wonderland finish for a great weekend!


Thanks for visiting.