Business road trip is over. I've gotta tell you, without my GPS I would have been toast more than once. Technology is amazing and it's also amazing how quickly you become used to...no, dependent upon some of these new gadgets.
I left Chicagoland yesterday, late afternoon on another packed 777. It was an oversold flight so loading took longer than usual and after they had filled every seat it was discovered that someone in business class had a "broken" seat. The captain came on the intercom and advised that we would have to delay departure until they could either..(1) get someone to say the seat was airworthy. (2) fix it if they couldn't get someone to give it a pass. (3) empty the seat...which meant the guy that paid more to sit in business class would have to leave the aircraft since all the other seats had already been filled.
Put yourself in the seat....ha! that's a play on words...of the guy in the business class seat that was thinking that he was going to have a nice flight home to Denver on a Friday evening and then was faced with being "Bumped", thrown off the flight because his seat was broken!
The good ending was that they fixed the seat and we took off...an hour late but as the saying goes, "Better late than never."
Business-wise the trip was a success. I bombed on my first attempt to find a Muffler Man, but I did manage to get a glimpse of the Joliet "Jackhammer" Muffler Man. Not only did I have to contend with cold windy weather but downtown Joliet made me a bit nervous. The ballpark was closed, the neighborhood was...a "hood", I walked fast, took pictures fast and exited as quickly as possible.
The picture at the top of the post was one of the few signs that I happened upon during the week. I was really hoping for more classic signs but for whatever reason I didn't seem to find the groove this week for sniffing out signs.
This coming week is Thanksgiving week and it's been decided that the first annual Turkey Trot Trip will be to Taos, NM. Unfortunately, The Bride will not be with us so I'll be batching it. I am enchanted with the NM area so I'm really looking forward to this trip. I would have a lot more fun if The Bride were along too, but she's got some serious stuff to attend to in North Carolina. I'll be with her in spirit.......
Thanks for visiting.
The road trip is over and I'm back to the workaday world but oh, what a road trip it was. I don't think there was any way it could have turned out bad because both Guitar and I were ever so ready for anything that would take us on the road.
The stars aligned just right on this past Thursday and Guitar and I were able to sneak out of town at about 3 pm headed south on Interstate 25. Our goal was to make it to Lathrop State Park just outside of Walsenburg, CO. Not much to do on the trip down other than to explore Walsenburg after dark before we went to the park.
Walsenburg is a town of only about 4000 so you might think that there wouldn't be much to occupy us, but then you wouldn't understand that it doesn't take much to occupy Guitar and myself. "After dark", is the perfect time to hunt old neon signs and it's surprising what you can find in a small town. As a matter of fact some of our best finds come from small towns and this trip was to reinforce that. We found a number of great neon signs but the one I liked the most is the one to the left...Aly's Fireside Cafe. Just love the martini glass!
After about an hour of searching and finding three or four "keepers" we headed to Lathrop State Park, fixed a dinner of home made vegetable soup...expertly microwaved by Guitar, and settled in for the night. We were quite a ways from the lights of Walsenburg and had a wonderful night sky to look at. I spotted two shooting stars before we retired for the night.
We were up early Friday morning to find out that we had an incredible view of the Spanish Peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. The Indians called these two mountains, Wahatoya, which means "breasts of the world" and you can
certainly see why in the picture above. A little more exploration of the park and we headed south for Trinidad, about 50 miles to the south.....as the crow flies...
Our trip to Trinidad was a lot more than 50 miles, as we were determined to explore everything away from the interstate that we could. In doing this we found the old highway that served as the main north-south route long before the interstate. The picture at the top of this post shows a section of this road. It looks to be an early 1930's concrete road that is just barely two lanes wide. The width wasn't a problem as we did not see another car on this road for quite a number of miles.
The tractor in the picture above, was just one of a bunch of old cars, trucks and tractors sitting in a field behind a ranch house on this old road. The tractor was a Fordson model F which was produced between 1918 and 1928. A great find!
A couple more miles down the road was Ludlow, CO, the site of the Ludlow coal massacre, a very sorrowful event in which over twenty women and children were killed when the Colorado National Guard attacked a camp of strikers and their families. There's not a lot there today except a monument erected by the United Mine Workers of America, b
ut that was enough for Guitar and I to contemplate and agree that we're both glad that this country has progressed in the area of labor relations.
We made it to Trinidad at about noon and proceeded to be surprised by this little jewel of a town. Not a big town by any means. Population about 7,000 tops but with a wonderfully intact and vibrant downtown area. It seems as if preservation and restoration have hit this corner of Colorado and it's a great thing to see.
We spent a couple of hours exploring and taking pictures of old signs....we actually did it twice because after we set up camp and had some dinner we went back into Trinidad to catch some of the signs when they were lit up. The bad news was that the museum we wanted to see the most, the A.R. Mitchell Museum was closed. Looking at the bright side, this gives us a reason to return to this great little town.
Saturday morning we were once again, up early, ready to explore historical sites and whatever
oddities came our way. Before we left the camp however we had a visit from a herd of deer that leisurely browsed their way past the camper....and by the way, this campground wasn't too shabby either. A great view of Fisher's Peak from Trinidad Lake State Park and we had the park almost all to ourselves!
A disappointment was that we were unable to find the grave site of Uncle Dick Wooten. Oh, we found the graveyard easy enough. The Catholic Cemetery of Trinidad is still in operation...and that was the problem. There were a LOT of "deceased" in this place and there was no one around to help us find Uncle Dick's resting place, even though we knew the plot number. We marked that down as another reason to return to Trinidad.
Perhaps the highlight of the trip to me was exploring Morley, CO. It took a little "doin'" to get there but the trouble was worth it. This old coal mining ghost town breathed it's last gasp in the 1950's and the coal company tore down most of the buildings but the foundations remain. The centerpiece of the town is the remains of the old Catholic church on the hill above the town. It is very much photographed, painted and otherwise recorded and Guitar and I were not about to break the custom. I don't know how many shots I took but as far as I'm concerned they all turned out great!
I think we spent a couple of hours looking around and trying to imagine the people, the families, the babies, the marriages and the funerals that once made this a real place, just like the towns that you and I live in.
I had wanted to find and drive the old Raton Pass road from this point down into Raton, NM but we found out that the road now belongs to a development company and is private...closed to the public. Even Uncle Dick Wooton's ranch is closed off to the public. There was nothing Guitar and I could do, so we got back on I-25 and drove down into Raton for our last night on the road.
The official records say that Raton has about the same population as Trinidad but it sure seemed smaller to me. Smaller or not, it had it's own gems of neon signs. Guitar and I decided to stay at a commercial KOA campground this last night because he was having a problem with the water pump on the camper...and because the KOA location gave us easy access to the town.
We occupied the last of this day in hunting down some great old signs and browsing in a few antique shops.
One of the shops was owned and operated by a sprightly 88 year old woman who entertained us with stories of the history of the old store, the background of some of her wares and countless other things. I think we spent well over an hour in that one store. The woman told us that she was a graduate of Johns Hopkins, had been a nurse in WW II, came ashore shortly after D Day and was in Holland during Battle of the Bulge!
Amazingly enough, after we left this store we went into a western clothing store and spoke with the proprietor of that store....who was an army veteran of WW II who served in the Pacific.....The Greatest Generation is alive and well in Raton, New Mexico!
Sunday morning came way too soon. It's hard to believe that three days went by so quick. Guitar and I had about as much fun as you can, and still be legal. Three days of poking around back roads, looking at the obscure. Three days of non-homogenized America. Three days of road trip. It would have been nice to just keep heading south to Las Vegas, NM and over to Canyon de Chelly. Oh well, that freedom will have to wait for another 628 days.
As Guitar and I were getting ready to leave I spotted what I am going to call a good omen. The god of Road Trip sent a sign to us that we will soon be as free as birds....or balloons. Free to drift wherever we choose.....
Thanks for visiting.
The forecast it for the temperatures to be at or above 100 degrees today so if I was to do anything outside at all it had to be in the early
morning. After dropping The Emmer off at work I called Guitar, who is also a "morning" person.
We decided to take a ride and see if we could discover some more old neon signs to add to our collection. Early morning is a great time to do this sort of thing as many of the great old signs are in not so great old areas of town and the fewer people on the street, the better. By 7:30 am we were driving down one of the old commercial "drags" of the Denver Metro area. We did indeed
bag a few new signs.
When you're out seeking weird or kitsch, you never know what you'll find...and a lot of the time it just find
s you. So it was this morning. Both of us spotted the sign for the "Hanger Bar" which wasn't that great but the flag next to it made a pretty good picture so I quickly pulled into the parking lot and when I looked into the lot, lo and behold..."Guitar!, Look at that car???"
Guitar was as intrigued as I was and as we got up close to it we found it to be a Crosley. Now, I knew Crosley as a maker of radios, air conditioners and all kinds of electronic equipment but cars...? As we walked around it marveling, the owner came out of the back of the bar. He'd been cleaning up from last night.
He said it was a 1950 Crosley that he's owned since he was 15 years old. To be charitable that had to be at LEAST 45-50 years ago. Anyway he told us all about the car. Six gallon gas tank...but that would take you 300 miles. He said it would do 70 mph but it was a scary thing!
Guitar and I were patting ourselves on the back for discovering a cool thing when this guy says, "If you think that's neat, you ought to see the the B-17 inside the bar." "B-17??" we say almost together...."Yeah, there's one made of beer cans inside the bar." he says.
The Weird Gods are smiling on us today!!!
Sure enough, inside the bar was a very large model of a WWII B-17 done in beer cans. Some of the cans in the "sculpture" looked to be collector items on their own. Seems like when Stapleton was the airport in Denver a lot of the airport folks made this bar a regular stop. A lot of the airport folks were WWII veterans so there was a lot of Air Force memorabilia in the bar.
Stapleton closed down as the Denver airport over ten years ago...and it looked like the glory days of this bar were over long before that. But kitsch knows no age. In fact it's tough to be new and have any kind of real kitsch....kinda like wine.
By this time Guitar and I had used up the morning. It was getting hot and we both decided it was a good day to find a cool room in the house and chill so we ended our adventure for this day.
Thanks for visiting.
June 14 - Yes, it was a pleasant night. Earlier last evening a bunch of cars pulled into the park around Bivouac and I thought my Joe Btfsplk was kicking in again. After looking at the cars again I noticed that they were all Vws. Seems like the local VW club was doing an evening drive and pulled in the park to chat. There were about 5 Beetles, one dune buggy and one van. Pretty cool. Since I was “roughing” it I turned in when it got dark at about 9:00 pm and consequently I was up at light…about 5:00 am. That was alright with me as I wanted to cruise the downtown area to see if there were any neat buildings and with Bivouac behind me, earlier is better.
Sheridan has a very nice downtown area. Not large but neat and clean with several notable buildings including the Mint Bar. When I saw the sign I kicked myself for not looking downtown last night so I could get a shot of the sign with the lights on. As I stood there at 6:20 am the “opening” crew walked up to the front door. Some sweet talk by me (ah yes, His-Self still has IT!) and they turned the sign lights on just so I could take a picture….not as good as at night but you get the picture...see above
After a couple of pictures it was on the road south to Buffalo, WY. The guide book says it’s a pretty neat downtown area….they are right. Central to the downtown area is the Occidental Hotel. This is a restored old hotel that Teddy Roosevelt stayed in at one time. The hotel has won the honor of "Best Hotel in the West" from True West magazine.
I was there at about 8 am and there was hardly anyone on the streets. I wandered into the hotel and looked at the lobby, bar, barber shop and restaurant. Breakfast was being served on the outside patio so I sat down and had a cup of coffee which they gave me for free. My kind of place!
After spending about an hour downtown it was time to head south…gotta make it home sometime tomorrow so I can be with Guitar when he gets his “caboy” hat!
The guide book said there is a city park in Wheatland, WY that offers free overnight camping with electric and water. I’m getting into this “free” stuff. I didn’t mention it the other day but my one night in the KOA at Devil’s Tower cost $40!!!. I could almost stay in a motel for that. Anyway, free is good.
I arrived in Wheatland and found the park at about 1:30 pm, set up Bivouac and had some lunch. Today’s training schedule included a session of taking an afternoon nap in Bivouac……which I completed in fine style. The campground has a pay for use internet hotspot which I signed up for ($9.95) since I wasn’t paying any camping fees. It’s proving to be quite a hassle as the reception fluctuates quite a bit. If this doesn’t get posted on the 14th you’ll know why.
This is my last night on the road and this trip has surpassed my wildest expectations. I suppose tomorrow night I’ll start Rvers post partum blues but I have to keep reminding myself that this is practice for the big event. When that time arrives I will be able to go when and for however long I like, if I can get it byThe Bride. I expect, however, that after about a month of retirement she'll be the one suggesting I go somewhere!
Thanks for visiting.
June 10 - This morning bright and early, I took The Emmer to work at the hospital. On the way home I stopped at Safeway for a few last minute items and a Starbucks coffee. I had intended to eat a leisurely breakfast, load up the trailer and leave sometime in mid-morning but “road fever” kicked in and to aggravate things, it was a beautiful sunny June morning! I just couldn’t sit there when Wyoming was calling! By 7:30 I had buttoned up Bivouac, kissed The Bride goodbye and I was headed north. I you ever want to drive through the Denver area without stress try Sunday morning at 7:30. Hardly any cars, crisp air and beautiful view of the front range of the Rockies!
My goal this day was Torrington, WY,220 miles. About half of that on Interstate 25 to Cheyenne and then north and east across the high plains to Torrington. I haven’t been too far north of Denver for a couple of years and I was struck at how much development had occurred in that area. The development didn’t really disappear until about twenty miles from the Wyoming border and it’s only about 10 miles from the border into Cheyenne
. I suspect in another 20 to 30 years it will be pretty solid development all the way from Denver to Cheyenne.
When you start seeing more antelope than cars or people, you know you’re getting to Wyoming! A short stop at the Wyoming Welcome Center and I was off the interstate and on Hwy 85 towards Meridian, Hawk Springs and Torrington. A word to the wise. If you ever take this road, make SURE you have enough gas to go 77 miles because there ain’t nothing’ between Cheyenne and Torrington. Meridian and Hawk Springs are indeed towns but there’s no law that says towns have to have any stores or gas stations….and they don’t! For a while I was wondering if I was going to have to use the 2 gallon gas can I have for the generator.
Luck was with me however and I cruised into the metropolis of Torrington at about 11:30. I say metropolis because in this part of Wyoming, 5,800 people all in one place is a big deal! The city of Torrington provides free - “donations accepted” - camping at their city park. Electricity is available along with picnic tables and grills. I didn’t care about the tables or the grill because with electricity my dinner was promised to the microwave. Electricity was also important because the temperature steadily rose during the day to the point that it was 90 ° by the time I got to the park. Bivouac came equipped with an air conditioner but I had never really used it before so I was hoping everything would work ok…and it did.
After setting up Bivouac I toured the town to see what kind of weirdness I could discover in small town Wyoming. Torrington is the campus for the Eastern Wyoming State University. Being a "university town" I thought my chances of stumbling upon weird was pretty good. Sure enough I found a Jetson's flying saucer.....your guess is as good as mine!
In the late afternoon I heard a bunch of commotion around the trailer and saw a bunch of cars pulling in around the trailer?? Turns out that the park also serves as a training ground for the volunteer fire department and the members were practicing various routines for an upcoming competition among area departments…..So not only did I get a free, “donations accepted” camp spot with electricity, but I also got several hours of entertainment watching them go thru their paces. The only thing I’m missing is internet connection so this post will have to wait till I find some place to connect…..
Thanks for visiting.
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 pict
ure! 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.
Today, The Bride, The Emmer and I took a ride to Colorado Springs to hunt for vintage signs and eat lunch. I had read about a restaurant near the airport that included an old Air Force KC 97 tanker as part of the "ambiance" and you could eat inside the plane. That sounded right up my alley.
All I can say is the "experience" of eating in an old 1950's plane FAR exceeded the quality of the food. Oh well, I really hadn't expected much so I wasn't disapointed. Here's a picture of The Emmer standing in front of the dining room.
After refueling our stomachs we were off on a vintage sign hunt....I was anyway. The Emmer had her iPod on and was oblivious to everything and The Bride was "humoring" me. I'm not saying The Bride didn't want to be doing this but I'm not sure it was on her list of top 10 things to do today.The picture at the top of the page is one of the first signs we spotted. In addition to a new camera purchase lately, I have also gotten Corel Paint Shop P
ro XI. It's a great program at a very affordable price. I would estimate it has about 85% of the functionality of Adobe Photo Shop and costs, with the current rebates, about $50. A great deal. If you're into digital photography, check this program out. But, I digress, the photo at the top of the page was "artsyfied", yes "artsyfied", (That's a well known term commonly used in Muffler Man circles.) using this program. I really like t
he way it turned out and was pretty simple to do. Here' the original photo. It's pretty interesting all by itself.
Probably the best find of the day is below. The Navajo Hogan. How cool is that? It's an eatery as well. I will have to assemble the circle and come down one afternoon so we can all eat...and be photographed here.
All in all it was a great weekend. Had a friends fix, read some history that I have been meaning to do, found some great signs and even had time to do a little Olympic air pistol shooting. I'm in town all the week so I suspect there won't be too much to post about. You'd better check a few times during the week though, never can tell when something just demands to be released from my brain to the blog.
Thanks for visiting!
