Our Family Trip to Colorado (Part 2)

We returned from Colorado last Monday, but the daily demands of life after a 12-day vacation prevented me from giving an update regarding our trip until now. On Wednesday (July 28), we left Estes Park and drove to Cripple Creek, which is now primarily a gambling town. I was personally pleased to see at least one or two casinos out of business. We had planned two activities for that afternoon and evening in Cripple Creek. First, we toured the Mollie Kathleen gold mine; at least the chemical engineer found that interesting. Then, after dinner in the car (prepared by Sarah), we went to the Butte Theater for a production of Gunslinger: The Legend of Billy the Kid. This was a small theater, with about 50 in the audience. The musical was written in the early 1900s. The cast did a good job, and we enjoyed the experience of an Old West melodrama. The show was followed by a "summer olio," which was hilarious, the highlight of the day. We would definitely recommend seeing this show.

On Thursday, we drove to the top of Pike's Peak. We encountered sleet (3 mm white balls of ice) just short of the peak, which resulted in an hour delay when they temporarily closed the road. That afternoon, we intended to visit the Garden of the Gods, but rain resulted in the postponement of that outing.

On Friday, we visited Focus on the Family's soda shoppe and bookstore. (Unfortunately, KYDS Radio was closed.) We then tried again to visit Garden of the Gods, with partial success. A torrential downpour terminated that visit prematurely. In the evening, we enjoyed a Chuckwagon Dinner at the Flying W Ranch.

Our last day before heading home was Saturday. We visited the Olympic Training Center, taking a brief but interesting tour and visiting the gift shop. We also visited the "living history" site at Rock Ledge Ranch.

On Sunday, we visited a good friend in Louisville, dropped off a distance runner at CSU in Fort Collins for the Jim Ryun Running Camp, and headed east.