Colorado Trip Post #1

On August 12, 2013, we set off for a trip to Lake City, Colorado. Growing up, we always came to Lake City in the summer time and last year was the first year Alan and I got to introduce our boys to Lake City, something we hope to make a habit of. A summer is not complete without a trip to the mountains. 

As with all of my trip documentations, this is an epic blog project, so these posts will likely be spread out a bit, as I work on them. And remember this blog is as much for chronicling our adventures as it is for reader entertainment, so please excuse my occasional attention to detail. This first one covers our trip from our home in Georgetown to Gunnison, CO, for which we took two days. We left mid morning on Monday and worked our way north then west, our destination for the evening was Dumas, Texas, just north of Amarillo. 

Family photo. Our VW Passat wagon maxed out.

The drive went smooth. The boys were energetic, yet controlled... most of the time. Adam had to let out the occasional temper-scream just to maintain his homeostasis, but other than that they held together well. We decided to split the car ride up a bit more this trip, which meant we didn't have to leave the house at five o'clock in the morning and less time in the car each day.

Across the plains of north Texas, we encountered a beautiful thunderstorm.

Adam and RooRoo. Adam was a reliable source of entertainment.

Tuesday morning we got an early start and were on the road with visions of mountains dancing in our heads... or at least mine. I still get a butterfly-like tummy when we get close to the mountains. I remember as a child, the moment a snow-cap first came into view, my dad would turn on "Rocky Mountain High," and start singing wildly. I didn't subject my family to John Denver, but I was thinking about it.

We took a different route this year, turning in Walsenburg, CO on highway 69 that would take us north toward Westcliffe. It was a much more scenic drive and wound through the mountains, as opposed to looking at them in the distance while having to drive through Pueblo, CO, which is worth skipping. Here's a couple of photos Alan took along the highway 69 drive...

After stopping in Salida for Subway, which we seem to do every time, we got into Gunnison at around 2:00pm. To make best use of our time, we decided to check out the Gunnison Pioneer Museum first. We've passed by the steam train that sits out front on all of our trips up there, and never stopped before. But now we have two train-car-tractor crazy little boys who love to run, explore, and touch everything - so based on what I'd read, we thought they would love it. It's worth mentioning that Alan has lots of beautiful photos of this place and other stops on our trip that will hopefully be processed soon. I'll share those when they come around.

The museum is a six acre plot across highway 50 from Western State Colorado University. There are twenty-some odd buildings stuffed full of historic things. It was overwhelming. The first thing to see though, was an easy decision... the retired Denver and Rio Grande West steam locomotive. It was retired in 1954 and after a tour circuit, it landed on the museum grounds.  

The boys could climb on it, look around and pull the rope and ring the bell... which they took great advantage of.

A little video documentation of the train...

I'm pretty sure they were somewhere in train heaven.

There were several other rail cars with the engine, a snow plow, a couple of box cars and a really neat caboose. We carefully inspected each one.

"What to touch first?" One of the box cars had a bunch of tools inside.

A view of some of the other buildings and a rail-tractor display they were currently working on.

And a beautiful water tower, which against the crisp blue sky and somewhat unbelievably green grass, it made for a pretty picture.

The boys were no longer able to contain their excitement. They were bouncing and running everywhere. After a long car ride they had pent up energy, plus the stimulation overload that came as a result of all of the neat stuff to look at and climb on and the pretty grass to run through. The perfect green grass alone would have made them lose their minds and control of their feet. 

My man taking a picture of the water tower.

The caboose had been largely untouched. It was pretty neat... sleeping quarters, small kitchen, desk, and storage.

One of the buildings housed an impressive collection of World War 1, 2, Korean and Vietnam memorabilia. It had all manner of weapons, tools, uniforms, and literature. It apparently was all donated by one man in the early nineties.

Scary thought.

One of the buildings was a former post office from the town of Almont, Colorado, halfway between Gunnison and Crested Butte. The lock boxes and service window were still operational. The boys had fun rearranging the old mail and pretending to have deliveries.

The Doyleville School building was used from 1919 to 1962 in the tiny town of Doyleville, just east of Gunnison. It had a full classroom setup and a little library complete with historic encyclopedias. Aside from the strange turquoise painted walls, it was perfect, just missing the people.

A model student.

The back corner of the property was littered with farm implements and tractors made for snowy conditions. They were not the type you could climb on so we just looked and passed by toward the next building. 

Which was an unexpectedly enormous classic car collection.... and we love "car shows."

A Packard... you just don't see these much anymore.

They liked the old fuel truck.

An antique washing machine.

This one is for Grandma... a room full of antique sewing machines.

Creepy-cool barn loft that looked as though it was still in use.

The truck with the teeth paint job was on skids for snow.

There was a huge warehouse building that housed all things related to telecommunications, including these snazzy old phone booths... that would have been a lot neater without the cheesy superman outfit inside.

I'm pretty sure he thought we were locking him in there.

By this point we were overwhelmed. The boys were actually tiring out, just a little, and we had to skip a few buildings. The above one didn't make the cut, however it was nice to photograph and I read about it in the handout, it was called the "Paragon School" and was built for a total of $1,900, in 1905. It was a one teacher school for grades one through eight. It was used for 42 years and moved to the museum grounds in 1970. It probably would have been neat inside, but if it was anything like the perfectly untouched 1920's house (not pictured) we briefly went into, it was the stuff of scary dreams... with smells, antique photos, old dolls, etc. I find stuff like that more scary than interesting, plus Alan was getting claustrophobic, so we vacated pretty fast.

We couldn't leave without ringing the train bell again. When we got back up to the entrance/exit house, the elderly volunteers looked at us and said, "We heard that bell ringing, quite a bit." 

We made a brief stop off at the Alpine Hotel, our home for the night, to unload the cooler and unpack our things. The boys enjoy hotel rooms...

It was a little early for dinner, so we decided to hit up the amazing playground at Legion Park, in the middle of town, just in case the boys had even an ounce of remaining energy they needed to burn.  

The main structure was three stories tall.

It was fun to swing with Alan while we watched the boys run around. Playground supervising is always sweeter in the mountains. Cooler, cleaner air, pretty trees, and knowing we were only a day away from Lake City. Although it is a little ways from the "actual" mountains, I've always liked Gunnison, as it seems like a town in which we could feasibly live (versus a tiny mountain town). It is a mid-sized town comprised of some college kids, some outdoor enthusiasts, a little touristy, and the rest locals - who go for the mountain version of Seattle grunge with a hint of hippie. 

The next day we planned to explore some of the roads leading off of highway 149, on the way to Lake City. Our cabin would not be ready until the afternoon, so we had some time to kill before we could "move in." Stay tuned...