Month: August 2017

Victor, Colorado is called the City of Goldmines and reached its peak population in 1900.  The town is 10,000 feet above sea level on the southwest side of Pikes Peak. The town has an authentic old-town atmosphere with a lack of stoplights, chain stores or traffic (so says their website).

We wandered through a combination antique/odd collectible store that looked as if it had been there since 1900. We then walked around town and looked at boarded-up shops with fascinating architecture.

Roger and Sally had a lunch place in mind, so we just needed a snack – which the “grocery” store had …. well, not a big choice, but a big enough choice. While we were in the store, a storm brewed outside and before we knew it, the bright, blue sky turned gray and hail began bouncing off of everywhere.

Ok.

So I wasn’t anywhere where the eclipse was sensational, still we (at work) headed outside to see what we could see.

Not much. Besides not living in a sensational area, the sky was uncooperatively cloudy.

However I did what I could do.

Kind of reminds me of an egg except the yoke and white are reversed.

So that obviously wasn’t working, so Cheryl held the “official eclipse glasses and I held my camera up to the glasses and this is what we got. No, it didn’t get that dark, just looked dark through the glasses.

Guess I’ll have to just enjoy NASA’s pictures.

A break from the Colorado trip.

Our family sometimes listened to Chuck Schaden on Saturday afternoons when he would dig out old radio shows and for four hours or so entertain Chicagoland on the program called Those Were the Days. He did this from the 70s right up until 2009. Now someone else hosts it ( haven’t heard it since it changed hosts and stations). Often listening, we would hear them advertise the Museum of Broadcast Communications a place dedicated “to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain through our archives, public programs, screenings, exhibits, publications and online access to our resources.”

And then there was my father’s obsession with Fibber McGee and Molly. He collected their shows and I think had tapes/cds of every single episode and often would listen to them. So I’m familiar with Fibber McGee and his closet and of the commercials for Johnson Wax Glo-coat – a product of S.C. Johnson. Being that we lived in Racine, I’ve been to the Johnson complex numerous times

So when I was talking to Ashley Alston, a friend from work, and discovered she enjoyed old-time mysteries, we decided to go.

Part of the museum is the Radio Hall of Fame. If you ever listen to the radio, at least some of the names will be familiar to you. Even Dave Ramsey is featured.

One of the people honored is Bob Collins and what WGN listener doesn’t remember the afternoon (2000) he was killed in a plane crash and his friends back at the station had to deliver the news.

The most interesting aspect of the museum is some of the exhibits they have: Meet the Press set, the security plan for the Nixon/Kennedy debates, an original Fibber McGee and Molly script and an original I Love Lucy script. They also have the gongs for the NBC sign-off.

One of the most fun things Ashley and I did, was each take a part in the I Love Lucy script and read a couple pages.

Is it worth the visit?  Yes, we enjoyed ourselves, but it is rather expensive ($12.00 for two floors of exhibits and a gift shop that is only open on Saturdays), so probably not a place you’d want to go more than once or twice.

Kid Factor: Even though there are some displays of kid shows such a Bozo, I’m not sure they would keep a child’s interest. Most of the unique displays would be of shows before a child’s time.

Oh – we didn’t see this being done, but you can call and make an appointment and they set you up as if Larry King is interviewing you. He asks the questions and then they edit the show so it looks as if you were really there answering. Sounds fun.

We ate at some fun places while in Colorado – one of those places being Rudy’s Bar-B-Q which is actually a restaurant based in Texas.

The place is rated #9 of 1,900 restaurants in Colorado Springs (on one scale I saw), so that’s a good recommendation.

This is one of those barbecue places where you order at the counter and then sit at long tables  and wait for your food … which was very barbequey and very good.

So for the new “food” part – Cream Soda is not really new – cream soda has always been my favorite flavor of soda and even when I go weeks without drinking soda (because of my iced tea obsession), I will break down and drink a cream soda.

But this cream soda was a mixture between turquoise and sky blue which made it pretty.  I never thought of soda as pretty before, but this soda was. And good.

My dinner.

Ok – isn’t this soda pretty?

I have no idea who these people are … but they look like they’re enjoying their meal.

The second morning we were in Colorado Springs, we headed up a mountain to Goldfield, an abandoned … gold mine. The town was built in 1895 and within five years, 3500 people lived there. Actually people still live there – one description I read said the population is 49 which I thought was kind of funny since the forty-niners is a nickname for the men who rushed to find gold in California (not Colorado), so it has nothing to do with each other … still I thought it was funny that 49 people are left in this gold-mining town and yes, I know this is a run-on sentence.

Anyhow, the trail through the abandoned mine was beautiful!  Unfortunately, it is all to be destroyed because the guess is that there is still gold in them that hills and with new technology, they can find it. So I’m glad we got to go when we did.

Here’s a staggering statistic – $30,000,000 worth of gold came out of the mine by 1911.

Alas … we found no gold, but we did get some beautiful pictures.

The first time I visited the Olympic Training Center, we saw many athletes training which is what you do at a training center. We saw some medalists in the wrestling gym and synchronized swimmers and some hopeful volleyball players. After we took our tour (last time) we walked around and Jacob ran up and down the center walk.

This time the security was tight. If you happened to get left out of one of the buildings (because you were last in line), you had to go back to the beginning and wait for another tour. After the tour was over, you could only walk around a very precise area.

And this time there was just one athlete actually doing athletic stuff. Kind of disappointing. When I asked, I was told it was because it was Saturday afternoon, a couple teams were at tournaments and I guess other athletes trained at night.

But still the description of the technology equipment was interesting. For instance, when a team was going Honduras, they were able to control the climate of the room they practiced in to mimic the climate of Central America. They can also tell if a runner is putting more weight on his right or left leg, by how it hits the track.

The center sits on 35, acres and has 242 dorm rooms. Three hundred thousand meals are served there each year. I can’t remember exactly how much it costs for an athlete to stay there, but I think it is $50,000 a year,  Most of the cost is paid by sponsors. An athlete can live there for several years as long as they are active in their sport.

So, yes, I would recommend a visit – but maybe a weekday instead of a weekend … and know that there’s a limit to what you can see and do.

If you’re wondering why Colorado Springs is called Colorado Springs, it’s because of Manitou Springs.

Melting snow and rain from Pikes Peak and surrounding mountains soak into the rocks as the water flows downward.

Which means that there are eight springs in Manitou Springs – which supposedly have great healing powers and each one tasting different from the others.

People line up to get their drinking water from the springs because of its health benefits.

But why? Does it taste any different from any other water?

The town with its narrow hilly streets were packed on this Saturday afternoon. So Roger stopped the car, gave me his empty Pepsi bottle and I ran back to the Wheeler Spring.

A lady was there chatting with a group of people, obviously a tour guide who was finishing up what I can only imagine was a tour of the springs (which I had read were available). I waited patiently and was finally able to get some of the water in the bottle.

Interestingly, it has a touch of carbonation in it – but I didn’t really like it. Nor did Barb.

So I will give it a 2 out of 10 for the water’s uniqueness and I haven’t gotten sick since I tasted it, but I’m not sure I would credit the spring.