It was a fantastic drive to Colorado Springs, there was no wind fighting us, and the skies were blue.
We made our way to our next stopover, a little disappointing though. The sites are close together, small in the main area, and a lot of permanent residents. Our intentions are to make the best of our stay.
Our main purpose for running through Colorado was to visit our youngest son, who lives in Aurora, outside of Denver.
Our first full day we decided to hit the Olympic and Paralympic Museum.
Each visitor can personalize their badge so that when they near an interactive station, it will recognize them.
The way the museum is setup, visitors ride an elevator to the second floor, and spiral their way through the exhibits, to the first floor. As we got out of the elevator we were presented with torches from all the Olympics, beginning with 1936, up to 2020.
Here is where interaction begins. There are screens that allow visitors to choose a particular torch, then scroll though pages that speak of that Olympic games. Walking the torches, it is obvious that there were no Olympics during the war years.
In the early days of Olympic competition, it was only men who participated. By 1900 women only made up 1.9% of the competitors. In 2016, the percentage had only risen to 43%. One of the shining moments was Alice Coachman, a high jumper, in 1948. She fought her way from a small segregated town in Georgia, to the gold medal platform in London.
Spiraling down to the next level we entered the really interactive zone with running sprints against Olympians, slalom skiing, downhill skeleton, and archery. I was the guinea pig for some of the interaction.
Archery allows visitors three shots at different ranges, and I scored 29 out of 30 points.
I didn't get an opportunity to do the downhill slalom, so went over to the skeleton exhibit.
For those not familiar with skeleton, it is a single person sledding down an ice channel used by bobsledders.
For those not familiar with skeleton, it is a single person sledding down an ice channel used by bobsledders.
The next interactive area we moved to was a Paralympic sport called, goalball. The game is for visually impaired competitors. Quick reaction time is important when it comes to stopping a three pound ball. The offensive team tosses the ball, containing bells, and the entire defensive team act as goalies to stop the ball. Remember, these folk are doing this without seeing the ball.
Have you ever wondered how the pusher on a bobsled can accomplish his mission, this is how...
These are Thomas Becker's shoes from when he competed in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. The front portion of the shoe has hundreds of tiny spikes.
1961 was a tragic year for the American figure skating team. In 1961 the 18 person figure skating team was on their way to the World Championships when their plane crashed, killing everyone onboard. Americans had been dominate for quite awhile. The men's team had won gold since 1948, and the women's team won gold in 1956, and 1960. Today there is still a memorial fund in their honor.
Before spiraling down to the gift shop, visitors walk past medals from past Olympics.
The last stop is a video of past Olympians talking about what drove them to be so successful in their careers.
The last stop is a video of past Olympians talking about what drove them to be so successful in their careers.
I left a lot out of this visit, to encourage you folks to journey to Colorado Springs and see the museum for yourself.
After lunch we headed to a ghost town... inside a building. The building was part of the old train maintenance facility.
These buildings were rescued, to create an old western town of the late 1800s.
The first stop on the tour was the general store.
The next two buildings were the jail and the livery stable. Walking down the street we find the print shop, which in this case, was also the newspaper office.
It is a DC electric generator that could supply power to equipment. This particular dynamo supplied electricity for Boston city lights, and later it supplied power for the Colorado Springs street cars.
This is all I am going to show you now, we will be back later this week.
This was the home for a family of four. The large rectangle openings were doors to the second floor. When the wall collapsed, so did the second floor. 
You are looking at a storage bin that would have stored their "trinity" of corn, beans, and squash. The inside of the bin was lined with leaves and tassels to protect the grains from moisture. The top and front openings would have been sealed shut to protect from rodents and weevils.
This area is where they would have stored their refuse, and possibly pinned up their turkeys. Turkeys were domesticated, the only other domesticated animal they had was the dog.
This next structure, believe it or not, was a two-story, two family home. These walls were made of stones that was not quarried, but found in the canyons nearby. The picture is taken from the T-shaped doorway, which was fairly uncommon in these dwellings. It is thought that the T-shaped door was to aid elderly, or persons with some type of burden, the ability to enter easily. As for the second floor, the floor timbers would have been supported by a ledge around the inside of the walls.
It is not known what circular towers like this were used for, but it is theorized that they may have been watchtowers. The watch would enter from the door at the base, and climb up timbers that would have been inserted into the holes in the wall.
This is another example of a home from the Great Pueblo period. The rooms were larger, the windows were more than peep holes, and the door and windows had casements. This was a three-story structure, however, the floor timbers for the second and third floors are missing, and believed to have been removed by vandals and treasure hunters... for the purpose of firewood.
This was a nine family structure. Unfortunately vandals and careless explorers tore out the second and third story floors. The rooms were small by todays standards, averaging only 6'x8', 5 1/2' high. Think of yourself in a jail cell with a low ceiling.
it is hard to see in the photos, but shoes were selling for $1.00 a pair back then. There was the usual items available from the mercantile store there also.
For you seamstresses out there, here is your new model sewing machine, made around 1854...
The town also had a barber shop, doctors office, and a homestead. Continuing on the tour, they had one of Edison's first dynamos. Some of you may be asking... what is a dynamo?
At the end of the tour there is a short video on the birth of Colorado Springs and the surrounding area.
Leaving the Ghost Town we headed to the Garden of the Gods. We only did a recon drive-thru, but it was a neat place.
From the recon mission we returned home to plot our next excursion.
Our next excursion was to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. These cliff dwellings were moved from a different location for preservation, vandals were destroying and looting the site.
Let's talk a little cultural history of Pueblo dwelling people. The biggest, and most important fact was that it was based on matrilineal. What that meant was that descent was determined through the woman, not the man. That meant that she was the property owner, not her husband, which was totally different from the European culture.
The Pueblo community knew about waste storage...
FUN FACT: The dead were usually buried outside of the cave during warm weather seasons, when dirt was easier to dig in. Winter however proved a problem with digging in the frozen ground. The Pueblo cliff dwellers solved their burial issues of the dead by burying them in the refuse piles. The body was first surrounded by perfectly drive materials, such as dust, ashes, corn cobs, tassels, and turkey droppings. As long as the body stays dry, it would mummify.
Moving within the cliff, we come to the kiva.
Lets take a tour around the kiva. This is an example of a sacred kiva, used only by men. At the bottom of the second photo, you might notice a small black hole just under the fire pit. This little hole was called Sipapu, which provided an entrance for the spirit world. The larger rectangle above the fire pit is the vent to let smoke out of the kiva. The small rock between the fire pit and vent, deflected fresh air. The square pilasters supported the roof timbers. The spaces between the pilasters are shelves to store utensils and other items. Those small black rectangles are niches, used to display sacred items. If you happen to wonder how the men got inside, they climbed down through the roof.
This next structure, believe it or not, was a two-story, two family home. These walls were made of stones that was not quarried, but found in the canyons nearby. The picture is taken from the T-shaped doorway, which was fairly uncommon in these dwellings. It is thought that the T-shaped door was to aid elderly, or persons with some type of burden, the ability to enter easily. As for the second floor, the floor timbers would have been supported by a ledge around the inside of the walls.
From the cliff dwelling we headed into the museum. On the way to the museum, we passed a "Horno", Spanish for bee-hive oven.
This particular oven was made by Chief Little Deer in 1920. Due to weather and deterioration, it was re-vamped in 1999, making it usable again. the ovens are capable of baking 30 one pound loaves at a time.
The museum itself is small, and can be toured in less than an hour.
There is good history about the culture of Native American Indians.
The bottom piece of pottery is the lower half of a person.
I have always wondered what they meant by pottery being done in polychrome... dah... multi-color. Before leaving the larger portion of the small museum, there is an exhibit of Mimbres artwork. Sorry about the glare.
The Mimbres people were a part of the Mongollon Culture, which was a group of Indians that lived in the Southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona. They developed a refined and sophisticated hand molded pottery, delicately adorned with black and white designs. Sadly the Mimbres people cannot be traced to a time after 1100AD. Their artwork still has us intrigued today.
From the museum visitors can take a walk over to the gift shop and find anything they want associated with Colorado. We discovered that there was more museum exhibits throughout the multi-level gift shop. 
One good thing about a culture that doesn't change with the wind, others can learn about the past culture. This photo explained to me how the Native American Indians made their pottery. Their bowls were made with 1/3 temper, and 2/3 clay. Temper was either sand, or ground up old pottery.
This day outing was fun and informative. Tomorrow we travel to Aurora to visit our youngest son, Tyler.
It's tomorrow, and here we are in Aurora, CO. Before we go to dinner with Tyler, we hit the Aurora History Museum. The museum is broken down into three sections, Lowery AFB, Mexican heritage to the area, and general historic exhibits.
Carol and I started with the Lowery AFB exhibit. The base started out as an Army Air Corp base.
The first unpaved runway made Lowery an operational base in April, 1938. Despite the new air strip, the Army Air Corp conducted its flight operations from the Denver airport, now known as Stapleton International Airport. Later in 1938 $3.5 million was funded to begin the construction of an 850 man barracks, 10 officers' quarters, 20 noncommissioned officers' quarters, a permanent hanger, new runways, and utility improvements. the photo shows the construction of hanger #1. The hanger, and the first paved runway were completed in 1939.
The 850 man barracks was dubbed Buckingham Palace. Originally designed to house 850 personnel, it saw as many as 3,000 during the peak of the war.
Before the U.S. entered WWII, they had completed paving several more runways, and adding hanger #2 (lower right portion of photo).
Besides the 880 acres for Lowery field, the Army secured another 960 acres for an auxiliary airfield several miles east of Lowery.
The base saw many uses in it's day, photography school, armament school, temporary Air Force Academy, and part of the ICBM program.
By the 60's the base had seen better days for flying. The base had seen aircraft ranging from biplanes to high altitude bombers. With the halt of Lowery air traffic in 1960, the planes were moved over the the now named Buckley Air National Guard Base. Yes, the Air Force turned the base over to the Air national Guard. All flying ended in 1966.
Between 1978 and 1990 Lowery saw many threats for closure, and finally it came about in 1994, 57 years of service. After re-development there are several buildings still operational.
Hanger #2 has become a museum, and building 880 serves as an intergenerational center. Building 880 was suppose to be a temporary building, designed to last 5 to 7 years, but has lasted over 80 years.
Our next stop was to the Mexican-American heritage section.
Before entering the Mexican heritage section, there is this beautiful collection of masks, on loan from Larry Maynard. Masks have been known to have been used in the Mexican culture as far back as 3,000BC.
Our next stop was to the Mexican-American heritage section.
They begin the journey with a timeline of how the Mexican culture came to be. On the other wall was an exhibit of the craftsmanship.
This calendar stone consists of a 365-day calendar, and a 260-day ritual calendar, commonly used by pre-Columbian people.
Something near and dear to my heart, is food. On that note we will look at some of the staples for the early Mexican family. it wasn't until about 8,000 years ago when Mexican culture began eating maize (corn). In the beginning, they crushed the kernels, and drank the sweet juice. Later they learned how to toast corn over a fire, grind it, and heat it into a thick gruel, known today as atole. Time marched on, and they turned it into a corn dough, called masa. Now we are talking something we all know, the masa was hand pressed into tortillas, and cooked over a fire. That masa can be found in many forms today, tamales, tostadas, sopes, and gorditas.
It wasn't until the Spaniards came over that new items came about on the menu. The Spanish introduced items like pork, cheese, rice, garlic, onion, animal fats, and wheat. Thanks to these new ingredients, items like mole, pozole, even tacos.
Who doesn't like some of these items, pan dulce, or
This whisk is called a molinillo, used in the preparation of hot beverages, like my favorite... hot chocolate. If you zoom in on the top of the molinillo, you may notice the black squares, they are actually openings to allow the liquid to flow through the molinillo.
How about some more of their artwork...
For those of us that have, or do live in areas that have a Mexican culture, you will be familiar with the Day of the Dead celebrations. It is said that people would paint their faces. or wear masks to scare the dead away after the festivities. Often the skulls were made of sugar, representing departed love ones.
Thanks to tourism, folk art from the Oaxaca region of Mexico grew in popularity in the 20th century. Take a look..
HAND CARVED FIGURINES
STRING ART
A beautiful tree painting, and look at the detail for the leaves.
The last section of the museum is about the history and growth of Aurora/Denver area.
People wanting to own a home in the Aurora area in the early 60's could buy a Nevin Homes in the Aurora Hills housing track. The first 1,250 homes built were from the Nevin Homes' Presidential Line, 20 models named after presidents. The cost of the homes ranged from $17,000.00 to $23,000.00. The Presidential Line homes were considered Medallion homes because the had an electric range and three other electric appliances, electric wiring, and modern electric lights. A golf course was later added to the neighborhood, touted as a benefit to the community.
Moving to an earlier era, I present...
This trolley car was part of the Denver trolley system in the early 1900s, but it did not look like this when the museum got its hands on it.
Let's step back a bit in time to 1950. The Denver Tramway Company was trying to empty its storage facility, and raise money, so they sold off a lot of the trolley cars and trailers... for $50.00 each. Dr. Edwin Perrott purchased three of them.
He moved car #610 to his farm, and built a farmhouse around it, making the car his master bedroom. Now we jump to 2006, when his son William Perrott called the police reporting trespassing and vandalism on the family property. The officer that responded to the call realized the historical relevance of the car and told his supervisor. His supervisor contacted the museum, who reached out to Mr. Perrott. A deal was struck between the two parties, the museum could have the car if they demolished the house around it too.
As you might notice, it doesn't look like it does today. It took 16 volunteers, 4,500 hours of restoration. They needed to locate replacement materials, as well as remove 100-years of paint and grime. That meant cleaning every brass screw to its original luster. Preserving the ceiling of the trolley car required the use of ground corn cobs to remove material. They also needed to replace the three panels that the doctor cut out for doors. After all that work, here is what the visitor sees...
They did a fantastic job restoring this piece of Denver/Aurora history.
From here we stopped at Costco before having dinner with Tyler, a nice time was had by all.
Back to Colorado Springs.
I promised you I would return to Garden of the Gods, so here we go.
Yes, I am trying to ensure the rock stays balanced. How about a little history about this rock. It starts back in 1890, when a young man named Curt Goerke took pictures of tourists around the rock, it cost each tourist $ .25. Mr. Goerke saw the opportunity to make money, bought the land around the rock, fenced it off, and charged $ .25 to view it closer. In 1932 the city of Colorado Springs bought the property, made it public... and to the cheers of the crowd... tore down the wooden fence.
So we are now going to show you some of the formations in the central park area... here we go.
Besides all the beautiful rock formations, there was wildlife to see as well.
This bird was everywhere, it is the Black Billed Magpie. The day we walked the formations was a nice day, just a bit windy, so we didn't see other wildlife, but this is apparently what else can be seen.
SIGNS EVERYWHERE
This bird was everywhere, it is the Black Billed Magpie. The day we walked the formations was a nice day, just a bit windy, so we didn't see other wildlife, but this is apparently what else can be seen.
GOOSE NESTING ATOP THE ROCK FORMATION
This was a fantastic day trip before we prepared for our departure to Wyoming. There was still a lot more formations to see... another time.
Remember, everyday and every new adventure is a gift from God... so enjoy them. See you in Wyoming.
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