Colorado Fall Color Speeder Excursion

It's amazing how things come together some times. Having just moved to Colorado Springs, Jamie was able to join the Motorcar Operators West and the Rocky Mountain Division associates of NARCOA on a joint excursion over a number of railroads in Colorado.

We spent the first two days running on the Leadville Colorado and Southern.
All the way up to the Climax Mine. All the pics are here.

Our next trip was out of Alamosa to Antonito on the San Luis & Rio Grande.
Antonito is the northern terminus for the Combres and Toltec.
All the pics are here.

Alamosa to La Veta on the SL&RG.
All the pics are here.

Alamosa to Center via the SL&RG and the San Luis Central.
Then on to Monte Vista and return to Alamosa.
All the pics are here.

The Creede branch of the Denver & Rio Grande runs
from South Fork to the Wason wye just short of the Creede city limits.
All the pics are here.

Garden of the Gods

And "Uncle" Jon happened to be in town, too! Someone took some great pics (Jamie wasn't there, that's another story that will appear soon). Probably just as well he wasn't there as he'd be having a safety conniption. This activity was followed up with bowling at the lanes next to Bass Pro near us and an evening movie in the theatre room.

Labor Day Weekend in Creede

This trip was an All Play. All the Compound dwellers headed to Creede, CO for the Labor Day Weekend. Rebecca joined us, too! Below are some representative photos. All 400 photos are here.

Zach whipped up a feast and a half at his campsite.

Creede Balloon Festival (we went two mornings for launch).

This model is in the Creede Chamber of Commerce office
where we got our Creede Salsa Festival tickets/ballots.

Just across the street from the Underground Mining Museum.

The fire department, active and historical, was in the hillside.

At Kip's Grill, the "Septembers End" was playing and
included a rousing rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus."

Rebecca got recruited by Tommyknocker Tavern to work their Salsa booth.

The  Creede Hotel is for sale. Hmmmmm.

Our morning #2 at the Creede Balloon Festival.

Ready for the Creede Gravity Derby.

What?! Fina's being drafted to participate
in the 11-17-year-old category. As a Pusher.
They're watching a video from the top of the course.

When carts got just too slow, folks would jump up off the curb
and lend assistance. Including Matt.

And AJ.

On your mark, get set...

That's Fina giving the far cart its start.

Zach pushed for his Mom.

Second place!

After burgers at Freemon's General Store (you gotta
experience it), we fished a nearby pond. And the group
of older gents we found there welcomed us in, kids and all.

We closed the weekend with songs around the campfire.

Papa's Office

Check out the new office. And the total commute is a set of stairs, 30-60 seconds depending on whether I'm carrying coffee or not. Thanks to Nana for doing 99% of the unboxing and setting up.

Smaller clock (PRR) is California time.

My Dad got the red Lionel train on the left for his 1st birthday.

Note that all the doors have locomotive builders' plates on them.

N-scale collection, plus some HO trolleys.
The lower left car is a Z-scale Beda's Biergarten boxcar from their
Guiness World Record event.

The HO collection includes equipment from the Alvin All-Star Railroad and
the Zenith train (at top) my Mom got when she worked for them, and others.

Oh yeah, and don't forget the mineral collection.

Creede, CO

Zach invited us to share his Creede world with us this weekend, and "the Boys" were able to go. (The whole fam damily is going Labor Day weekend.) We met up with Zach Friday evening at Tommyknocker Tavern where he works. Damn fine sandwiches, by the way. We did the town Saturday morning then met up with Zach, including fishing at his other place of employment, The Antlers Lodge and Restaurant. The highlight was his campsite where the boys did some more fishing, we had a surf and turf camp-cooked meal (Zach caught a trout we all sampled and the main meal was rib-eyes with a fine coffee-garlic rub with asparagus veggies), the boys learned a few camping skills, and various libations and cigars ruled the night.

All the pics are here.

Getting Matt's fishing license and some gear.

At the Creede Museum.

View from the road to the Last Chance Mine. That's Creede down there.

A little rockhounding.

Jamie has lots of model livestock rail cars,
but doesn't remember ever seeing the full-size variety before.

You never know what might break out with theatre folk around.