So, Why Did We Go There?

The Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, we headed east from Pueblo.  Why?  All serious RV travelers know how important it is to make reservations early, I mean way ahead of time, for holiday weekends.  I did that, I thought.  

In January I made reservations for our time in Cherry Creek and Chatfield State Parks in the Denver area and in St.Vrain State Park north toward Fort Collins where we stay each summer when we visit Colorado. My only mistake was making a reservation for Memorial Day (May 31) but not for the weekend days leading up to that holiday.  Ooops!  We looked at the map and made a reservation at the KOA in Limon for  Thursday through Sunday.

The scenery driving east to Limon included green, I mean really green, fields and barns.  Parts of Colorado have had more rain so far this year than all of last year.  The fields are really green and beautiful in the eastern part of the state.

We saw wind generators on many of the hills.

Many towns have water tanks.  We saw this one at Ramah.

Look at this large brick grain silo.

We had some great views of the snow capped front range of the Rockies.

The water tower in Kiowa.  One day we drove west from Limon through Elbert County and into Douglas County were we visited our former home of Castle Rock.  John was born and raised there and we owned and operated the family funeral home there from 1975 to 1984.

Another great photo of the Rockies as we drove through the forested parts of Elbert and eastern Douglas Counties.

This was one view of the rapid growth in the Castle Rock area since we left there.  None of these homes had been built in 1984 when we left.

This is the rock outcropping that gives Castle Rock it’s name.

The last time we were in Castle Rock was to tour the funeral home and our house before the new owners tore it down.  We realize how the new facility they are building will greatly improve the facilities and the service to the public.  But it was still sad to see the 100+ year old building gone.

Back in Limon, we were parked very near this great scene of grain elevators.

Below are two of the murals we saw during a walk in downtown Limon.  

We enjoyed our Memorial Day weekend in Limon and the excellent KOA campground where we stayed.  My mistake led to a good weekend in an area we haven’t spent much time in before. 

Oh, the Memories

After we visited the Route 66 Museum in Elk City, we walked next door to the Elk City Museum. The community has constructed a small village with a school, early home, opera house and livery stable so visitors can see what life was like in the last century. Some of the exhibits dealt with the early part of the 1900s, before John and I were born. There was a shoe shop in one corner of the stable. I wondered if the Singer sewing machine had been used to repair harnesses and bridles or if  that was just an available space to display these items.

The interior of the reconstructed Rock Bluff School was interesting.

Both of us remember school desks that looked like this.

In the old house we saw toys like this 1940s era bomb pedal car and these Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. My grandmother made me smaller versions of these dolls.

Boy did these two items bring back memories.  I had a hairdryer in the early 1960s just like this.  It was THE way to dry my hair, once I put in the curlers.  Once when the heat went off in the dorm my first year of college, I got under the bed covers and blew warm air with the hairdryer hose to warm me up.

The restored house had been used as a funeral parlor at one time. This boxed suit (it opens down the back) and embalming machine brought back memories for John

A local family, the Beutler Brothers, was famous on the rodeo circuit both for the rodeo stock they raised and because one of the brothers was a really top rodeo cowboy.

There was also a display of finely tooled leather items, including suitcases, made by George Pulley, a bull rider in the 1930s and 40s.





While at the museum, we also saw this early mail truck.

There were two sets of Burma Shave signs posted in the yard. I couldn't get a whole set in one photo, but one said "Trains Don't Wander All Over the Map Because No One Sits in the Engineer's Lap." The other read, "Guys Whose Eyes Are in Their Backs Get Halos Crossing Railroad Tracks."

Wouldn't those signs be more fun along are interstate highways than motel and restaurant ads?