Across Kansas to Old Colorado City, Colorado

August 31 - September 1, 2019:

It starts to rain about 7 AM and really comes down hard, even mixed with some hail.  I get ice for the cooler, then a quick McDonalds visit to use the Wifi, get rid of garbage, download recent photos and then I’m on the road.  The rain thankfully stops after a few miles and it’s smooth sailing on I-70 across the farm fields of Kansas.

I make a few stops in towns close to I-70, I love going into these towns which are sometimes very cool that normal travelers just blow by on their way to their big name destinations.

Every town in Kansas has at least one of these

And one of these

And one of these

And one of these:  This is an especially nice Opera House with what appears to be
another van dweller parked in front

Next was the town of Colby, Kansas;

Big wide streets so you could turn the wagon around

Nice architecture remains in downtown Colby

Yup, another masonic temple with brother George Washington

Toquilas Grill has nice graphics

Mural on the side of building

I then stopped in Woodland, Kansas to visit the Museum of the High Plains.  The museum was small but had one very special item, a reproduction of the first helicopter that was patented in the US. It was built by two railroad  machinists who  came up with an interesting flying machine concept powered by two gasoline engines.  They started a company and sold shares to get funding to build a prototype.  They had two test flights, both getting off the ground but ending in crashes. They soon gave up with I suspect investors chasing them out of town. A full size replica was built in 1976 and is on display, you can push a button and the rotor blades will rotate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodland,_Kansas

Impressive that they were able to raise 30,000 for this in 1909

The basic concept seems similar to modern helicopters

Holsman car which was bought by prominent Woodland doctor Wilber Sapp in 1910.  It
became known as the "Green Rambler" and was a fixture around town for years.

Another innovative but short lived car company

The museum had a collection of local farm equipment

I then went in the direction of the massive grain elevators next to the railroad tracks and came to the very impressive wide brick main street.  Several early 1900's buildings remain, but the gem is the old telephone building, it has to be the most beautiful telephone building in the world ?

This old gas station is also beautifully restored

Big wide streets again

The Telephone building

Beautiful details

Building across the street had nice murals

An upstairs window mural

Nearby I stumble upon a hot rod shop that has a stellar collection of old faded and rusted classic iron in its parking lot.  I only show about half of the lot and can only imagine the good stuff inside the shop.

On the way out of town I spot a massive steel easel with an equally massive painting on it.  It is called the "Big Easel" and is reputed to be the worlds largest painting of a painting at 80 feet tall.  The painting is a reproduction of "Three sunflowers in a vase" by Vincent Van Gogh.  It is a most impressive Goodland rotary club project.

This town has some cool people doing things

It's set in a grassy park with a long brick sidewalk; don't those skies add to the scene 

I believe much of this was donated by local contractors

I finally cross the border into Colorado, it was a long haul across Kansas !  At Limon, Colorado, I turn onto route 24.  I am well behind schedule at this point and tell myself, NO More Stops !

I arrive in the evening at Colorado City which was the original territorial capital of Colorado.  It was once a separate town but is now a suburb of Colorado Springs.  I'm thinking this will be a better place to spend the night.  It has many great restaurants, interesting stores, a good coffee house and a nice bar with live music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Colorado_City


I see live music advertised at Mother Muff's Kitchen and Spirits and head there only to find that the band has canceled.  I'm sitting there with a beer when a most friendly and enthusiastic woman sits next to me and starts a lively conversation.  She starts showing me about a hundred photos on her phone of the hot air ballon liftoff which had occurred earlier in the morning.  I had seen advertisements for this event and was a little bummed out for missing it as I thought it was a one day event.  I was telling her how good her photos were and how sorry I was to miss this event when she told me it was also on Sunday and Monday.  As a result, I ended up at the Memorial Park on Sunday morning for day 2 of the balloon lift off.  The weather was perfect and it super good as you were free to wander around the field in between and around the balloons as they were being inflated and taking flight.

First you unravel the envelope on this huge tarp and attach to the gondola

This was one of the first balloons to ascend

Getting a little congested 

Lots of action in every direction

Many balloons ascending at the same time barely clearing each other

There were several more complex shapes

Another great one 

Lifting off, also note dinosaur balloon aloft in the background

Another weird shape

The skies are now full of them

After wards I explore Colorado Springs a while although it wasn’t so interesting as I have been there several times.  I had an uplifting occurrence on the street, this seems be happening more these days.  A young black man who looked a little ragged looks at me, greets me and asks about my camera.  I'm thinking right away, Oh here we go again, eventually it will come around to can you spare a few dollars ?  We are having a nice conversation in which he shows me many cameras that he is carrying in his old bag.  None of them are expensive, but he tells me how each one is good for a specific thing and he seems to really know the workings of them.  He tells me is using them do do some form of art work. I am actually very impressed and he never did ask for money.  It was invigorating to talk to someone like this who was making do with poor equipment, but knew how work it and was motivated by his art, made my day.

I wandered away from the downtown area to the train depot area and found this mural

Also this one

The depot appears to be under restoration

Also the iron horse tracks is a nice wild horse mural

This area is a habitat for the homeless area and I had a
chuckle reading this on a concrete wall near the tracks

At 3 PM I went to Jack Quinn's Irish Pub and restaurant for the weekly Irish jam session, which is truly a great one.  I came out and had a senior moment, kind of scary, I knew the van was only a block away, but had no idea which direction. I ended up walking about a mile around every side street until I found the correct one where it was parked.   

In the evening at 6 PM I returned to Memorial Park for the evening Balloon Glow where they inflate the balloons, get then upright and then in unison ignite the burners which illuminates the balloon's envelop.  It’s big fun being so close to the action, actually feeling the heat from the burners, seeing the flames. It is a popular event, must have been thousands of people there, there is no admission charge except a $5 parking fee at the park.  If you park in the surrounding neighborhoods and walk in its totally free.

These burners put out a serious flame

You can feel the heat from afar

It's a real family event 

The glow is now getting at the peak

Waves of upheld phones in the air

It got real interesting when they started to deflate the balloons and they started collapsing on top of spectators, but somehow everyone seems to escape unharmed although I
would think that the insurance people would have a problem with this ?

I return to  Colorado City where I park on the street for the night.  As I am parking, I notice that a group of homeless vagabond looking people are assembled very close.  This seems this is a popular spot, too popular so I move a block away.

I am planning on a great breakfast in the morning across the street to properly start the day before hitting the road. 

I’m aiming for Gallup, New Mexico, but I may stop short depending on my progress.