2017 Haunted Hayride

Me:  Guess what I found for us to do this weekend?
Mark: It isn't that Frozen Dead guy thing is it?
Me: Mmmmm not exactly.
Mark: *the look*

So what was the "not exactly" thing that we did?  I got us tickets on a Haunted Hayride in Golden, Colorado.  See...I didn't lie.  The people were all dead and we were just looking for their spirits.  That's right.  We were on a ghost hunting expedition; complete with EMF ghost meters and diving rods!

Full disclosure: Mark and I don't even believe in all that hooey.  So to get us started....
 

 We were on a hay wagon that took us to old mining camps, places where they hung cattle rustlers, murderers and thieves, an old mortuary and an abandoned mine shaft where at least 10 miners were lost when the shaft they were working in collapsed.

The places that they took us to gave us NO EMF activity.

But Mark's diving rods were pretty active around the miners camp.

But when we got over by where the mine shaft was my EMF reader went a little nuts.

After we were through looking for the ghosts we went walked to the Capital Bar and Grille where we were met by a medium.  He apparently is a nationally re known celebrity that has worked for the FBI and other law enforcement people and has helped with several unsolved cases.  He spent about an hour doing readings for the people in tour group who were interested in talking with their family/friends from the "beyond". Mark and I just watched.  Personally, I think he just can read people and he gets them to tell him stuff that he can work off of.  But those that participated seemed happy with the results so more power to them.

All-in-all it was a fun evening doing silly stuff that we normally wouldn't have done so I say this one was a win!

2017 Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch

Me:  It's October!
Mark: It's been October for a while.
Me: We need to go to a Corn Maze and a pumpkin patch!
Mark: We need to just not.
Me: Aw man....
Mark: I'll get the keys...*grins*

Yes, my man is a pretty good sport.  I'm always dragging him from one thing to another and for the most part he is happy to go.  However I have been bugging him to go to a corn maze since we moved up here and he finally said okay.

The pumpkin patch was just a big ol' generic pumpkin patch.  It was fun seeing the little kiddos going around and picking out their perfect pumpkin though.  After walking through the pumpkins we made our way to the corn maze.

This was a pretty big corn maze.  I think it was on about 10-12 acres of land and it had 10 checkpoints to help you figure out were you were.

After about an hour and a half we made our way out of the maze and found a nice cold lemonade at one of the food carts to quench our thirst.  Believe it or not it was about 85 degrees out that day and it gets hot out in the corn patch!

2017 Leaf Peeping

Me: Wanna go leaf peeping this weekend?
Mark:  Yup.
Me: Wanna go leaf peeping on a train?
Mark: Yup.
Me: Wanna...
Mark: Yup.
Me: *silence*
Mark: Gotcha!!!

And off we went on our 3rd-Annual Leaf Peeping adventure.  However, this year Mark didn't have to watch the curvy road and watch out for the millions of other car-loads of people out leaf peeping too.  Earlier this summer we had seen that there was an old train that ran from Leadville to the Climax mine that offered rides for leaf peeping in the fall so I booked our trip early so that we didn't miss getting seats on the train.

Leadville Train Station

When we got to Leadville it was snowing.  Yup...snowing (September 17).  And the clouds were down on the mountains and we initially thought that the trip was going to be a bust.  You see there needs to be some sunshine for the colors to really pop and with the cloud cover it was looking a little bleak.

Fortunately after we got about half-way through the train ride the clouds lifted and we had sunshine that was popping through every so often and the rest of the trip was photo-worthy at almost every turn.  Enjoy!

2017 Mount Falcon Park Hike

Chauche and I are using these last few days of nice weather to get some hikes in before the weather turns.  Mount Falcon has a lookout tower, great views of Denver, Red Rocks, and of course the mountains.  It also has the ruins of a mansion and the ruins of what was supposed to be the "Summer White House of the West". (more on that later)

 The views were spectacular

Red Rocks

Downtown Denver in the distance

 

View of Downtown Denver from the Lookout tower

The lookout tower

The park was given to Jefferson County, CO by a man named John Walker .  He was a magazine publisher that made a bunch of money and he bought the land that  Mount Falcon is on and then built a home in 1909 atop Mt. Falcon. Soon after it was completed the house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.  He rebuilt it and it was struck the second time by lightening so he gave up on having a home on that location in 1918. 

Ruins of the mansion that burned down

Ruins of the Mansion that burned down

The views from this spot are spectacular

Soon after he gave up on his own home he attempted to build a summer White House for the President around 1911 on another site on Mount Falcon. When his attempts to raise money failed, the project was abandoned but the cornerstone is still there. 

2017 Old Thresher Days

So what brought us to this event?  Mark.  Yup you read that right.  HE wanted to go here because there was an old fashioned saw mill that is still being used plus antique threshing machines and farm equipment.  

We had to make a "relatively long" car trip to get to Yuma.  Those of you who live in West Texas know that everything is measured, not in miles, but in hours.  Most stuff around here is easy to get to...usually less than a two hour drive.  Yuma, on the other hand, was about a 3 hour trip but with no pretty scenery to pass the time.  Not only that but it was about 15 degree warmer than Denver that day and about 30 degrees warmer than the mountains.  So between the heat and the scenery there had to be a pretty good reason for us to go there, doncha think? Yuma is out on the eastern plains of Colorado- almost to the Nebraska border- and it is surrounded by miles and miles of flat farmland. 

 

Yuma and the eastern side of Colorado has a lot of wheat farming so naturally there is a ton of wheat harvesting. Mark was interested in the machinery and I was interested in seeing the area that my Dad worked in for a few summers when he was in his early teens.  His uncle owned a wheat farm in Julesburg, CO and he used a lot of the same kind of equipment that they had on display.  And yes the equipment is technically antique but I'm not insinuating that he is too *cough*.

Here's how the threshers work:

 

Here's how the saw mill works:

 

And one of the best parts of the trip?  Check out this sweet deal of a meal!