Hanging out with our mutual friend Tommy last winter in Scottsdale, it dawned on me that he might enjoy a week here in Breckenridge Colorado with Robin and I. Brother Jeff said that's no problem and he can fly easily so long as someone delivers him to the airport gate and receives him at the other end. Game on.
Although Jeff made it sound so easy, I was a wreck. Worried about getting a flat on the drive to the airport, or his flight getting diverted and the like. Southwest PHX to DIA right on time. Here's the first passenger to disembark. Tommy actually liked saying he was "special needs" and the first boarding it gets him.
Now Robin and I get wiped out when we arrive to 9600 ft so I was very carefully about Tommy. Lots of water and air. Water is always good, but I'm not so sure he felt the altitude. Had him on Judge Madden's oxygen machine that the good judge had left us in his will. Not sure it mattered. Brother Todd said Tommy is in the same shape he was 30 years ago. I believe it. Robin had to travel to Milwaukee during the early part of his stay so you won't see her here. After that it was "Boys night out" as Tommy would say.
Basically, I appreciate Tommy cuz he's always up for the things I like to do. Like TRAINS. Leadville has an historic railroad as many old mining towns around here do, so we headed out on that adventure. Tommy always asks if there will be a bathroom on our boondoggles, then answers his own question saying..."Old people do these things. Of course there will be bathrooms." Thanks Tommy.
Nice thumb Tim.
The train runs north up Ten Mile (the name of valley) for a few hours and back but it has a bar so what's 4 hours? Above is one of the many "Prospect Holes" along the line from back in the day. Guys would just start digging crater size holes to decide if anything is there to warrant a real mining operation. The "day" started in 1858 when gold was discovered and ran for 100 years. Gold ran out early but silver and other minerals lasted some time. I'm fascinated by this mining history. Still some significant mining going on for molybdenum. In the day they threw "moly" away but in WWI some spy asked why our shells bounced off the hun's tanks so easily. It was moly in the steel making process. Climax Mine on today's route is the largest stash in the world.
Here's the Ten Mile Valley that we climbed. Very pretty.
Old steam engines need water. In fact the interstate going west in AZ is kind of zig zaggy as it followed the old road and the old road followed the train lines and they went from water hole to water hole. Here we are at the turnaround point on the trip. Got a tour of the engine too. I've never seen a train where they let you on the engine, and I've done some trains.
Can't explain some signage in CO. Tommy does have a eye for wildlife...which he loves. He spotted two mule deer on the route, and a fox in town the next day.
I popped for the train's photographer pic onboard. Got two prints, one for each of us. Tommy told me to give his to daughter Laura. I think he's kind of smitten with her.
On the drive back to Breckenridge we crossed back over the Continental Divide which is always fun. Tommy is afraid of heights so I didn't mention where we were.
Back home we'd pass the time doing thinks like feeding the trout in town. You've see these dispensers at the zoo I'm sure.
But this goes a lot further.
When you dump a lot in the water it looks like a piranha feeding frenzy.
So I mentioned how Tommy will do the things I've wanted to do. Like the Country Boy Mine tour. Yep, a real gold mine from the day.
The second pic is Tommy on the Cleveland Air Hammer. AKA "The widow maker". He really was running it. Tool was meant for hammering a hole into the rock for a TNT stick. Got its nickname as no operator lived for more than 3 years due to the poor air quality it caused. Panning for gold there had a very short attention span. Me too.
You can see these mine carts all over town as planters and the like. Miners would use to haul ore out of the tunnel when filled. Incidentally hard rock mining starts with the afore mentioned prospecting hole, then a shaft is dug down, then an adit moving horizontally when a vein is hit, and eventually that horizontal movement pops out of the mountain side and becomes know as a tunnel. The carts had no brakes and were kept on the tracks by throwing some chain over the rails. A tunnel's tracks were made with a slight decline for ease of getting the load out. The expression "pulling my chain" comes from miners having to go #2, not wanting to do it where they labor, so they'd jump in one of these carts nearby and relieve themselves. Others would "pull the chain" and the guy was in for a fast ride out of the tunnel with his pants down.
Then we filled time with a lot of little things like BINGO at the Elks Lodge...
Trout fishing...
Cooking. Here we're bingeing on Bonanza (or maybe The Rifleman) all afternoon while rubbing up a beer-can chicken. Note Tommy's concentration to the show.
...and hiking. The second pic is the remains of a dredge boat used in mining. Made by Bucyrus Erie in Milwaukee in fact. There were seven operating in the valley at one time. Dredge mining accounts for all the piles of rocks (tailings) you see around. Three boat remains like this are still up various creeks.
One day we drove south to Fairplay CO, AKA South Park. Yep that one. The cartoon with naughty kids. He said the school house was from Little House on the Prairie and I didn't argue. He wasn't happy with being in the picture with the saloon nude though. A real gentleman Laura.
Dreading his staff having to take him to a haircut when he got home, I gave him the "Kojack" look as he requested. "Who loves you baby?"
Knowing Tommy likes ghosts and Robin and I wanting to stay on the good side of the one we have here, we went to the local cemetery for a tour one evening and later sowed columbine seeds (Robin showed me how to harvest in the fall) on where we believe "Uncle John" is buried. Good for a year.
I was going camping after Tommy left, and with a high level of bear activity this fall, I bought some bear spray for that trip. Never did that before but a police report this summer of a fatality from a camper's encounter with a bear said "there was evidence of consumption." That's all it took for me. Here Tommy shows me how to operate the weapon.
And finally on the day we went back to DIA for his flight, he was obsessed about maybe missing it so we left 4 hours early. Spent time at the Denver History Moo-seum. It has world famous dioramas. I'd really suggest it when in town.
So I'll close with some Tommy-isums from his visit.
- I had told Tommy to drink plenty of water and every time I would say "we're getting into the mountains" he would say "guess I better drink some water."
-Watching "The Shining" he mentions "I've seen this a lot."
-He calls Hop-Sing from Bonanza Potsi from Happy Days.
-An ad for a drag queen movie has him comment "That movie is for girls."
-"Bosnia, I'm sick of that state in Africa."
Looking forward to next year already.
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