05-29-2018 Bob and I toured a gold mine called the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Opened in 1891, it operated until the 1960's when gold prices were low. It was a great tour and Bob and I learned a lot!

		We left Woodland Park at a elevation of 8,400 feet. On our way to Cripple Creek, we went over Tenderfoot Pass at an elevation of 10,200 feet!

		The sign for Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine. Note the ore bucket suspended on the left. The original miner's were lowered into the mine on these buckets, which were about four feet tall. Their tools were placed inside the bucket, then a miner stood on either side of the bucket rim holding onto the cable. Obviously, OSHA wasn't around yet!

This is the tower where the elevator car lowers tourists down to the mine.

		Here is a close view of the car that transports people to the mine. It is about the size of a large phone booth. For those of you who don't know what a phone booth is, it is about four feet square. Six people were loaded into the car, all pressed together. I had a hard time finding a good place for my camera! It took about two minutes to reach the mine.

Underground, the older miners drilled holes with a long spike and a sledge hammer. One miner would sit ont he ground holding the long spike on his shoulder against the wall where they were drilling a hole. His partner would hit the end of the spike with a sledge hammer. I have to wonder how often the spike holder got hit in the head! They were given three candles each for light for the shift.

		After we saw how the old miners drilled holes, our guide showed us some newer equipment. This is an air powered drill. It is very loud. Many people think the miners lost their hearing because of blasting, but it was actually from equipment like these drills. They also suffered from lung disease caused by the silica dust. Someone finally developed a drill bit through which water was pumped which cut down on the dust and cooled the bit.

After holes were drilled, they were packed with explosives. This is a display of older explosives that were used.

		This is a display of newer explosives that were used. Don Miner, this picture is for you.

Once holes were drilled, dynamite or the newer explosives were packed into the holes. Each explosive was rigged with a different length of fuse so the initial blasts opened expansion space in preparation for the subsequent more powerful blasts. The miners, who were standing some distance away from the explosions, counted each blast. If they didn't hear all the expected number of blasts, they knew they had a misfire and had to carefully extract the explosive so it didn't go off unexpectedly and injure someone.

		All this blasting followed the veins of gold ore, and the resulting tunnels curved all around, splitting when the veins split and went in different directions.

This is a photo of one of the walls of a tunnel. I expected that the goldish brown was gold. However, I was wrong. This is copper. The vein of gold doesn't look like gold at all. It looks like a bluish gray layer in the rock.

On the tour, we were each given a piece of the rock that contains gold. The rock is processed at 2000 degrees which breaks down the rock and melts the gold. The resulting gold is then gathered and re-melted and formed into ingots.

Since the miners spent an entire shift underground, well, enough said. Rest rooms were just a small hollow in the rock, with old explosive boxes used to contain waste.

		Mine supervisors rode a bike which ran on the rails to check on the various crews working in the mine. Fortunately for the miners, the bikes made a lot of noise giving them time to get back to work before the arrival of the boss.

		Just up the road from the Molllie Kathleen mine, is a pit gold mine. The truck in this picture is huge, although it looks very small in this photo. It's tires are probably eight-to-ten feet high. This photo was taken with a zoom lense.

		Here is the same truck zoomed out, to give you an idea of the size of the pit. The dot that the arrow is pointing at is that big truck. Our tour guide told us that they are taking one million dollars worth of gold out of this mine every day.

05-18-2018 I started work this week and Bob started on Saturday. There is a lot to learn! We have met quite a few fellow campers and everyone is quite nice.

Yesterday, we drove to St. Elmo, Colorado. St. Elmo is a ghost town founded in 1880 during the gold rush. It is about three hours from us. Some of the buildings are being restored by a historical society. Many buildings are still privately owned. It was a beautiful trip through the mountains. Here are some pictures.

Pat Hurley's Saloon
St. Elmo's Town Hall
After a fire burned down many buildings in town, a fire wall was erected. You can see it here on the side of this building.
There was a mill built to process the ore from the silver and gold mines. These are the ruins of the mill.
A peek inside one of the buildings.	i
There is a community of chipmunks living there. Visitors bring nuts and sunflower seeds for them. They feed them by hand.

5-12-2018 It is very beautiful here although Bob and I are still getting used to the elevation. For our EMT friends, our O2 levels are around 88-91 unless we remember to take a few deep breaths. Any exertion brings about light-headedness and a reminder to slow down and breath!

I took some pictures yesterday. Here is a view of Pikes Peak. I took this picture about a quarter of a mile from the campground.

We have a nice camp site. Here is a picture.

There are lots of deer around. Here are some pictures of them outside the entrance to the park.

Woodland Park is a pretty little town. Here is the main street.

Bob started working today. He was getting bored. I start work Monday.

5-10-2018 Didn't do too much today. Laundry, a trip to Walmart, took a good walk around the campground. We like it very much here. We saw six deer grazing in the lot next door. Although they watched us closely, they didn't seem very concerned about us.

We asked Jan, the owner, if there were many people who tried to come in and camp for free and she said yes! And there are some homeless camps up in the woods that will try to come in and use the showers and laundry facilities.

Today was openning day for the campground. Bob and I didn't get involved, but there seemed to be a pretty steady stream of campers coming in.

5-9-2018 We are in Colorado! As we crossed the state line from Kansas into Colorado, Bruce Springstein's "Born To Be Wild" was playing on the radio! I felt very adventurous. We arrived at Diamond Campground at about 1:00 p.m. We are at 8,300 feet elevation, and both Bob and I are a little breathless with much exertion. It will go away in a few days.

The scenery was breathtaking on the way in! When we entered Colorado, we stopped and picked up information about attractions in the Colorado Springs area. There is a tremendous amount to do! I will start posting pictures tomorrow.

Just after we got on the highway this morning, we had a rock-strike which cracked our windshield. Although it spread, it held until we arrived. I'll call the insurance company tomorrow and have it repaired.

A big semi towing an enormous 46 foot 5th wheel pulled in. It was one of those that carry a Smart Car behind the cab in front of the 5th wheel. We found out that these rigs are custom made in Texas. Here are some pictures. You can see the nose of the Smart Car behind the cab. You can get a better view of the length of the 5th wheel in the second picture.

5-8-2018 Arrived at the Mid America Camp Inn in Goodland, KS today around 2:00 p.m. This is our last night on the road. We will arrive at Diamond Campground, Woodland Park, CO tomorrow. I'll be glad to settle for a while.

Today's trip was uneventful. We passed some ENORMOUS wind turbine farms. We are very curious about how much electricity they are generating with them!

5-6-2018 We visited Dave B today again. He really looks and sounds great. He is looking forward to being released in 2020 and going back to Maine to live.

We are getting ready to head out tomorrow morning for Chapman, KS. It will be a 300 mile day, which is long for me. We are getting close to Colorado! We should arrive on Wednesday or Thursday.

5-5-2018 We are in Springfield MO. We are camping at the Route 66 KOA. It is pretty nice, except for the train tracks (busy train tracks) that run right beside the property, with a road crossing outside the gates. Lots of whistle blowing. We are here until Monday morning. Here comes another one now.

We passed through St. Louis yesterday on our way here. We got a very good look at the arch on our way through.

We were on Route 44 for most of the trip through Missouri. The old Route 66 runs along with it most of the way. Odd billboards started appearing. Turns out, Uranus is the name of the town where the candy factory is. At first, I thought is was an unfortunate choice of names, but it appears that the town companies use the name on purpose. Hmmmm....

We stopped at Springfield Federal Prison and visited Dave B for four hours. He looks good and has grown a full beard since he has been incarcerated. He will be released in October of 2020.

5-2-2018 We arrived at the Archway RV Park in Mount Vernon IL today. We are officially half way to Colorado! More tomorrow.

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