A Slice of Life
Bill LItes
Day 15 Wednesday
9/23/2020
After Breakfast this morning I headed northwest 15 miles on US-50 to visit the Rocky Ford Museum located in downtown Rocky Ford, CO. This museum is located in the former 1908 Rocky Ford Library, and has two floors filled with artifacts and memoribilia related to Rocky Ford and the surrounding Arkansas Valley area, of southeastern Colorado, dating from 1878 to the present. The museum also has the recorded history of the early Arkansas Valley Fair & Watermelon Day celebrations from 1878 to the present.
As I headed northwest out of Rocy Ford, I came across a detour that took me north 10 miles, out of my way, on CO-207. At the junction of CO-207 and CO-96, and just south of Crowley, I was finally able to turn west again. What a waste of time and gas that was! However, when I mentioned that I had been thru Crowley, DiVoran reminded me that her family had lived in Crowley for a while, when she was about 5-years old. Her father had been the maintiance forman for a tomato factory there, and her mother had the job of feeding the factory workers lunch every day. It was another 30 miles west on CO-96, thru Olney Springs and Boone, to where I could meet back up with west US-50 again.
US-50 intersected with I-25, 15 miles later, at the Fountain Creek Corridor, where I headed north toward Colorado Springs, CO. I had seen an ad for The Airplane Restaurant in a tourist magazine and wanted to have lunch there on my way north. Greta (my Garmin) took me right to the restaurant, located adjacent to the Colorado Springs Airport. The restaurant has been built around the entire airplane in a very creative way. The upper fuselage of this retired U.S. Air Force KC-97 Tanker (#30283) has been converted into a dining area with 2 & 4-person tables. If one doesn’t want to climb the stairs to the upper deck, there are pleanty of tables and a bar downstairs. My ‘Piper Cub’ (BLT) sandwich and French Onion soup was very good, and I loved being able to view the cockpit and the boom operators position from the upper level. If you are ever in the Colorado Springs area, I can highly recommend this restaurant. Check out their website for their menu of delicious ‘airborne’ goodies.
After that delicious lunch experience, I continued north on I-25, thru Larkspur and Castle Rock (and miles of road construction), around Denver, all the way to Globeville, CO. Then I went west on I-70 to Arvada, wheree I wanted to see if, by chance, the Cussler Museum was open today. It was still closed, so I headed back east, skirting Denver on I-70, to visit the Aurora History Museum located in Aurora, CO. This museum has a large number of historic displays and antique artifacts related to the history of Aurora, Arapahoe county, and the central Colorado area. The main attraction among their artifacts is a restored 1913 Colfax Ave. Trolley (# 610).
It was that time that comes at the end of all of my road trips; time to give up the hunt for another museum before the day ends. So, I called it a day and head for my motel located there in Aurora. After I got checked in and got my things in the room, I heated up last night’s left-over Chili Rellenos from the El Azteca Mexican Restaurant. The meal was wonderful. Yummm! Then with a full tummy, I recorded today’s activities and tried to watch some TV. But of course, that only put me to sleep. So I turned it off and slipped under the covers for a good night’s sleep.
—–To Be Continued—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 63 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 
I would like to eat at that restaurant!
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