OTR - Family Visit to Cripple Creek

My Germany brother aka The Evil Elf was in town for a brief visit so we took him to the Heritage Center in Cripple Creek. It is the newest museum in the county and is beautiful.

It has interactive displays of the history of the area, a wildlife display complete with dinosaurs, and a model train display that is fabulous.

We took the scenic loop to get there, by way of Hwy. 67 from Divide, through Victor and then home by way of Teller County 1.


We saw a herd, lots of animals worth, of elk at one of the ranches off of Hwy 24 between Florissant and Divide. Then we saw a group of bighorn sheep, about a dozen of them, along Hwy 67. There was all sizes from the ram just starting his horn curl to a baby one. It was really neat to see all the critters and not just the stuffed ones at the museum.

Weekend Update

With the kid cardis completed and packaged for shipping, I decided it is time to start a project for me.

I am casting on the February Lady Sweater for my house project and I will be working on the Plain and Fancy Scarf pattern I got in Taos as my car project.

Around these items I will finish more samples for the shop and some small gift items I need to prep for upcoming birthdays. All in all, it has been a very productive year so far.


For the rest of my weekend I worked on seasonal clothing changeout and reduction. Then I took the folks to the Butte Opera House in Cripple Creek for the production of Arsenic and Old Lace staged by the Butte Players Community Theater.

Even though over the years the productions have become more professional with paid actors for the parts in the Thin Air Players, this group showed their mettle and hard work under the tutelage of the director, our favorite Mel Moser. I hope we see more of these kind of productions in conjuction with the season of "professional" productions.

And in My "Go" Section...

Today my sister and I went to meet our folks to attend the Christmas theater event at the Butte Opera House in Cripple Creek, staged by the Thin Air Theatre Company. This is first class theater in a beautiful mountain setting.

This year, I believe, is the best holiday play they have staged. As stated in the program it "is a re-imagining of the classic Christmas story, Miracle on 34th Street." It is set in Cripple Creek at the turn of the century with Teddy Roosevelt visiting the mining camps where he has an accident and becomes anmesiatic.

There are two villians in this melodrama, however one was booed on a more regular and heartfelt basis than the wicked widow. We must have known that she was redeemable.

The play was written by Chris Sorensen, who has been writing for the Cripple Creek stage since 2001, providing us with such original works as The Vampire of Cripple Creek, The Angel of the Christmas Mine, Frankenstein of Cripple Creek and another adapted Christmas classic, Cripple Creek Christmas Carol.


The play continues it run through a special performance on New Year's Eve. Tickets can be purchased online from the Butte Opera House website. Tickets are very reasonably priced at $11.75 for adults, $9.75 for adults and $7.75 for children 12 and under.

It is well worth the drive to Cripple Creek and the price of admission.

Grey and Spooky or Time to See Frankenstein

Fall family traditions for my folks and I include:adding polar fleece to our wardrobes, setting out more mouse traps (some mice are left for Pedro to chase at Thanksgiving), baking pumpkin bread, knitting daily for gift giving and attending the annual Halloween-themed melodrama in Cripple Creek at the Butte Opera House.

This year they staged the Cripple Creek version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. When we arrived today in a mountain thunderstorm complete with multiple lightning flashes, I remarked that TATC (Thin Air Theater Company) have really improved their special effects.

The play was wonderful. And after the play they have a themed olio with singing/dancing and costuming all Halloween based. It was really fun. This is such a small group that produce these events that you can be served popcorn and a drink by Frankenstein himself. It was so much fun. This is our third year to attend. We have seen the Vampire of Cripple Creek and Dr. Jekyll - Mr. Hyde.

We are planning to go to the Christmas production as well this year. It will be the Cripple Creek version of Miracle on 34th Street. Since Cripple Creek is only 20 miles from my folks house, it is an easy trek with the high fuel prices and potential winter weather.

Hope you are finding fun entertainment in your backyard!

Boo! The Doctor Is In!

Last Saturday the folks and I ventured off to the historic mining town of Cripple Creek. The destination was the Butte Opera House for the Thin Air Theatre Company's presentation of "Dr. Jekyll's Medicine Show." It is set in Cripple Creek at the turn of the century and takes the traditional tale of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde to a whole new realm. The young man cast in the part of Jekyll was fabulous. You know in the old movies he was portrayed in different makeup to show the two sides of his personality. In this case, no makeup was used and the metamorphis was amazing.

Of course they do not allow you to take any photos of the performance but I did get some good ones of us at the performance with our guest, Count DracuBear. And he got the best seat in the house - inside Dad's cowboy hat.

The rest of the crew were happy just to pose with him. He is a freebie that Hallmark was offering this year before Halloween if you purchased three cards. And as you can see Mom is making sure we all know that he is devilishly handsome.



And here are my partners-in-crime for their photo op with the wee vampire.





















And that rare pic of me over there.

This theater group is made up of the remnants of the Imperial and Cripple Creek players and is known for its melodrama performances. This show and the one they are doing for the holiday season are both newly written and directed by local talent. And, as is tradition, there was a spooky, Halloween-themed olio after the main performance. This is where the cast put on short skits with singing and dancing. The funniest was the fake magic show complete with a successful Houdini-like escape trick (good thing his assistant knew how to untie the knot on the giant laundry sack he was trussed up in) and the disappearing lion trick. Can't tell you the secret because, after all, this is magic.

After a lovely autumn day in the high country we headed home to the news that a possible winter storm was on its way. The next morning, sure enough, Jack Frost made a feeble attempt to let his wintery intentions be known.

And the best part of the newscast is where they show the traffic cams around the region. This picture is taken from the roof of the Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park. The newscaster, and the rest of us, get such a chuckle out of the palm trees in snow shots. They are plastic palm trees but all the same it is too funny to see this in a blizzard in the mountains of Colorado.

So this was a good day to stay indoors, watch movies and knit. Pedro had other ideas and begged to go outside to see what was going on. I let him out to look and he decided I had the best idea about staying indoors. Stay warm, enjoy!

Blog Hiatus or What you can do when your computer is broken.

Hi all: it has been a long time since I was able to sit down to a working computer and have the time to update my blog.

While I have been on hiatus, caused by the motherboard in my 10-year old computer finally beaming back to the mothership, I have done some fun stuff.

This little guy to your left posed so nicely for me while he was eating a seed at Crystal Reservoir on the drive up Pikes Peak. Fall is coming quickly here to the high country and everyone is getting ready. Our high country trip was planned around a visit from an East Coast sister. We took her to see the sights around Colorado before returning her to the Denver airport for her trip home.

Here is Dad and Mary enjoying the thin air on the top of Pikes Peak. We lucked into a beautiful day and the temp at the top was pleasant 48-degrees, quite a treat after continual days of 90+.

The scenic route to the Denver airport consisted of a visit to the historic mining town of Leadville; Camp Hale, the site of the 10th Mountain Division's winter training; a side trip through the popular ski area of Summit County and a fabulous dinner at Tommynocker's Brewery in Idaho Springs. And for the third weekend in August, we saw quite a few trees with the beginnings of fall colors. After that trek you know summer is on it's way to an end with the 30th Annual Balloon Festival in Colorado Springs on Labor Day weekend. This year there were 90+ balloons in attendance and the best weather anyone had seen. Lots of fun colors and shapes like: Marvin the Martian, one that looked like the dragon from Mulan, a farm scene, an inverted pyramid, the owl and the pussycat, and a patchwork quilt. And at some point, the sky was full of them.

















Besides summer fun and travel, I have been keeping up with the triumphs and tribulations of my favorite fellow bloggers. and I have a few observations.





Of Crazy Aunt Purl, all I can say is: You go, girl! She found a new dining room set on the affordable side, uncovered wood flooring that is gorgeous and has accomplished all of this in a scant month or so after her declaration to make her "house a home." I am so inspired by her fortitude and stick-to-it-itiveness.

Of the Yarn Harlot, her latest fleece washing endeavor is quite amusing. The squirrel repellent device looks like it worked. The squirrel looked perplexed as he viewed the coveted fleece, yet could not find a way to get to it.

Of Wendy Knits, she is the queen of the summer sock challenge. And I am certain it is because of Lucy's unfailing assistance.

Of What Housework? Milo is my new super hero. (don't breathe a word of that to my own Pirate Prince, Pedro). Milo gives barn cats something to aspire to. The flowerpot incident is too funny for words.

Of the Loopy Ewe, Sheri is amazing. All the energy she has goes into unpacking all the goodies for the store, keeping up with the kids, cooking yummy things and being up-to-date with the most important events, like the return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes to Starbucks.

And during the no computer at home down time I have been knitting -- a lot. I have several Christmas gifts ready for felting and at least two more to knit. No, I will not tell you what they are, it will spoil the recipients' surprise. I hope to have all the gift items finished by September 20th so I can work on a couple items for myself. I like to have the holiday things finished early so I can enjoy the approach of the fun days.

I am hoping that my home computer is back, up and running a couple weeks so I can be more active with my blog.

Enjoy what is left of the fabulous weather.