Crazy Travelers...: travel-Wild West

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Wild West Trip Recap

Whew! After being on the road for 30 days, it was nice to return to the comforts and familiarity of home.

What a wonderful trip! We saw many amazing sights, met several interesting people and enjoyed a number of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Our goal was to visit as many National Parks and Monuments out west as we could.

This was our start-to-finish route.

Looking back over the trip:

30 days (May 1 - May 30)
Traveled through 10 states
Spent time in 21 cities
Stayed in 18 hotels
Put 4,772 miles on a rental car
Took 2,543 pictures

Some of the significant sights, tours and experiences:

Air Force Academy
Pike's Peak
Canyonlands
Arches National Park
Four Corners Monument
Montezuma Castle
Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Road
Grand Canyon
Hoover Dam
Zappos
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon
Bear Lake
Jackson Hole
Grand Tetons
Yellowstone National Park
Missoula Smokejumpers
Glacier National Park
Lewis & Clark Trail
Battle of Little Bighorn
Roosevelt National Park
Sturgis
Mount Rushmore
Crazy Horse Memorial
Chuckwagon cowboy dinner
South Dakota Air and Space Museum
Bear Country
Cheyenne Pioneer Museum
Hammond's Candies
Federal Reserve
Transportation Museum

Thanks to our loyal followers who joined us vicariously for the trip. And thank you to all the family and friends who offered suggestions for places to see, things to do and where to eat. :o)

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Day 29 - The 4 C's of Denver

The last day of our Wild West Trip and we were in Denver. Several years ago, on a trip out here for a football game, we did the Coors brewery tour so no need to do that again. Turned out there was plenty to do in Denver and everything we decided to do, started with "C" - cars, candy, cash and cricket.

The day's adventure started at the Forney Transportation Museum:

Big Boy 4005 - model

Big Boy 4005 - real life

How the engineers control the train

School bus

FreeWay and Messerschmitt

Amphicar

1967 Amphicar

Ford Model TT

Millions of bicycles!

1923 Case Steam Tractor

So many Indians in one room

Note the air conditioner hanging on the passenger window and the pull-behind camper

A large Chrysler Imperial collection

1927 Rolls Royce

Studebaker

Burma Shave jingle: "A man, a miss, a car, a curve. He kissed the miss and missed the curve."

For the kids who like trains.

After the museum, we headed for Hammond's Candies for their factory tour (and hopefully free samples.)

While waiting for the tour, we explored the "Oops Room" (slightly imperfect products) and gift shop.

Can you spot the biggest kid in the candy store?

So close to all the action!

Gift shop

Notice how Frank made all the kids get away from the candy counter? :o)

"Chicken bones" butterscotch

Cutters have to work quickly to cut the candy as it starts to cool in 45 seconds

Warming tray/roller that keeps the candy pliable.

Big copper pots on the right and workers adding color and/or flavor and forming the 'logs'.

Cutting and making candy canes.

Then we moved down the hallway to the packaging area.

I'm pretty sure the woman in the yellow shirt and the woman in the blue shirt are Lucy and Ethel.

For your own tour of Hammond's click here for videos.

Time for lunch!

Several months ago, while watching the Travel Channel and Man vs Food, we noted he was at a place in Denver, The Cherry Cricket. And since we were going to be in that general area, we thought we'd give it a try.

While we didn't order a competition-sized burger, you can add whatever toppings you want....and they turned out to be pretty darn tasty!

Once we were refueled, we were off to see the 'cash' part of our adventure. (We looked into visiting the US Mint, but they require reservations and they were booked until August!) So we found another alternative - The Federal Reserve Bank. (And we were hoping they would be giving out samples!)