Day 3

May 7 -- Woke up this morning by a small lake in Leadville, Colorado. It was seventeen degrees and snowing. Dawn has one of those sleeping bags that keep you warm even if it is a 140 below zero, so she wanted to keep the furnace turned off. My last phone conversation to Micki last night was “Pipes freeze? Not a possibility.” It did, but no damage. Waking up to a frosty morning called for an extra good breakfast at the Golden Burro. Leadville like all of the old Colorado mining towns has done a great job of creating tourism from the foundations of ghosts towns.
Again we found that the Leadville RR won’t open until Memorial Day, but we were able to leave a RCC packet. Small railroads seem to be the ideal location for both my books.
Last night I thought we were through the worst of the snow when we crossed Monarch Pass. But leaving Leadville took us across Fremont Pass which was under siege with snow. This area apparently pays no caution to calendars proclaiming the proper seasons arrive. The road was dotted with hard core skiers leaving their cars on the shoulder while they hiked to the tops of hills and mountains only to return in a fraction of the time it took to make the trek. I’m trying to remember if I ever loved anything enough to exert that much energy to get such a small payback.
Next we made it to Georgetown, CO. I’ve got Georgetown earmarked for a return trip. Everything about this town and railroad demands more time. Don’t stop here unless you can spend the entire day (three would be better). The citizens have done a first class job restoring the old mining town, the railroad offers one of the most beautiful rides you can imagine and the gift shop is the best I’ve seen to date.
The Colorado Railroad Museum was one of my first customers to stock “The Red Candy Caboose.” We stopped by and left them a supply of our new RCC theme song CDs and a copy of “Rail Tales That Haunt Us.” We finally got to tour their museum. I never dreamed they had such a wide selection of rolling stock. We took photos of lots of cabooses and normally I don’t shoot other train cars, but I couldn't’t help it. Their collection of Galloping Geese is awesome. If you don’t know what a Galloping Goose is, take a look at one of the photos. They were built originally to haul people, at the same time cut overhead by not using a full train crew. Normally they were old buses converted to operate on a RR track. They are so cute. I would love to have one in the front yard.