Colorado Part 3

Sunday a.m. -- Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

A Black-tailed Prairie Dog greets us with a bit of curiosity as we enter the Wildlife Refuge.

These little rodents are skittish and disappear underground in a flash.

Sunday p.m. -- City Park Jazz  We got to the park early so we could get a good spot to watch the concert and to soak up the atmosphere as the band tuned up and the crowd started to assemble.

 Bicycle policemen keep an eye on things during the concerts.  Their presence was low key and they weren't noticed by the concert goers. 

Cell phone photographers are everywhere.

If you didn't want to sit on the grass with everyone else you could always rent a pedal boat for an hour or so and enjoy the music out on the water.

Chess is just one of the many things that concert goers enjoy while listening to the music.

One of Biker Jim's food carts that can be seen throughout Denver at various events. If you are in Denver you may want to stop in to his restaurant on Larimer Street. We've enjoyed Wild Boar, Alaska Reindeer, Elk Jalapeno Cheddar, Southwest Buffalo and Peasant Gourmet dogs.

The Concert -- During June and July a group of volunteers organizes Sunday City Park Jazz On this day, Ron Miles Quartet was to play with the Denver Municipal Band. Unfortunately Mr. Miles is the only member of the band that I can identify. I normally wait until after a concert to talk with the artists and on this particular night the concert got rained out after intermission.

Ron Miles

There are no tents or grills allowed in the area surrounding the front of the stage, which sits on the edge of the lake.  It is very obvious that most of the attendees come well prepared to enjoy their evening with food and beverages and a few even have their own rolling papers.  We were in Colorado, after all.

Monday -- We were off to re-visit the Colorado Train Museum outside of Golden, Colorado.

For several days I had been looking to get a few shots of the rail lines operating in the Denver area.  It took a trip to the Colorado Train Museum before I got part of what I was looking for -- this Burlington Northern and Sante Fe 5340 D9-44CW. 

Both engines on the BNSF were General Electric D9-44CW.

Colorado and Northwestern 2-8-0 steam engine.  The 2-8-0 means that the engine has 2 wheels on the very front, 8 wheels under the body and no wheels under the cab.

Rio Grande Number 5771 is an F9A unit built by EMD in September of 1955. 

This engine, known as a Shay 3 truck was once used by the West Side Lumber Company to haul lumber out of the mountains.  It was also owned by GIRX Georgetown Loop Railroad.

Colorado Museum's 5 bay engine house and round table.

Original GB and L -- Georgetown Breckenridge and Leadbille.
General Electric U6B engine was one of 9 U units that were introduced in early 1956.  It had a top speed of 55 mph.

Before coming to the Colorado Railroad Museum engine #14 which is also a Shay 3 truck engine belonged to the Argentine Central Railroad.  The engines were built by the Lima Locomotive Company, of Lima, Ohio.

One of the many pieces of rolling stock owned by the Museum is this Burlington Route boxcar.  The markings on the side indicate the length, width, height and cubic feet capacity of the boxcar and it was built in March of 1942.

The sign attached to the narrow gauge rail at the Museum speaks for itself.

Originally owned by Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad this 4-8-4 steam engine number 5629 was built in 1940 in the Burlington Railroad's own shops.  Used until the 1960s it is only one of four left. 

The last photograph this week shows two more of the Burlington Northern Sante Fe engines, Numbers 1600 and 1925 are both EMD built SD40-2s.  They are working a siding at the Coors Brewing facility at Golden, CO.

Colorado Part 2

Making it a point to try and change drivers every two hours we pulled into the first Ohio rest stop that we came upon. It seems that every time we go west this is the place of our first break.

This is one of the prettiest rest stops that you'll see along the road. They seemed to have put a lot of time and effort into the landscaping.

After leaving the state of Pennsylvania in a torrential downpour that followed us into West Virginia and part way into Ohio it was nice to be able to drive out of Ohio with the sun shining and a blue sky.

With nothing better to do on a long drive across country I like to try and shoot as many scenes as I can to see what kind of photograph I capture while doing 70 mph.

One of the many old abandoned homesteads that dot the countryside as you drive across Route 70 in Kansas.

Post rock country hails back to a time when all the fence posts around the farm were made out of cut rock.

Sternberg Museum of Natural History, in Hays, KS. One of these days we're gonna have to stop there.

Normally I wouldn't shoot pictures of some of the billboards but I took a liking to this one because it was advertising that you could get something cold to drink at an old fashioned soda fountain.

I'm not sure the name of the person who took this picture for us but apparently he was somebody's grandpa because that's what it said on the front of his t-shirt.

Denver Art Museum

Eternal Woman by Phyllis Hutchinson Montrose on display at the Kirkland Museum of Fine  & Decorative Art.

Back from Colorado

I'm sure a few of you may have been wondering why there have been no new postings on the blog for the last few weeks.  There are two reasons for this.  First, we were out visiting in the Denver, CO area for several weeks and second the program that I had loaded on my laptop that would have allowed me to re-size my pictures didn't work.  So now, we will play catch-up.

Harvesting amber waves of grain in Missouri.

A billboard along the road for Sternberg Museum.  Most of the billboards that I'll post over the next week or so were all shot while we were speeding down the highway at about 70 mph, on average.

Exiting Missouri at Kansas City.  Just beyond these tall buildings is the state of Kansas.

These three domes are part of the 460th Space Wing of the United States Air Force Space Command at Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, CO. 

Reflections on a tall building in downtown Denver.

The Pie Hole, one of the local restaurants along Colfax Avenue in Denver, CO.

The next two photographs were shot while touring the Denver Public Library Artistry of Railroads exhibit.

Bobber on a stick shot at Lake Mary in the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Double-crested cormorants nesting in a tree just behind the Denver Zoo.