Road Trip

August 14, 2017

Cadillac Ranch

Outhouse Races



Colorado Classic

Road Trip

For the past month or so, I have managed the home front in Key West while Kathy ventured out to Colorado Springs, Colorado to oversee the construction of our new house there. It has been a slow and tedious process and we felt that it might help if Kathy was on-site to keep abreast of the construction and help spur things along. Since she planned to stay so long and because we will probably be taking more trips there in the near future we actually purchased a new used car for her to drive out and leave there once she returns to Key West.





 



It just seemed to make more since than to keep paying extravagant rental car fees and it gave her a way to get there as well. She ended up driving the car from Key West to Colorado Springs, taking her time, stopping along the way to visit friends and interesting sites as she was really in no big rush to get there.

 



One of the stops she made was at the iconic roadside attraction, The Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. The public art installation that was first installed in 1974 by the art collective known as the Ant Farm consists of ten Cadillac cars ranging from 1949 to 1963 models, each half buried at an angle nose first along the side of the highway (the famous route 66). The original intent was to document the rise and fall of the tailfins on the cars but almost instantly the site became a constantly changing display as graffiti artists and others are always painting over the cars and what remains today are the stripped down colorful skeletons of the original cars.



 

Kari

Stopping by in encouraged these days as is painting over whatever is there so the corn field surrounding the site is littered with used cans of spray paint, but it is still a pretty cool place to see and visitors continuously flock to the site to check it out. Kathy ventured on from there to Colorado Springs where she stayed with her brother Chris and his wife Kari while trying to spur home construction along.







 





The house is coming along nicely, if not quite fast enough to our estimation, but the main structure has been completed, all the plumbing and electric is done but there is a hold-up due to the required installation of a complete sprinkler system. This has cost us both financial and time overruns and has been quite the pain in the neck. The location of the house is awesome as the view out the front looks out at Pike’s Peak and from one side is the nearby Garden of the Gods.







Kathy was able to take some time to explore the beautiful Garden of the Gods park, trailheads leading in to the park are literally just up Columbia Road where our house sits as the road dead-ends into trailheads. It is an awesome area and is frequented by all kinds of cool wildlife such as the mule deer that feed regularly in our yard as well as bears, coyotes, mountain lions and more. It is not the best place to have an outdoor cat as they tend to get eaten.











While she was there a huge bike race utilized the roads through and around the Garden of the Gods, The Colorado Classic started in Colorado Springs and Kathy was there to watch some of the best professional riders in the world, many who had competed in the recent Tour De France competed. The first stage zoomed around and through the park and Kathy was able to easily move between vantage points to catch the cyclists at multiple locations. It sure looked pretty amazing and I really wish that I had been there to see it myself.







 





Another event that Kathy attended with her brother Chris that I was jealous of missing was the annual Black Forest Festival held in the small community of Black Forest, Colorado. This small town festival has been held every year since 1960 and is just about the quintessential small town America Festival that includes a craft and artisan fair, a parade featuring the likes of the mounted Colorado Rangers, boy and girl scouts, Miss Teen Colorado and the like as well as what is certainly the highlight of the day, The Outhouse Races.



 



In the event, entrants build an outhouse that's carried by a team of four, with one person inside, about a half mile. It is apparently pretty funny to watch. The entire event is to raise money for local charities, especially those impacted by a huge fire that struck the community in 2013. Kathy assures me that she had a great time and also that she was ready for me to finally get there as well.










https://www.veloramacolorado.com/colorado-classic/

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220