Cripple Creek and Cave of the Winds

Things have been pretty busy here in Colorado Springs lately. Due to a snowstorm the weekend of April 10 I could not get back on time. So another night at home and then back to Colorado Springs Monday the 11th. Several people that went home that weekend and got caught at home. Most were able to stay home rather than being stranded in transit which makes for a long trip.

So the week wrapped up with pretty much more of the same regarding work. I'm starting to get a bit more comfortable with the software but still learning. One always wants to be able to answer all the questions that may come up and for the most part I'm starting to get there. In any case I was able to finish the week without major issues. The team is good to work with and anytime I can always call someone or get help from the experts.

Saturday I met up with a couple of fellow trainers and we took a road trip do a little town west of Colorado Springs - Cripple Creek. An old Gold mining town that has pretty much stopped most of the gold mining and turned main street into a row of casinos. So now that's where everyone goes for a different form of gold mining. The drive is scenic so I took a few pictures which of course is out on the web site. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kwh5999/my_photos so feel free to browse if you have a mind to.

From Cripple Creek we drove to the little town of Victor. Victor is what Cripple Creek used to be prior to bringing in casinos. It was like driving back into time and felt a bit odd when we arrived. Nothing much there, very small so we just kept driving through. From Victor we took off south through Phantom Canyon and had a great drive on a two lane dirt road that wound down from roughly 10,000 feet to the canyon bottom which was around the 6k foot level. It was a nice slow drive, great scenes and of course no guard rails. This made for some uneasiness with the passengers when you could look out the window of the car and basically look down into the canyon. Then, when the road winds around blind corners and squeezes into a one lane turn it can be a bit dicey.

However, it was a great trip, had a good time and really enjoyed the ride.

On Sunday Bob and I took a tour through the "Cave of the Winds" which is right here in the Colorado Springs area. The cave was discovered back in the 1880's and tours were started pretty quickly. I've posted pictures out on the site so check them out when you want to.

The tour was ok. We decided we paid $16 for an $8 tour, but I guess they need to rake in tourist fees some way. The reason for the name is that at one point the wind would blow through sink holes at the entrance of the cave and would make a sound like someone blowing over a soda (pop) bottle. When they built the structure over the entrance that blocked the air flow and they don't have the sounds any longer. Back when tours first started they would enter through the sink hole area be given candles and away they'd go. Must have been a very interesting trip at that point.

Still it was interesting as caves go, so enjoy the pictures.

That's about it from this end. Thanks for checking in.

Joe