JUNIPER LIBRARY FUND RAISER

The Friends of the Grand County Library held their annual fundraiser at the Grand Lake Yacht Club on June 27th, 2008. The wine tasting/auction was done beautifully as usual. No, I'm not a member of the Yacht Club and No, I don't drink but I can buy a ticket with the best of them. My daughter attended with me and I only embarrassed us once when I ask "where do we put the tickets for the door prize" and they were actually the tickets used to obtain "our wine" for the wine tasting. We got our Coke and Sprite and wandered around looking like we belonged?
The Auction items were beautifully decorated tables designed around the Title of Books.

"Ciao Colorado" A beautiful cookbook of Italian Family Cooking by Physsis Newton

"Barefoot in the Park" Neil Simon

"My Life in France" by Julia Child

"A Walking Tour of Historic Grand Lake"

"The Virginian"

"Sailing Above The Clouds" by Dorothy O'Ryan

"A Colorado Kind of Christmas" by Sally Daniel

"Dancing in the Light of the Moon"

VINTAGE THINGIE THURSDAY-BACK IN TIME-VINTAGE RAILROAD-MOFFAT ROUTE # 2

This is my second post on the Moffat Train Route over Rollins Pass early in the 20th century.

As you travel up the road if you have the map you can tell where the main route and the by-pass road separate. Or if you run out of cinders on the side of the road you'll know your on the by-pass.

The by-pass road once again joins the old road bed for the railroad and there along the side of the road are actual 100 year old railroad ties.

You come around the corner and there is the Rifle Sight Notch Trestle. . The gully below actually contains the remains of the tunnel (Loop Tunnel) that went under the trestle. It caved in many years ago.

Look closely on the left hillside in the photo below and there are several telegraph poles left standing. In winter blizzards when snow was almost as high as the crossarms, men from stranded trains felt their way along these wires to shelter. Once when a train was stalled in a snowdrift, George Barnes, the conductor, struggled to a nearby telegraph pole, hooked up his telegraph instrument and reported the train's plight. The trainmen abandoned the train and walked to Corona in 50-mile-an-hour winds at 20 below zero.

During the winter months (Sept-May) nearly every train had to be preceded by a rotary snowplow and due to lack of adhesion and icy tracks, up to five large Mallets were used to pull a train. Other dangers were: trains that had to stop would suddenly freeze to the rails, brake failures and resulting runaway trains.

Current top photo is looking south down the hill and old photo is looking north up the same stretch of railbed.

In winter, snow on Rollins Pass drifted 20 to 30 feet deep, necessitating an extensive snowshed to cover the main line, the wye and the passing track. Below is the remains of this showshed. The elevation is 11,600 ft. There were 13 snowsheds in all ranging in length from 19 ft. to 400 ft. Despite the snow sheds, snow would drift inbetween the wood planking and makes the tracks impassable. Stopping the train inside the tunnel was dangerous as passengers were liable to suffocate from smoke inhalation.

The two photo's below are the foundation of the once beautiful restaurant-hotel built in 1913. You can also see the deeply-anchored cable supports used to keep the roof from blowing off. Most of the dismantling of salvageable structures on the Hill was done in 1936


Corona Station and Hotel
Usually guests would just dine but a few would stay overnight. There were bedrooms, a common room with a fireplace and a large vista room with big windows. The hotel was completely built of stone and cost $24,000 to build.

For more great Vintage Thingie's go to: http://anapronaday.blogspot.com/

FUN MONDAY-- CAREER'S PAST AND ?

Fun topic--What did we want to be when we grew up and if we could be trained and placed in any career tomorrow, what would it be.

From the age of 6-11 all I wanted to be was a Movie Star. Forget that I had No Talent, and lent a whole new meaning to the word Average Looking--- I wanted to be:

First----Jane Russell--O.K., O.K., even I knew I was reaching a bit high for that one.

And Second-- Betty Hutton-- If a circus had come to town when The Greatest Show On Earth was playing I would have been history----

Now lets get real-- I didn't realize what I would have been good at until I was about 40, so college would have been wasted. I probably would have got a degree in teaching and hated it. It was then I realized I could have made a good book editor. English was not my strong suit but I could have studied harder. People have also told me I would have made a good writer but talent helps in that department and I don't think I have what it takes. As it was I worked small part-time jobs after all of our children were in school and I was the Berry Fairy for 20 years-- don't ask, you really don't want to know and I haven't thought about it for 8 years. I also worked in a large independent book store for about 10 years and loved it.
My job for the last 8 years has been trying to make retirement as much fun as possible, take care of hubby, love our children and adore our grandchildren.
For more Fun Monday go to:
http://irishcoffeehouse.blogspot.com/

BUFFALO BARBECUE WEEKEND

We have a big Tourist Attraction almost every weekend during the summer. This weekend was the big Buffalo Barbecue with lots going on

There was the Library Fund Raising Book Sale--Last day was $1.00 for a box of books. I helped several days to get ready for it and we had a gazillion books to sell. Made me remember my days of working in the bookstore.

Then the Pancake Breakfast yesterday morning and the Buffalo Barbecue this afternoon. True Buffalo meat shreaded on a bun with lots of accessories. Yummy.

The parade is "Unique" as most small town parade's are:

This guy looks just like Bill Geist on CBS Sunday Morning

The lovely lady above and the nice gentleman in the photo below are in an interesting situation. Judy Burke is our past mayor and Harrington "won" the election several months ago by (2) votes. Then they found out that two people voted that did not live in the town limits so the election was declared Void and the re-election hasn't taken place yet. I don't think we have a Mayor right now. Mind you the total vote was something like 56-58. Told you this was a small town.

Our wonderful Fire Department and Volunteers. Please let them, plus several B52 Bombers and 5000 additional National Guard and Fire Fighting Crews be able to save our valley if the fires do come.

Two Bears--The one we had in our garbage the first week and our friend Smoky

If my info is correct this is really an old jail house. This weekend you can have anybody put in jail for an hour for a donation.

Every town needs a dance floor on wheels.

We've got our Rodeo Princess,

Uncle Sam and Family

the Token Tractor

Horses

And last but not least, the pooper scooper.