Grand Junction Colorado Temple

 The Grand Junction Temple is not yet open.  It is scheduled for an open house in September and dedication October 19.  It is convenient to the freeway.  However they are doing construction on the road to the tempe which will hopefully be done for the open house.  This is a beautiful temle.  It does not have and Angel Moroni but was a tall spire.

Summer Trip Day Eleven: Colorado to Arkansas via Oz Museum

 
We had stayed close to Pikes Peak so I wanted to get a picture.  This is the best I could do from the car.  We had originally planned to stop at Garden of the Gods in Grand Junction to see crazy rocks, but decided to get an early start because of the long road trip this day.  We drove through Grand Junction.  It seemed an interesting town.

Tony also took a couple pictures from the window of sky and fields and silos.
The Oz Museum is in Wamego, Kansas and just a little north of the I-90.  The museum seemed to cater to the movies; but it included information about other Oz books and characters.  It also had the orinal art work for many of the books which was very fascinating.  Lots of color and art.  There was a display for each of the major characters in the movie. 

The flying monkeys have always creeped me out.  However I discovered they were in reality only a few inches tall.

The Wicked Witch really did creep me out.  Some how she caught me off guard and startled me.

Buddy Epson who was not in the movie because of his bad reaction to the silver paint.

going up

Tony tried the volcano machine

We made quick work of the rest of the trip.  The water of the reservoirs was really high.  This lake is Harry  S. Truman.

Family Vacation Day Ten: Buena Vista and Cripple Creek

We drove through Colorado and saw some incredibly sites.  We went past a ski resort and Tony took a couple pictures from the window.  These shots really don't do Colorado justice as the mountains were fantastic and we saw deer and lots of places to camp.  We drove beside the Arkansas River where many people were rafting.  This river flows through Browns Canyon National Monument.  We also ventured to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  We drove through but the visitor center had just closed so we didn't stop.

Sheri wanted to go through Buena Vista, Colorado where Jeremy had served on his mission.  This is a touristy town with lots of wild West history.  I noted on a sign that Bat Masterson had served as sheriff for a time.  There was a nice river going through town around which there was a park for kayakers.



Cripple Creek was an even more interesting town.  In this case the town had been a gold mining area on the foothills on the West side of Pikes Peak.  Now it is a tourist town based on gambling.  There are many casinos in town.  There are also many murals and other interesting items including a small gauge railroad, $15 adults and $10 children.  The picture with the tall tower is the fire station with a bell tower.  There is even a theater in town.  We ate in Cripple Creek at Maggie's Restaurant.  Next morning our sleep was cut short when the fire alarm went off.  Rather than hurry out of our room we grabbed all of our stuff and checked ourselves out.