July 3rd & 4th, 2010 Victor & Mueller State Park, CO

Early on the 3rd, J & E and L & S picked us up and off we went to the old gold mines around Victor, CO. This area between Victor and Cripple Creek had some of the most productive gold mines in the U. S. Many of the buildings are still there and available for exploring. Our next stop was Victor, CO which some say is one step above a ghost town, but it did have permanent residents and a downtown. In reading about Victor two things stick out--in the late 1890's a couple were

having a spat and one threw a coal oil lamp at the other. The resulting fire burned down the east side of town. A few days later a pan with grease in the hotel kitchen caught fire and that fire burned down the west side of town. Consequently, all of the downtown buildings date from around 1899 to 1903. The second item about Victor is that when the town decided to build a new courthouse they started digging the foundation and struck gold!! Boy, those people in Victor had all the bad luck. We met up with J & K

and had lunch in Victor, then headed back to Mueller State Park for a wonderful dinner with the Denver crowd.

July 4th started out bright and beautiful. Betsy and I drove over to Mueller S P to meet up with the Denver group. We just hung around camp and talked mostly. Later in the day we started preparing dinner and noticed that large black clouds were moving into the area. Just as we were finishing dinner the sky opened and it poured. Luckily we were under a 10 x 10 canopy, but eventually the rain became to heavy and we sought shelter in L & S fifth wheel. We had eight people and five dogs in there, but the unit was big enough to shelter us all. We were all talking when all of a sudden we realized that it was hailing!! The hail peppered down and there was some concern that it would accumulate and collapse the awning on the RV, but the awning was retracted without damage. Betsy, Tipper, and I waited until the rain and hail paused and then we took off, up the mountain to our campground. The temperature fell to 46 degrees, and hail covered the road for some of the trip but we went slow and made it home safely.

Top Photo--I'm not sure how this all transpired, but I walked out of a shop and the Denver Circle had somehow gotten involved in a tomahawk throwing lesson. I've always wanted to try my luck at it so I jumped right in. Managed to stick 1 out of 3.

Bottom Photo--downtown Victor, Co.