An Unexpected Treasure

This morning Karen made us strawberry pancakes to send us on our way to Colorado Springs. We said our goodbyes and got into my Little Red Car which was recently washed and waxed thanks to Karen and Bill.

We had an eight hour drive to Colorado Springs, so while Zach was driving, I used our GPS to locate a point of interest along our route to break up the trip a bit. About half way, we stopped in Sterling, Colorado to visit the Overland Trail Museum. I thought it would be a good place to stop and stretch our legs for 30-40 minutes, but it turned out to be a real gold mine and we wandered around for close to two hours.

The Overland Trail Museum is named after Overland trail stage route which was a southern branch of the Oregon Trail. According to its website,  the museum "commemorates the historic western migration of gold seekers and early pioneers." There were several buildings that housed collections and antiques donated by local residents. From photos to newspaper clippings, dolls to televisions, and fossils to dishes, the museum had some great artifacts of days gone by. In addition, they have moved a number of historic buildings to the area behind the main building and created a little village. We walked through two barns, a barbershop, a one room school house, a church, a house, a gas station, a general store, and red caboose. Everything was furnished with items and furniture of the time period. Most of the buildings were built prior to 1915. It was awesome!

We piled back into the car and finished drive to Colorado Springs. We stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel which is one of our favorite restaurants when we leave California. I think we like mostly because of the atmosphere and the fun country store. David had been searching our entire trip for a gag gift for his friend, DeRon. He found it at Cracker Barrel.



We checked into our motel, dropped off our stuff, and jumped back into the car in a race to make it to Seven Falls before 10:00 p.m. when they stop selling tickets. We made if with about 5 minutes to spare and then spent the next hour hiking up the 400+ steep steps to the various platforms for views of the waterfalls. They were all lighted and very pretty, but my phone did not take the best photos.

In the morning, we plan to ride bikes down Pike's Peak. It should be a great way to view the area and get some exercise.