On The Road: Golden, Colorado: "Howdy Folks"

Dateline Golden, Colorado; July 15, 2011



So I'm still dodging lightning strikes here in the Mile High City and yesterday this olelongrooffan ventured out to Golden, Colorado to see what could be seen other than Clear Creek Park. I started to head up the mountain to see Buffalo Bill's Enternal Place of Rest but at the first picnic area, just up the hill, I pulled Filmore into a parking space, had a sandwich and my favorite carbonated beverage and contemplated driving a 31 year old air cooled Volkswagon Vanagon up that steep, long road. And I decided against it. Sorry to disappoint those of you Counting Along With Me but this olelongrooffan decided there were much better places to see with that old Bus than straining to climb that mountain with this olelongrooffan in tow.

So Filmore guided me into downtown Golden, Colorado, a bustling area this Saturday.



We did a drive by in downtown and headed over to the MillerCoors Brewery for a free self guided tour.



This sign greeted the group of tourists waiting for the shuttle bus to show up and get the bunch of us to the other side of the brewery for the beginning of the tour.



All of these van front shuttle buses were vinyl wrapped and advertising their products. Incidentally, they offer a beer called Colorado Native and it's sold only in Colorado.



Once we got off the shuttle bus, this olelongrooffan noticed that out front they had a pretty cool themed water tower and



This cool copper mash kettle. Once inside the reception area, we were issued a headseat telling us what was going on as we proceeded with the tour.



One of the things it didn't tell me, however, is the year of this cool old Chevy truck.



Nor did it tell me who took that Coor's cooler on its first picnie.



And a shoe box Mustang gave its life for this display in the reception area.



Once inside, it was pretty disappointing. We went through a series of hallways with lots of Coors memorabilia lining the walls and displays. Once we got through that, we came to the mash room with many of those kettles I had seen outside. These were in operation though.



And across the way is the one guy here on this Saturday to ensure things ran smoothly that day.



And that dang headset didn't know what this guy's wife cooked him for dinner that day.



We finally got to some action but all it was was the packaging plant where they were putting cans in to cardboard boxes.



It was cool for what it was but it wasn't much. The last time I was at the Anheuser Busch brewery in Tampa, we got to see the bottling plant, the area where the cans were formed. The lines where the put lables on bottles. Just a whole lot more goodness.



However some good did come out of it. When I showed Big J these images, he casually mentioned he built those blue electrical panels to the left in those wider angle shots of the packing plant machine.



And I'm going to guess Coors got into racing long before NASCAR.



And a pretty cool monument in memory of our Defenders of Freedom.



So this olelongrooffan decided to hoof it back to downtown to see what was up.



On the way, I captured another image of Mount Table.  See that Subaru Forester in the foreground?  The day I spent driving around downtown, I counted 51 Subaru Outbacks and that was once I started counting.  Ah, just another number here on By The Numbers.



And another one of Clear Creek from the bridge on the main drag.  Yeah picnic tables and chairs on the bridge. Pretty cool in my book.



And of course, another huge animal lurking just around the corner.



So, as I was leaving downtown, this olelongrooffan spotted a sign suggesting  Filmore and I turn right and head toward the Colorado Railroad Museum. It was just down the old highway running alongside Highway 6, a major traffic moving roadway but not a member of that exclusive Eisenhour Highway System.



It was pretty cool to see.  They had various gauged railroad cars



A bevy of boxcars



and these cool old passenger cars. Now I had seen pretty much all this olelongrooffan was interested in seeing and decided that paying the $12 admission fee was not going to occur so I may gain admission to the esteemed Colorado Railroad Museum.



However, as this olelongrooffan returned to that cool old highway that would take me back to the Mile High city I spotted this snowplow laden railroad car and I just had to get Filmore to stop so that I could capture an image of it.

That museum was actually the third museum this olelongrooffan didn't get into that day. Well, that is if you don't count the MillerCoors museum.

You see Counters, due to fiscal constrants, not only did this olelongrooffan not get into the Colorado Railroad Museum, earlier I had been denied admittance to the Golden History Museum for exactly the same constraints.

The third occurence with respect to museum admission happened earlier while that buffalo was chasing me around downtown Golden, Colorado



You see Counters, this olelongrooffan was to busy running from that buffalo to stop in at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum thus avoiding the Golden, Colorado version of the proverbial "bull in a china shop."

My Sincerest Apologies to all of you Counting Along With Me.

But you can bet your bottom dollar this olelongrooffan was still able, that day, to

Celebrate Life.