Denver

The first stop on my trek around Denver was the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum and Grave.  It is on top of Lookout Mountain, which was his choice.  He wanted to be able to look down on Denver.  Other cities wanted him to be buried in them but among his last words were that he wanted Denver to be his resting place.  The grave site is actually very simple.  The museum is nicely done.  It covers his career and that of the performers he brought in as he improved the show over the years.  There were exhibits of costumes, guns, sabers and movies made during the time of the shows.  Buffalo Bill was a very interesting man, he believed in women's suffrage, equal pay for women and he dealt fairly with the Indians.  He was respected by all the people of the many tribes he came into contact with.  He really did start out his youth leading wagon trains and hunting buffalo for the army.

My next stop was Dinosaur Ridge.  My inner child came out as I took a tour of the site.  It was remarkable to see everything from dinosaur tracks, to real fossilized bones in the rocks, to ripples in the rocks which were from the shallow edge of the sea.  It's easy to see how the land has been pushed up over time and how the layers were laid down.  The even showed us where an Apatasaurus stepped and left a reverse impression.  It turns out that these enormous animals walked on their toes.

My last stop in Denver was the Molly Brown House and Museum.  Molly Brown, it turns out was much maligned.  In all the movies she is portrayed as a country bumpkin, not very educated woman.  When in reality she spoke 6 languages and was extremely well read.  She made quite a difference the night the Titanic sank.  She raised $10,000 the night of the disaster from the first class survivors to start a fund.  She later also set up an organization that raised money to help the survivors including the crew.  They didn't allow any pictures in the house.

I was going to stop in Aspen but I couldn't find reasonable accommodations so instead I went on to Grand Junction.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.