at Rodizio Grill:
Fort Collins’ Bloco em FoCo
It was called “NOITE: An evening of Brazilian live music and dance! Featuring samba lessons with Gisele Dias and Afro-Brazilian Percussion with Bloco em FoCo. Brought to you by the Wyoming Chapter of PARTNERS of the AMERICAS. Thanks to fellow samba drummer Richard for taking this cool picture.
Marcus Santos is expected to join the band later this month; it’s going to be a real BLAST!
Howes Street, Fort Collins, about 1961
It’s an Atlas Series E ICBM nuclear missile and it is on its way north of town to a newly constructed silo just a bit southwest of Wellington. Four other series E silos were built in Colorado near Glover, Briggsdale, Nunn and Greeley.
Our guardian was located in Cheyenne, Wyoming
The 566th Strategic Missile Squadron was based at Warren AFB and was charged with missile deployment becoming fully operational on September 15, 1964 only to be deactivated by June 25, 1965.
FoCo Atlas Silo, c 1961
Or something of that nature. The Series E silo stored the missile in a horizontal position until it was ready to launch; Lucky for us it never happened.
Atlas E ready to launch
This is what an Atlas E silo would look like when the missile is ready to go. The propellant was kerosene-liquid oxygen and was from the same family of rocket that sent John Glen into orbit.
Don’t go here!
A previous post notes that during a walk on the Poudre River trail with Duncan Madog I came near a water treatment facility that was within a mile of an ICBM missile silo. A few days later after checking Google maps, I found what I believe is the Greeley Atlas E missile silo!
I did indeed see a dog!
There is barbed wire on top of the fence and there is at least one dog that patrols the area. I’m sure it’s not to guard any government secrets but just to discourage nosey bloggers who wight want to poke around an abandoned missile silo just because it’s there.
Evidence that something’s under foot!
These appear to be utility connections and exhaust vents for an underground bunker. My experience with these come from doing some contract work in the midwest at a decommissioned Nike Hercules missile site. The site I was at had these long underground tunnels that seemed to go on forever. I don’t see much evidence of that here.
Some kind of vents and a house on the grounds
They seem too close to the exhaust vents to be air-intake; There is also a residential style building in the background that I would assume is for the caretaker of this property.
Possible cooling pool
There is a cement pond nearby with some equipment footings which may have secured some kind of early heat exchanger device.
Basketball court?
There is an overgrown paved surface with two backboards facing each other. I’m sure it was used in the early ’60’s for exercise for those housed inside the bunker. There are some small structures that look like outhouses but I am not sure of their purpose.
It’s a sculpture park:
Terathopius ecaudatus
In Loveland, of course and it’s not near Benson Park; more like at the big new shopping mall. I don’t care much for shopping malls; perhaps that’s why I haven’t been here sooner. No bronze works here, it features stone carvings from Zambabwe for the most part. The above sculpture is the head of Chapugnu, an eagle; it is the name of this 20 acre park with about 80 or so pieces.
Duncan Madog and the Water Woman
The sculptures represent traditional African attitude and close bond to nature.
The stones are infused cobalt, springstone and opal, all varieties of serpentine stone mined in Zimbabwe.
Carved with simple hand tools, many of the works represent families in daily life.
Check out the Chapungu website for more information.
Established by Roy Guthrie in 1970 as a sculpture gallery in town, the works were moved to the present location in 1985. There are plans to build a fancy cultural arts building nearby, but I don’t know when. Stay tuned!
Note: The next few posts have been pre-published while I’m away from a computer!
Alright, there has been a bit of discomfort in the area of the knee:
X-rays are good. Can you tell I broke my left tibia in 1961?
My right knee would hurt whenever I twisted my leg. I could ride a bicycle OK, but it would hurt whenever I tried to dismount. It would also hurt when I drove a car so it seemed like my leg was telling me to STAY ON A BICYCLE! But it was hard to walk on uneven surfaces (and that’s everywhere around here!) and it made hanging out with the samba band difficult.
But now my right knee hurts; What can it be?
And after a few months, the pain didn’t go away on it’s own! Time to see a (gulp!) real doctor and see what’s what! Well, it seems most likely I have a meniscal tear on my knee. Of course a little Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging might show this a little clearer perhaps. Most folks just say ‘MRI’ meaning Magnetic Resonance Imaging, but it’s really Nuclear MRI ! Don’t be fooled! Ha! Ha! No! It’s not ionizing radiation you idiot!
Enter the General Electric Signa MRI
…and just as you might have heard, they are still noisy as ever. I got to wear headphones and when they asked me what radio station I wanted to hear, I said “KRFC please”. I don’t listen to radio very much, so this was the first time I ever heard “Radio Fort Collins” ; It’s “Homegrown Radio for Northern Colorado” or Public Radio. Seems cool; They might even broadcast live samba music some evening. Anyhow, the dog made a movie of it and put it on U-tube here:
NMRI of my leg, why not?
So it appears that it is indeed a meniscal tear and I need to be “SCOPED” as they say. The procedure should happen around 1:00 PM TODAY and I should be home by 4:00PM. They said I should stay in bed for at least 4 to 5 days. I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes! I’ve got my recovery room all ready to go except that I will have NO INTERNET ACCESS FOR 4 to 5 days!!! I know I should have installed a wireless router just like everybody else, but I thought I would wait for the NEXT BIG THING, whatever that might be.
Will I survive not having internet access? Sure, NO PROBLEM!