Roadside Mysteries

Or something to do with our little railroad and Avogadro’s Number:

Featuring the Poudre River Irregulars

and perhaps the Blue Grass Patriots were in town for the benefit concert for the crippled FCMRR trolley car. Do they need $6.022×10²³ to fix it? No, maybe more like around $20,000.

The Early Crowd

We came early because we had tickets for Open Stage’s Sherlock Holmes show but I certainly hope more people came for the Bluegrass Patriots!

One of FCMRR’s Trolley conductors enjoying the show

The Trolley Barn around 1947

We hope they can get car 21 back in operation by May 2011. I’ll be stopping in at the barn soon to help out (and take a few pictures too!).

At the Botanic Gardens:

The number one place to see when you come to Denver

Holy Cow! The macro option on my camera is working!

For some unknown reason the dual image display on the old Minolta camera is a little flakey.  Today it worked beautifully!

I don’t know what it is, but it looked cool.

…and there were Moore statues!

and more Moore !

The whole event is called “Monumental Sculptures” in collaboration with the Henry Moore Foundation on display through January 31, 2011.

17 more Moore, not pictured here scattered around the gardens

The CEO at Gould Labs had a number of Moore statues placed on the corporate grounds in Rolling Meadows. It really classed the place up a notch! Hey, I believe I posted something about a Picasso statue at Gould Labs here.

Where the Maytag repairman is buried:

The Iconic Lonely Repairman

In 1989 actor Gordon Jump (remember WKRP in Cincinnati? ) appeared as the Maytag Repairman. It’s now played by Clay Earl Jackson

This is Lee Maxwell

Lee is the washing machine repairman of all time. He is the owner of what he calls The Washing Machine Museum in Eaton, Colorado.  A long time resident of Fort Collins until his retirement as a CSU EE professor, Lee began collecting and fixing up old and beat-up washing machines to the point that he had to build a few extra warehouses keep them all.

The Water Tower

Lee uses the old Eaton water tower for an office and main entrance to his collection. Anywhere on the property one might find and old washer or butter churn (which sometimes doubled as a clothes washer) rusting about, but it can not compare with what Lee has inside!

A small part of the collection

There are at least two good sized rooms containing over 1000 machines along with all kinds of artifacts that Lee and his wife collected over the years.  Everything is placed in neat rows with isles for visitors to easily inspect each machine. Some are connected up so Lee Maxwell can demonstrate how it worked.

The gentile hands of THOR !!

Here’s an agitator that got our attention! Let these  gentile metallic feminine hands do your wash!

Stuff on the side

A detergent named “BARF” and an Ivory Snow box featuring porn star Marilyn Chambers

Parts is parts

Back in the barn is where Lee does all the work refinishing the wood and sand blasting the rusted metal parts. Here is a room where some of the motors are stored.

It really is a farm!

There are swans, turkeys and peacocks roaming around!

Oh, remember that thing I reported on back in October 2008? That big letter A on the side of the hill? It turns out the Lee Maxwell is the grandson of a one R.G. Maxwell who happened to own the land on which the big letter “A” was planted.  He loaned the land to CSU for $1 at the time!

It’s an event hall in Old Town:

In 1907 it was a drill practice area for F Troop, Fort Collins’ National Guard; They kept horses in the basement. It became a ball room then a skating rink and now it’s going to be an events center. Last week there was an open house, so I went in.

The Conference Room

There’s a central stairway up to a small conference room; Not especially private unless you can install the “Cone of Silence” over it, and not very big. But cool nonetheless.

Skylight

The light from the skylight directed me to the Butter Cream Cupcakery that happened to be one of the display vendors at the open house. I hear that they are going to open a new store next to Ben & Jerry’s in Old Town!