On Monday we checked out of our fabulous VRBO and said goodbye to another deer neighbor at 10:00. We enjoyed the beautiful mountain ranges on our way and passed a cool farm with brand new roofing on all the buildings. We then arrived at Bishop Castle, an "elaborate and intricate" "one-man project" named after its constructor, the late Jim Bishop, that has become a roadside attraction in central Colorado. It wasn’t too far out of our way and the four of us flying out all had late flights so we went.

 

The entrance tower with working portcullis was just the beginning of the amazing attraction inside the entrance tower was a narrow staircase that went all the way to the top. Wow! One man built all this?! Love the dragon head. All the steps, the windows, the rock walls, the towers, wrought iron,…incredible.

 

Theresa and Elaine stayed on the ground to be emergency contacts in case anyone didn’t make it. The other four climbed the outside stone staircase to the ballroom at the first level—the room with all the stained glass windows on it. Marilyn stopped at the ballroom level. Brenda went most of the way in the south tower. Karen and Sherry ventured above that to the big globe. (Thanks, Marilyn, for the great zoom photos from your cool phone.)

 

As if that wasn’t high enough, Sherri and Karen next climbed the tower. First around the outside, then to go further up, they climbed narrow interior stairs until they reached the top exterior witch’s cap. Marilyn’s video captures some of their incredible climb.

 

 

 

After Bishop Castle, we drove out of the mountains into the flatlands and on to Pueblo for lunch. We found Rocco’s Riverside Deli—a family-owned deli by the river in an old Arby’s. Remember when Arby’s buildings looked like a Conastoga Wagon?

 

Very cool mammatus clouds! (Thank you, Sherri, for teaching us about them.)

 

There’s the rock that looks like a castle, hence the name of this town is Castle Rock.

 

We had time to kill in Denver before our flights. We found out about a place called Museum of Outdoor Art. Turns out it’s only open when there are events at the venue. But we saw some of the art through the fence. Some of the finials on the fence were made by local artists. Mostly we saw sculptures. The text under the griffin statue translates (I think) to “peace be with you dear angel.”

 

All our flights were within 60 minutes of each other, Yvonne’s being last. Then the first two were delayed so Yvonne’s ended up being first. We got there early and now we had even more time to kill.