CLINTON LAKE AND STATE PARK NEAR LAWRENCE, KANSAS and REUTER'S ORGAN COMPANY

We took a day off from travel today and Gary always finds something that we can do.
We arrived at Clinton Lake State Park near Lawrence KS on Tuesday, July 21st (It sure reminds us of West Branch in Ohio)!!  Very nice and big lots.  Too bad we are not staying longer here as it would be a great place to relax.
We sat here in late afternoon yesterday after setting up home (put all slides out this stop)  and what scenery from the window and door!!

I do believe that they could tell when we made any movement behind the window, as they finally left in a hurry.

As usual, Gary found something for us to see in Lawrence.  So we are running about on Wednesday morning.  We've always been fascinated, even though we are not musically inclined, with the organs at Pizza and Pipes in Florida and Organ Stop in Arizona.  So we stopped at Reuter Organ Company here in Lawrence KS where the finest organs are made today with modern technology and old-world craftsmanship.  They also restore/repair.  They will take you through their plant. Awesome!!
They started the business in 1917 in downtown Lawrence in an empty warehouse when asked by the elders of the town to stay.  In later years they moved from downtown to this industrial park.   They employ 30 to 35 people.

Router used for the fancy work on the wood cabinets.

Ingots they make in their own furnace,
of zinc and lead.

He is soldering tubes for the pipes.

This gal was willing to smile for the camera
with her wiring components in her hands.

Gary is eating up all the mechanical
details that Dave was willing to share on our tour.

What we can not see, when the organ is being played.
The stage is too far away.

A cutaway display of  the organ pipes.

Now we are in Dave's domain where he tests
as it is assembled.

Different pipes for different instrument sounds.

Rolls of sheet metal before it is used to form the pipes.
The pipes can be made of zinc/lead, copper, or plain zinc.

This organ is ready to be reinstalled in it's home church
somewhere in Texas, but the church is not ready yet.

Here we meet John at work when we find out
that he tests them when finished.

It was a great tour and we were so glad that we made the trip into Lawrence, only a few miles.

When signing the guest book at the front desk, we noticed a familiar name from across the street in our old neighborhood on Goshen Road in Ohio. They no longer live there, but we felt that it is the fellow who toured the plant just yesterday.  Shame we weren't a day sooner.  He now lives in Middletown Ohio, so will check it out.  Tim and Victor played together many, many times, especially through the lower grades. It sure proves over and over to be a small world!

Leaving Reuter, we still had to find a post office to mail an envelope and in the process we checked out downtown's Massachusetts St.  It is a beautiful and interesting town. Hope to come back again another day.

On our return to the campground,  we drove around the campground and the lake and took a few pictures to share also.

We drove through the other campground within the park and guess what we saw!  Mamma!!

So pretty!!!

Another fun day.  Take care and God Bless.  Maybe in the next Blog I will show you a couple interesting pictures of a tow bar that we had to replace.

PIKE'S PEEK near COLORADO SPRINGS

Friday, July 17th --
Colorado is known for their many over 14000 feet mountains, including the famous Pike's Peek at 14,115.  We took the COG RR up and loved it!  That is to be our last adventure in Colorado.  But we had one more unexpected adventure early Saturday morning.  I will tell you about it at the end of this Blog.
So enjoy the pictures from Pike's Peek.  There were others who drove up and those who hiked.  We liked our method best!
Enjoy the pictures --
Looks like we are driving into a Swiss Village --

Now houses a Historical Society and Museum
Awesome just from the outside!

Now arriving at the Depot --

Beginning our climb and the size of the granite boulders was amazing --

Beautiful Pine and Aspen

We passed a couple other trains on their return trip, and on our return trip we passed one going up which had one of the Scout Troops that we met yesterday at the Air Force Academy.
We are now above 9000 feet and soon to be above the tree line.  Trees do not grow above this line as the ground is frozen from a very shallow level, year round.  Thus very little plant life above this line. And there is much smaller stone now. However, there is wild life known for this high terrain.

Now we watch the cars and trains returning from the summit, and the snow is still there in patches --

Summit at last.  We had enough time to walk the perimeter to take pictures, go to the restrooms and shop in the souvenir shop --

Gary, at the end of the line!

Our train waiting for our return trip.  Watch the weather change just as we board!!

One of two lakes that we could see.

Rain turned to sleet!!
The temperature and wind changed dramatically
in minutes!!

The Aspens are not individual trees
according to our conductor.
They are of one organism and
grow from one to another continuously.

The water ran along the tracks on one side or the other
most of our trip.

Trip over, now time for dinner and softer chairs!!
We stopped in Old Town Colorado Springs at the Mason Jar.  Good food and plenty to take home for another day.  The crowd arrived shortly after we did.  We were early but hungry.  We had to wait a couple minutes for 4 pm to get our baked potatoes.

Now to tell you what happened this morning, when we started out on our first trek to Kansas.  We did get an early start and stopped for gas fill-up and then to connect the car and motor home. Our trek begins and the roads that Gary chose were good and traffic wasn't bad.  We avoided I-25 except for the few miles.
We came upon a traffic light that turned red and I had to stop rather quickly.  When I started up, the tow bar broke and I had to get off the road.  When I went back to check it out, the safety cables were stretched and the tow bar was broken off at the hitch part.  I disconnected it from the CRV and put it into the back of the CRV.  After that Audrey drove the CRV and I drove the motor home.  We made it to Hays, KS and are stopped for the night at Wal-Mart.  We will finish in the morning with about 200 more miles to go to Lawrence, KS, driving separately again!  Keep us in your prayers.