A Sad Day for Our Country

(Buckley AFB, Aurora, CO)  Hi 100 Lo  57 -- The first thing we heard this morning when we turned on the news was the shooting at the movie theater here in Aurora. It happened only four miles from us. We had thought about going to a movie yesterday afternoon at that same theater but decided not to because we were waiting on our car to be fixed. We would never have any interest in going to a midnight show, so it's not one of those "we would have been there except for..." things. Just a strange coincidence that we might have been in the same theater hours before it happened. We’re so sorry for the victims and their families. It's so sad that people can't even enjoy an evening at the movies without being in danger. In our travels today we drove past the area of the apartment where the shooter lived. Of course we couldn't get very close.


We tried to take our minds off the shooting by driving out to Golden, CO and take in the Coors Brewery tour. It brought us closer to the mountains. Here's a few pictures of the mountains for our family members who have never been out west. (Click on the pictures to make them larger)




The M on the mountain in the picture below is for the Colorado School of Mines, a college in Golden that dates back to the 1870's. They have a tradition that calls for new students at the college to take a rock up the mountain and leave it by the M. Then when they graduate they hike up and take a rock back as a keepsake. Kind of a neat tradition, but you'd sure have to be in shape to do it.


The historic downtown area of Golden is very pretty, and was very crowded with tourists.


We passed this neat buffalo statue on the main drag.


And this statue of a miner.


When we got  to the Coors brewery we had to wait in line for an hour for a shuttle. It was around 100 degrees, but they had a nice mister, which cooled us off some. I think everyone was thinking it would be cooler here at over a mile high. We were all fooled.


Near the entrance to the brewery.


Inside pictures are taken through glass windows, so they may be a little blurry.

This is the largest single brewery in the USA. They have 50 copper barrels that are used in various stages of the brewing process.


The control room where they monitor all of the activities in the brew house.


A display of all the various brands brewed by Miller/Coors Brewing Company.


Packaging area. It was cool watching the machines shove the cans of beer into the cardboard boxes, seal them up, and run them up onto the conveyor belt.


Almost everything is automated. We saw very few people around, but they do have about 3,000 employees.


In the tasting  room you could sample up to three glasses of beer.


One of the reservoirs that supplies water for the brewing process.


I took this picture from the Coors parking lot. Interesting rock formation that reminded us a little of Devils Tower.


When we got back to the truck Jim called to see about my car. They didn't get all the parts in that they needed this morning. The missing parts came in this afternoon, but they won’t be able to finish the work until Monday. However, we did take them up on the offer of a rental car for the weekend. I drove the rental car home behind Jim in the truck. The traffic was heavy and a couple of cars got between Jim and me. I didn't see him turn and he ended up calling me on the phone to get me back on track. We finally made it back to the base, made a quick stop at the Shopette for milk, then got home to our cool RV.

We're going to get out tomorrow, we're just not sure where. There’s still  lot we want to see in the area.