We left home about 10am today and headed toward Burlington, Colorado, home of the Kit Carson County Carousel and Museum. We made a lunch stop at Los 3 Garcia in Byers, Colorado. The food was okay, but they are VERY proud of their soft drinks - $4.50 for a pepsi! We chalked it up to needing a break and that helped pay for our time out of the car. :)
We arrived in Burlington a little after 2pm and made our way to the Carousel and Museum. This little museum which is housed at the county fairgrounds is quite interesting. Admission is only $1.00 per person and today they had free rides on the carousel which we took advantage of. Rides are normally 25 cents! Inside the museum there is loads of information about the history of carousels and photographs from the early 1900s.
The Kit Carson County Carousel, also known as PTC number 6, was built in 1905 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for Elitch Gardens in Denver. It was purchased by the Kit Carson County commissioners in 1928 for $1,200! That price included sending it from Denver by train to Burlington, setting it up and an operator to teach them how to run the carousel! During the Depression, the building it is housed in was used for feed storage and the carousel fell into a state of disrepair. With Colorado's centennial celebration in 1976, the decision was made to restore the carousel to its original condition. Renovations were finally completed in 2001!.
The Carousel has 46 hand-carved animals that have been restored to their original paint. The animals have intricate carvings, real antlers on the deer and real horse tails on many of the horses! The music is provided by an 1909 Wurlitzer Monster Military Band Organ that also had to be completely rebuilt because rats had chewed all of the tubing while it was not in use!
We rode on the zebras - because I didn't do that in Africa!
After our ride, we had the opportunity to go "behind the scenes" and go inside to see the inner workings of the carousel! Dave, the operator, showed us the motor and explained how it worked. He was great and we enjoyed the special attention!
Back on the road we made our way to our next stop - Wilson, Kansas. Why Wilson? you may ask. Wilson promotes itself as the "Czech Capital of Kansas" due to the role of Czech immigrant settlers in the early history of the town. So what? you may ask. WELL ... Wilson also happens to be home to the world's largest Czech egg and we had never seen it before. It towers 20 feet into the air and is painted in the fashion of Central-Eastern Europe's famous eggs. The pattern on this egg is a traditional Czech design.
There were painted eggs all over the town - but none even close to as large as the world's largest!
We had a picnic dinner at the water park before getting back on the road to our stop overnight in Salina, Kansas. There are miles and miles of wind turbines and small rolling hills and open plains.
After driving almost 500 miles today, we are ready for a rest! Stayed tuned to see where our adventures take us tomorrow!
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