"ABE on the Rocks" at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Winter river scene near Durango, Colorado
View of suspension bridge over Royal Gorge near Canon City, Colorado
*by Barbara Taylor with Homer S. Sewell III *
On March 14 Homer spoke to the students at Engleman Elem School in Grand Island, Nebraska and we left the Sandhill Cranes and headed back to Kansas to Decatur Community High School and Oberlin Elem School in Oberlin. We then drove to the southwest corner of Nebraska to speak at Benkelman Elem/Middle in Benkelman. On St. Patrickís Day we were at Platte Valley Elem in Sedgwick, Colorado. We were out in the middle of nowhere so the principal asked Homer to fire off his cannon. The students, staff and visiting parents enjoyed hearing this authentic sounding miniature cannon. Homer also found a beauty shop open the evening we arrived so he got his ears lowered. He knows he needs a haircut when his stovepipe hat doesnít fit properly.
Some teachers at the school told us how good the food was at Lucyís Cafe so that evening we drove over to find out for ourselves. I had an excellent steak with potatoes and fresh vegetables. Homer had the house special, ìBuffalo steak burgerî. There was so much food we took part of it with us and enjoyed it the next night. We also bought a whole pecan pie that Lucyís 83 year old mother made. She comes in each day to bake pies and we can tell you she knows how to make pecan pies as good as any we have had in Georgia or anywhere else. We enjoyed it for several days.
After leaving the friendly folks there in Sedgwick we drove down to Colorado Springs and stayed at the Fountain Creek RV Park we had stayed at last year while in the area. We drove through a blowing snow storm and a lot of slow traffic between Denver and Colorado Springs. The AbeMobile was not driving very well so on Monday we found someone to work on it. We spent $300 getting new plugs and wires put in. One of the plug wires was broken so that was a major part of our problems. We wish we had put in new wires when we had plugs put in back in Iowa two weeks earlier. It would have saved us some money.
We slept in that Saturday morning and then went shopping in some thrift stores we had discovered last year. Homer bought me some more tins and a really nice fur coat for the cold weather. On Sunday we got up and had a big breakfast at Waffle House. Homer had two helpings of ìGeorgia ice creamî (grits). We then drove about 60 miles to Canon City to the Royal Gorge. We walked across the Worldís highest suspension bridge, rode the tram to the bottom of the gorge and then took the aerial tram across the gorge. It was all beautiful and we took some wonderful pictures.
On Tuesday Homer got a call from Victoria at Georgia Magazine back there in Woodstock. She was writing an article about reenactors and included Homer in the article. She needed some pictures and the ones on his website werenít of good enough quality to use. He promised her he would email her some new pictures taken with the digital camera set on a ìfiner resolutionî. We drove about 5 miles to the Garden of the Gods park. I took about 30 pictures and we picked out several to send to her for the article. Keep an eye for your new EMC magazine when it comes out. ìOur ABEî will be in it.
Homerís only school for the week was 90 miles away in the Denver area at Belleview Christian School in Westminster. They were great students and one of the principals tour him on a tour of the old ìcastleî building that houses a radio station and some of the classrooms. It sits on 500 acres that the church bought 70 or 80 years ago. What a view from the top level! They have two schools in California so we are hoping to be able to visit them while we are there in April.
On Friday morning we left Colorado Springs and drove about 300 miles over two mountain passes and alongside some beautiful frozen rivers to Durango, Colorado. It hato Arizona, Nevada, California and Texas before returning to Jasper. Until next time.....Barbara and Homer signing off.