COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – We broke camp on Monday morning in this city at the base of Pikes Peak after a relaxing five-week stay. We enjoyed seeing family and long-time friends and taking a break from our cross-country travels.
Our stay here has reminded us of one of the many advantages of touring the country in an RV. When we stop at a location where we know people, we don’t need to ask anybody for a place to stay. After socializing, we can say goodnight and head off to our own familiar abode. We can also entertain people with a home-cooked meal and a campfire. We’re temporary neighbors rather than houseguests.
Home for us during our time in the Springs was the Golden Eagle Campground, a few miles south of the city. The RV park is home to the May Natural History Museum (more on that below) and lies across CO 115 from the Army’s Fort Carson. Every night at 10 we could hear the strains of “Taps” and every morning at 6:30 the sound of “Reveille.” In between we sometimes heard and felt the distant thunder of artillery practice. The sounds of freedom.
We lived in Colorado Springs from 1983 to 1995, so we can attest first-hand that the city is a great place to live and a great place to visit. The more well-known tourist attractions include the Garden of the Gods, the Air Force Academy Chapel, the Broadmoor Hotel, and the Pikes Peak Highway and Cog Railway. During our recent stay there, we visited three other attractions that are worth checking out:
Glen Eyrie— This is an English-style castle home built in 1904 by the city’s founder, Gen. William Jackson Palmer, in a secluded valley near the Garden of the Gods. The property has been owned since the 1950s by the Navigators, a Christian organization that provides tours. It’s a beautiful spot, with rising cliffs and rock formations. The castle contains 19th century English woodwork and lots of history connected to Gen. Palmer and the founding of the city in 1871. Gen. Palmer is “the man on the iron horse,” the title of a short, readable biography and a reference to a statue of him at the downtown intersection of Nevada and Platte avenues.
Olympic Museum— Colorado Springs is home to the US Olympic Committee, Olympic Training Center, and the new U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum. The museum is located in a futuristic building in the downtown area and opened in July 2020. The entry fee is a bit steep at $25 per adult and $15 for kids 3-12, which would add up quickly for a family. I went on my own and enjoyed many of the high-tech interactive exhibits. As someone who has been watching the Olympics since the 1970s, I did find myself wanting to see more archival footage of classic Olympic moments. The highlight of the tour was the film at the end on the Olympic spirit, with the testimony of athletes accompanied by video clips of their performances. In the darkened theater, I found myself coughing repeatedly to disguise the fact that I was getting choked up with emotion. (Here’s a more extended review from Springs Magazine.)
May Natural History Museum— This fantastic collection of insect specimens is connected to the Golden Eagle campground where we stayed. The collection was started more than a century ago by James May and popularized by his son John May, who relocated the collection to its current venue just south of the city in the 1950s. Today his descendants manage the museum and campground. If you’re into bugs, you’ll be amazed by this collection. (Entry is a reasonable $8.) On display are more than 8,000 specimens of beautiful butterflies, giant beetles and stick bugs, and lots of big, hairy spiders! The collection has been valued at $5-6 million, and Walt Disney even offered to buy it when he was in town in the 1950s, but the family turned him down. The story of the museum was featured in this 2015 segment of the Fox Business channel’s “Strange Inheritance with Jamie Colby.” Further below are some of the more memorable bugs I saw.
Note the baby scorpions on its back. 
***
On Monday we towed the RV more than 300 miles to Douglas, WY, where we plan to visit the Wyoming State Fair and attend a rodeo Wednesday night. Then it’s on to the Dakotas and Minnesota later this month.
Daniel Griswold's Blog 
Great stuff