Howdy folks; Ethan here, reporting in on our teaching day in Cañon City, Colorado. After an absolutely beautiful bike ride yesterday and meeting our amazing host here, we turned in for the night and woke up ready to set up some epic workshops. We were treated to some delicious breakfast by our host Matt (Oh my gosh, yummy) and then we walked/drove over to the absolutely beautiful public library in town. We set up shop and met the librarians, then got ready for the kids. These guys were really fun to work with; I was incredibly impressed by how much so many of them already knew about Physics and spaceflight!
We ran our workshops and had lots of fun. Kawther’s workshop includes some artistic opportunities as the kids learn about rice, and Jonathan was pleased to see some of the kids representing his home state well.
I was genuinely so impressed with Cañon City’s kids and we had a blast getting to teach them and learn a little bit about their community and history.
The librarians helped us learn about the community, too! After we finished the workshops, one very friendly librarian showed us around the space and told us the history of the Cañon City Public Library; it was built using funds donated by Andrew Carnegie, making it one of 1700 built using donations from Carnegie during his lifetime. It was fundraised for and planned by the Women’s Club of Cañon City over a hundred years ago. Sections of the interior are almost entirely original and restored, from floors and windows to chairs, tables, and book racks. It’s a really gorgeous library and we loved learning all about it.
Afterwards, we mentioned our curiosity about the nearby Royal Gorge Bridge and Park and the librarians offered to try and help us find a way to get discounted tickets! We were so grateful for their kindness and they made calls to friends who might be able to help us see the incredible Gorge. Not only were these contacts willing to help, but we actually got free tickets to the park and the gondola too. Thrilled, we returned to Matt’s house for a quick lunch and drove over to the Royal Gorge to see what all the buzz was about.
It’s this. The buzz is about this.
The buzz is so valid, guys!
This place was so pretty.
We spent a lot of time exploring the park. They have everything there! A grand canyon, the Arkansas river, a zipline, a gondola, a (no-longer-functional) incline railway, an old-timey theatre, a water park, a playground, whatever you can imagine! Think of a thing, Royal Gorge probably has it. I really wanted to try out the Skycoaster or Zipline but ended up being pretty satisfied with the gondola ride on our tickets so I didn’t end up doing either of those extra things.
That red iron circle at the back is the original cable that held up the whole bridge.
Having a great time on the gondola.
GOATS!
GOAAATTSS!!
And yeah, we had to play on the playground and go on the carousel. We weren’t about to pass those options up.
We finished up the trip to the park by strolling back across the gorgeous suspension bridge and paying visits to each of our home states along the way. They had every single state flag! They had every single state flag, except for one!
Now, I know what you’re thinking. But Ethan, you’ll say. Utah barely changed its flag like a couple of months ago, surely you can’t expect Royal Gorge Bridge and Park to have adapted so quickly. They probably just only update them once every few years, and since Colorado is so close to Utah, surely they’ll notice it soon and swap it out when they can. But ah, mysterious reader in italic font, you are wrong. You see, RoyalGorgeBridgeandPark did have Minnesota’s spankin’ new flag up. So why my beloved beehive flag was missing, I cannot say.
Okay, rant over. Sorry.
A beautiful flag, designed and implemented before the Minnesota flag :)
Anyway, after we finished our amazing excursion to Royal Gorge, we returned to Cañon City and were treated by the brilliant Matt to the tastiest tofu curry you could imagine. We were over the moon about that one. I then packed up my stuff and got ready to depart for a time, and my teammates cried because they will miss me while I fly out to my great-grandpa’s 100th birthday. To my beloved teammates: It’s okay to miss me. It’s okay to cry. I’ll see y’all in Kansas. Have fun doing the rest of the Rockies for me.
The team (minus me) and the amazing, kind, gracious Matt!
Ta-ta for now.
Ethan