Lucynda Storey-Erotic Romance Writer

We journeyed the backroads from Canon City, CO toward our destination, interrupting the drive to walk Riverside Park in Salida.  Breaking up the ride helped stretch out my tired back and get some exercise in. 

From Salida we took a state highway into Hooper, home of the UFO Watchtower.  I had been to the white painted scaffolding some six years ago and climbed the metal to face the east and the sand dunes and the home of the “Ant People”. 

I’d like to say the Watchtower is for those who are seriously in pursuit of knowledge for  the search for extra-terrestial life, but sadly, it is an attempt to keep a large ranch from going under. The owner of the ranch can no longer afford the water it would take to irrigate the land for grass to run cattle and so has this beautiful desert like acreage that is missing a steady income stream. 

 

The Watchtower, whose dome-shaped gift shop which once housed interesting books on UFO’s and ET’s was depleted of anything remotely interesting.  Outside, viewable from the scaffold or by way of a walk-through was a “garden” that displayed various personal remnants from past visitors to the Watchtower.  Some of these objects were in areas that were reputed to have some sort of energy field that you could feel when you walked in the area.  Perhaps I’m too skeptical, but all I felt were the energies of the Watchtower owners trying to save the ranch.

We left the Watchtower and headed toward the town of Hooper proper.  Just before we got there we turned on a small county road toward the property of Colorado Gators, another site I visited some six years ago. 

Perhaps it was the time of year, but everything around this area seemed far less prosperous that the last visit.  We were the only family at the facility and we picked up our bucket of gator snacks and went through the little “zoo” where various reptiles resided.  There were two tortoises, and several phythons/boas, and a fish tank. Colorado Gators originally started in the late 70’s when a man raising tilapia needed a way of disposing of fish remains.  Research, plus a naturally occurring hot spring to feed his ponds led to the import of one hundred Florida gators, sixty of which still survive to this day.  

 

Outdoors there were several ponds which housed gators of different sizes.  Throwing gator kibble into the water, kibble designed to float, attracted the reptiles, who snapped at the pieces sideways.  We didn’t get the chance to ask but our curiosity was aroused as to how the gators knew the kibble was in the water.  Was it the sound of the splash, the vibrations from the toss, or perhaps some keen sense of smell that attracted these throwbacks to the days when dinosaurs ruled the earth?

 A great, cold wind blew up from the west and we stayed outdoors as long as we could stand the chill.  The larger of the ponds held gators a good ten feet long and with cold, nearly evil eyes.  It’s strange to attach such premeditation to a creature whose only instincts are for survival. My son and I barely made it indoors before a powerful thunderstorm unleashed its energy on the area; a common late afternoon occurrence according to one of the proprietors.  We waited out the lengthy cloudburst, surprised to discover the temperature had dropped some fifteen degrees.

In Alamosa, CO we were able to stop for a fair in the park.  It was a picture perfect Colorado afternoon.  A slight breeze with a hint of brisk, cooler temperatures which followed a summer storm.  We walked around and saw the various ways entrepenuers earned their weekend income.  A taste of Twisted Tators and then we were off.  But not before we found the library having a booksale in a parking lot across the street.

We did run into a bit of a problem at the Days Inn in Alamosa, who insisted we pay for our room a second time after we gauranteed reserved it online with our credit card which meant in this particular case it should have been paid for.  I guess we’ll just have to see if we are double billed.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 9th, 2007 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Lucynda Storey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.