We had seen the advertisement for a pancake breakfast and airshow several days before the event. We told Jason we were going to get pancakes for breakfast and drove to Salida for the accompanying airshow. After we had the pancake breakfast (all you can eat) it started to rain so we left and went downtown where we could be undercover. We also took a side trip to the Spiral Mountain, where they have an incredible series of bicycle runs; little too advanced for us. I took these first three photos in the morning, before the rain started. There was a P-51 scheduled to fly in but the weather kept him out.This is an experimental acrobatic aircraft.And this is an experimental acrobatic aircraft as well.
When this pilot landed he did a Nascar-type spin with his smoke generator on. This is the Republic P-47 plane diving straight downand a fast fly by. Boy, radial engines are loud!The pilot appeared to be the same vintage as the airplane. The Republic P-47 airplane could achieve over 500 MPH and was the heaviest single engine fighter in World War II.This was the only jet on the agenda. It was a French trainer but was also used in combat.It did a couple of fly bys but is in no way an acrobatic plane.Jason is almost as tall as some of the specially built acrobatic planes.At the end of the show, the rescue group left to go back to work. They use a lot of drones in their work, including some of the consumer DJI equipment. It is amazing how useful drones are in search and rescue operations.
After the airshow we took a ride to the top of Monarch Pass (11,952 feet) and saw this old mining operation on the side of the road.We visited the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville for the first time. Somehow we have always missed it; not enough time in a day. It was a great deal larger than we imagined and we wound up spending most of the rest of the day there. There were rooms and rooms filled with gemstones and minerals, grouped by state and country of origin. This is just one small display case.These are something you hear about in the older mines but never really think about . . . they are cages for canaries that the miners carried as safety equipment.I had to take a photo of this battery-operated headlamp. It was considered state-of-the-art in its day and won many awards. Today the whole apparatus, including batteries would fit in a case smaller than the lamp itself and be literally hundreds of times brighter and last hours longer. “In 1913 Thomas Edison’s won the Ratheman Medal for this lightweight storage battery design”.Jason is with an old “rocker” used to separate gold ore from gravel in placer type mining operations.This is a time clock manufactured by the Dey Register Company of Syracuse, NY used at the Yak Mining, Milling and Tunnel Company. Employees would “punch in” by shifting the revolving arm to their employee identification number and pushing the pin through the hole in the frame. The time would be recorded on a roll of tape, viewable from the right hand side of the machine. In 1907 the Dey Register Company was acquired by the International Time Recording company which became International Business Machines (IBM) in 1924.There were several life-size dioramas. Recognize anyone? Another had a blasting operation going on that frightened Jason.
Along with mining comes fossils. These came from the Kenilworth Coal Mine in Carbon City, Utah. There were many more examples on display. The dinosaur footprint is a cast of one made in the ceiling of one of the coal tunnels. Here is the view of Leadville from the second level porch of the museum. We were advised to call them if the door got stuck and locked us out. It did not.The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum as seen from the street.
Travelling with the Schinglers 
Like that time clock!
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