Michael 31 Aug 09

Been of line for past 3 days I was fortunate to be hosted by Dick and he has a cabin out of town, it has no computer or TV very peaceful. so what has happened, Sunday we went to Princeton Hot Springs in the morning only 15 min. walk from the cabin, Angela and Emma arrived a bit later in the morning with Dick. Mandy was out with Kym the DOW officer till about 12noon. After lunch Mandy had arranged to go out again with Kym to release two young Coyotes back into the wild and invited all of us to go and see the release so I went the others stayed in the pools. It was fun to see the young Coyotes taste freedom and to fine their way around the wide open spaces, we took Mandy home and Kym and I went out to check on hunters, as hunting season with bows had open on Saturday, while out we got a call from a member of the community that a deer was injured and required Kym's assistance on the way to the seen we came across a large black bear, what a magnificent animal and to see it in it's natural environment was special the deer's out come was not so good unfortunately. Monday saw us have a quiet morning and a presentation to the Salida Rotary Club at lunch time before a 4hr road trip to Durango. The trip took us up over Wolf Creek Pass about 10,000ft. with magnificent views of both sides of the Great Divide. In Durando we meet our host at a hotel in the main street, two actors reenacted an old shoot out in the street very entertaining and a good introduction to this very old town.

Mandy's experience on Friday/ Saturday

As Angela and Emma have already detailed we arrived in Salida on Friday. On being greeted by out hosts we were all then off to our respective vocational activities. I was off to the Buena Vista Prison, which may seems like an unlikely place for me to go - but in fact was a very good experience. Whilst at the prison I spent time going through Intelligence within the Prison systems, focusing on gangs and the systems for sharing information. Unlike Australia prisons in Colorado have their own Department of Corrections Investigators who investigate any offence which impacts on the prison systems eg corruption of any public officers providing information to inmates, assaults, threats and criminal or internal matters they investigate and forward the file to respectively to either the District Attorneys or Management. The actual systems in the prison are similar to that of what I have experienced at home - it is simply the databases and sharing of information which is very different. Whilst at the prison I also got to have a tour - not what I had expected to do and so as I am walking past many convicted men in my slightly heeled shoes (clip clopping down the corridors) of whom I had just seen the list of paper which had their gang listings, thinking "hmmm is their enough guards here if something goes wrong? And - I wished I had wore flat shoes." Anyway nothing remotely scary happened and I was fine. I ended my tour by calling into the programs area of the prison and got to hear about schooling and educational activities that are offered to the prisoners. In the prison I visited there were about 1500 prisoners and it was a medium facility. Department of Corrections employees are State employed and so this was one of the first areas I have visited which means the employees can move around from city to city or town to town without leaving their agency and starting from scratch.
Friday night we were part of the Celebrity Fly-fishing charity event which the Rotary Clubs of Salida and Buena Vista were involved in organizing. It was a good night - where Angela ended up with many cigars - which were part of the packs we were given. We left the event just before it ended and were able to visit a local pub with my host Ernie and watch the Rockies were play San Fransisco
I also got to experience a roadside caution for a traffic matter on the way to the prison which was kind of funny to watch.
Saturday we went to quiet a few place today - including Independence Pass, Leadville, Turquoise lake. We were pretty tired at the end of the day from traveling around but we ended the day with attending a Double Haul Cookout. Tomorrow I have a early start as an additional vocation visit with the Department of Wildlife. I will be starting at 5.30 AM (eeccckkkkk - but it should be good.) I will catch up with everyone else later in the day for some hot spring relaxation.

Stop the press!

Emma says: While the New York Times hasn't come calling just yet, the team is creating quite a media frenzy wherever we travel in Colorado.

Our first brush with celebrity occurred in the small town of Rocky Ford where we made the front page of the Rocky Ford Gazette. We have since been interviewed by staff from the Canon City Daily Record, the Florence Citizen, and the Mountain Mail - with all GSE feature editions due to hit newstands next week!

I was also fortunate enough to have my own brush with media super stardom via Canon City's own KLRN radio station (apparently it has a rather large following from the inmates at the 7 prisons surrounding the town!). I made a brief but I would suggest memorable appearance on the morning talk show which featured the local County Commissioners (a group of elected officials charged with administering the county government in some states of the US).

Over the next couple of weeks our GSE tour will take us further into the mountains and closer to those areas frequented by the rich and famous, such as Aspen, Telluride and Durango. With our new-found celebrity status I think we will fit right in!...

Moving On

We headed west this morning to a beautiful little town called Salida, on arrival I was pleasantly informed that I will be sharing my host family with Emma.
We had one hour to unpack and get ready for our vocation day, I was excited to be in Salida as I was very interested in a shop called “THE MIXING BOWL”. Katy & Bob Grether (owners) have a young daughter with a disability; they opened this wonderful shop that sells kitchen ware so their daughter could have employment, this has been so successful that they now have a partnership with Starpoint and employ 12 people with a disability, of course I could not leave the shop without purchasing something and walked out with a great gift for my employees back home.
Starpoint also has a lot of history, I meet with Bill Davis, he has worked at Starpoint for twenty five years. Starpoint used to have a workshop but in 1988 closed this section down and started to integrate the consumers into the community, the community has been of great support. Everybody that I meet today had such a positive approach it was quiet refreshing.
For lunch my new host family treated me to a lunch at the Boat House this is right on the Arkansas River, it is a popular spot, when the river is high enough you can watch water rafting and kayaks whilst having a beer or two.
Tonight the team will be assisting the Salida Rotary club with their annual fundraiser. I am hoping it will not be all work and no play.

Highest highs, lowest lows...

Emma says: Today was clearly designed by someone determined to cure me of my desperate fear of heights! But overall a great day out in Canon City. We started out with a tour of the Holcim Cement Plant on the outskirts of a nearby town called Florence - who would have thought there was so much to know about cement! You wouldn't think this would cause too much distress for someone like myself but the tour was completed with a trip in an open air (and very jolty) elevator to the top of the highest tower in the plant, 340 feet or 100 metres above the ground. It was ridiculously scary but from the top you can see all the way to Kansas, or so I was told - I wasn't game to look!

Lunch was at the newly formed Rotary Club in Florence where we received yet another warm reception from the members (and another good feed!).

In the afternoon we were taken for a quick drive around a couple of the many prisons in the area before we headed up to the Royal Gorge Bridge for one of the highlights of our trip so far. The word spectacular does little to describe this beautifully breaktaking area. The brochure describes it as "the Grand Canyon meets the Golden Gate Bridge" - this may give you some idea of what we were witness too.

First stage of the afternoon involved crossing the 1,100 feet (340 metre) canyon in an aerial tram (much like the cable cars in Switzerland). Absolutely breath-taking views across the mountains and down to the Arkansas River below (once again, so I'm told!). On the other side Angela and Michael showed their bravery by taking a ride on the SkyCoaster. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it except to say they were harnessed in like you would be if hang-gliding, but attached to a long cable attached to a tower above. They were then released from a free-fall tower to swing at 80kph over the gorge (yep, 350 metres above the ground). Kudos to you both - you are much braver than I!

Speaking of bravery, after conquering the cable car, it was now time to cross the Royal Gorge Bridge itself. This was something that terrified me - mainly because the bridge was made of wooden sleepers (like a jetty) that allowed you to see through the gaps between them to the 350 metre drop below... I tiptoed gently across the half kilometre bridge like the slightest move would cause the bridge to crumble (a distinct possibility given how much Ive eaten on this trip!) but probably a little pointless given the bridge also hosted cars and they regularly rattled past us - much to my displeasure!

Finally we took the Incline Railway (like a funicular) down to the bottom of the canyon to see the Arkansas River close up. After the trauma of the day, this was much less taxing and I was able to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Dinner tonight at a beautifully located private cabin on the very edge of the Gorge before stopping for a few well deserved drinks on the way home.

A special thanks to my fabulous hosts Pat and Elizabeth who gave Angela and I the grand tour today and who have been like a family away from home over the past couple of days!

Michael : 26th August 2009

Today Started with my first visit to a fire station, after the usual paper work got down to meeting the crew on shift. It happened to be a training day for Hazmat, so sat in on a classroom discussion for about 1.30hrs before the first job a young boy caught up a tree about 10mts up on a 50ml branch. successful outcome lunch at Canon City Rotary Club for our presentation then Bach to the station and a long and interesting talk about the differences between our two services. Later went on a call to for SOB job interesting to be on a rescue truck and have firemen actively treating the patient give drugs and then hand over to a ambulance crew for transport. Mandy spent the day at PD in Canon City had a informative time visiting most of the departments, Ang and Emma had time with their host in the afternoon and vocational time in the morning. This evening we went to Pat and Elizabeth's for Tea that a great night and Angela made Cowboys for all the hosts and visitors most have not seen or heard of Cowboys it made for a very enjoyable evening. Angela has been wanting to see bears, and every body saying they come out at night and raid the rubbish bins, so she has a cunning plan to hide out in the bins until they come out, just to make shore it will work she try ed the bins to see if she can fit, very funny to see her looking out of a bin.

Mandy : Tuesday 25th August.

Well today after spending a wonderful few days in Pueblo we woke up this morning all sad to leave our hosts and our respective team members’ hosts. It truly had been a wonderful couple of days doing things in our vocations as well as other things like kayaking, sailing, hiking, watching football practice, getting some great ideas from visiting the health care green certified building, and of course shopping. I had a fantastic visit and then tour of the Pueblo Police Department (current and future stations). Outstanding facilities are not to far away for them to enjoy. It was great walking through the building during construction with my hard hat and vest.
Anyway enough of the past, and onto what happened today after the farewells. Today we arrived in Canon City. Some facts for those of you who are not familiar with Canon City (as I have been told today – so if I am wrong I will pass on the comments to my advisor)
- Around the 1860 mining started in the area and around 1890 it became bigger with the discovery of gold
- In the district there are around 46, 000 people but that includes 9,000 prisoners
- In the City the population is around 20,000.
- I think there are currently 13 prisons operating in this area (a mixture of federal and state prisons.) The reason I say I think is I have been told conflicting numbers today by different people.
- There is a mountain that people say is an Indian princess (lying down) who was killed in retaliation.
- There are many dinosaur fossils collected from this area (I was fortunate enough to see some footprints today at Skyline drive.)
Today I went for a couple drives around the district (thank you to both drivers) I saw some amazing sites of the mountains, farming, wildlife (well at least one deer – thousands of those vermin called squirrels – but no mountain lions, bears or lynx - my fingers are still crossed that we will see these creatures.)
Following the drive we were treated to wine tasting at Abbey Winery (great place for all you locals and visitors to call into – some very nice wines there for you to pick up for yourself), so thanks to Canon City Rotary club for organizing this we really enjoyed the wine, food and hospitality.
I then parted company with my colleagues and went and spent several hours with some police officers and had a truly great time with them. I am very much looking forward to going back there tomorrow to spend more time with them. I am being hosted at the moment by the Chief of Police who has an extreme wealth of experience and knowledge so when I get any chance of free time we have been talking about career advice and tips – so you can imagine how pleased I am to be in Canon City.
PS – I have seen the first clothes line in USA, I thought no-one over here had them because everyone seems to have dryers - great surprise I was very excited to see it that I in fact had to take a picture of it. We have also only seen 1 dual flush toilet in the USA so that had to have photo taken of it also. I won’t see a water tank because we are told it is illegal to catch the water.

PPS -The dentists in Canon City are reported very nice and cheaper than Australia - as Angela discovered after spending some time in their office today... she can fill in on all the details (infection, and tooth can't be removed when there is an infection apparently).
(Well that fact session is over for today.)
Cheers Mandy