Day 19: Alumafandango at Lakeside, Colorado.

Our 2 nights at Clear Creek was great and we were fortunate to luck out on such a nice location. We are going to have to come back another time to do more exploring in Golden. But today, we have a date to keep in Lakeside. It is the first day of Alumafandango and registration starts at 9am.

We had all the intentions of getting there early but our best effort managed to get us there around 1pm. Lakeside is only about an 8 mile drive from Golden and it is directly adjacent to Denver in a half mile square area.

We arrived and were given a token that will serve as our ticket to the Friday night free-for-all at the amusement park.

The event is held in Lakeside Amusement Park that has been in continuous operation for over 100 years. Besides the city being one of the smallest in the country, the amusement park is also one of the oldest, family-owned parks in the U.S..

We backed into our 30-amp site right next to the vintage trailer showcase area next to another International Ocean Breeze 25FB. It is owned by a nice couple from San Luis Obispo, California, Michael and Nancy. They live about 2 hours north of where we used to live in Ventura.

On the other side, our neighbor is a nice lady who owns not one, but 4 vintage Airstreams. She is from Midland, Texas and came with her newly remodeled 1948 Weewind. It is one of 50 ever made and only about 9 are known to exist.

The spaces we are in are pretty tight. The only way we were able to get both of our awnings out is to rest one side on top of Michael and Nancy’s.

Our neighbors for the week got the last of the ice cream from the ice cream social and were nice enough to share one with the girls!

There are just a handful of familiar faces here like Rich and Brett who are the guys responsible for putting together this show. There are also a handful of attendees/fellow bloggers who we have been following via their blogs and social networks. Rich here is talking to Kyle Bolstadt from WhereIsKyleNow.com and the young couple, Josh and Jessa with their little boy Jack to the right are the Works family from 1337stream.com. Ava and Mila are thrilled to have another kid to play with and I smell some trouble brewing.

The amusement park is an interesting place. This event is co-produced by Timeless Travel Trailers who specialize in Airstream customizations. The owner, Brett Hall, who also happens to be one of the consulting engineers of the amusement park was instrumental in making this event happen.

This area where all of the campers are parked, was used for many years as just a place to pile abandoned junk. Just a few weeks ago, there were over 1 million lbs of debris that they hauled out of here in preparation for this. Just within the last week, they also brought in enough dirt to raise the level of the ground by nearly 2 feet.

A lot of the work is continuing even while we are here. Being that it is at an amusement park in the middle of the city, they had plenty of power and permanent 30-amp power panels were put in to supply many trailers who opted for this upgrade.

As in any inaugural event, there are bound to be glitches in the plan. Even though the power panels are in place, they are still in the process of testing and connecting power to them. Also there was a problem with the water supply and we were glad to have left Clear Creek this morning with a topped off tank.

I give a lot of credit to Rich, Brett and their whole crew for putting on this event at a location that was essentially built from scratch. Most attendees are fairly understanding of the trouble they have had and are glad to be here.

Ava and Mila are becoming fast friends with Jack already on the first day of the event.

As we are getting settled in for the week, we are excited about all of the activities they have in store for us. Like taking a tour of this rare and unique 40-ft vintage Western Pacific Airstream.

If you are in the Denver area, be sure to stop by and say hello to everyone here. If you find these kids running loose and causing trouble, bring them by the trailer with www.MaliMish.com in the back window.

over and out,
dan