Space jumper Felix Baumgartner fell into the history books Sunday, jumping to Earth from the stratosphere and making him the first man to break the speed of sound in free fall.
Starting at over 128,000 feet in a helium-filled balloon, 43-year-old Baumgartner’s record comes exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered airplane.
The Austrian skydiving expert also broke records for the highest free fall and the highest manned balloon flight.
Baumgartner spent five years training for the mission, designed to improve our understanding of how the body copes with the extreme conditions at the edge of space.
Skydivers typically jump from an altitude of 12,000 to 14,000 feet and reach a speed of about 115 miles per hour. Baumgartner’s record, when verified, will be about ten times higher and ten times faster.
“It was an incredible up and down today, just like it’s been with the whole project,” a relieved Baumgartner said in a release from Red Bull, the sponsor of the jump.
“First we got off with a beautiful launch and then we had a bit of drama with a power supply issue to my visor,” added Baumgartner. “It was really a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”
Travel brochures tout tourist-oriented destinations that commonly offer plenty of things to do. Any given place on the planet might have historic significance, a natural wonder of some sort or man-made things to see and do that draw visitors from around the world. The state of Colorado is no exception.
Racks of colorful travel brochures with a variety of attractions can be found in hotels, airports, restaurants and most public places. Stopping a couple days in the Denver area recently, we found some travel brochures that jumped off the rack saying, “take me.” Surely, that’s what they are designed to do; catch our attention over a hundred other brochures competing for our limited time in town.
It’s interesting though, how just one of those brochures can open up an entirely different experience; in this case, one that literally fell out of the sky.
Indoor Skydiving at SkyVenture Colorado in Denver simulates the free-fall part of a sky dive, the time between jumping out of a plane until the parachute is opened – what is commonly referred to as “flying.”
The SkyVenture wind tunnel facility does it so well, that avid and pro skydivers go there to practice what they might do during free fall, in a timely and cost-efficient manner.
Jumping out of a plane, skydivers get about 50 to 60 seconds until they need to deploy their parachute (called a “canopy”). To practice a routine or formation, many of these “drops” are needed and without a wind tunnel that means landing, repacking their parachute, getting back in a plane, taking off and jumping out all over again.
They don’t mind that; in fact, they pretty much live for it. But the Sky Venture wind tunnel allows skydivers to practice efficiently, often with other knowledgeable skydivers looking on, providing helpful tips and feedback.
We were there for something else though.
It was an event that was something new at SkyVenture Colorado, a wind tunnel wedding, believed to be the first-ever. The ceremony, officiated by Native American Douglas Spotted Eagle, joined my daughter Sydney to my new son-in-law Barry.
Both experienced skydivers from different backgrounds, their paths crossed via skydiving.
Sydney Owen, a recent USF graduate, was climbing the corporate ladder at rapid speeds on a path to epic success when skydiving entered the picture. To feed her passion for the sport, she left the corporate world behind and started her own millennial-focused PR firm. Based at Southern California’s Skydive Elsinore, Sydney has jumped out of a perfectly good airplane 300+ times.
Barry Williams, the Director of Elsinore Elevate Advanced Bodyflight at Skydive Elsinore with an extensive pedigree (AFF-I, USPA C/E, FAA Sr. Rigger, for readers in the know), has over 6000 jumps.
Frankly, having anything to do with “Pro Skydiving” was not on my original top-ten list of “Wishes For Our Children.”
But “Be Happy,” “Impact Those Around You” and “Find Someone To Share Your Life With” were probably in the top three and skydiving managed to make hitting all of them possible. Pictured here, their “first dance” after the ceremony.
The SkyVenture Colorado brochure lists a number of services they render, but “life changing event” is not mentioned. It kind of makes one wonder what other attractions might have to offer, beyond the brochure headlines.
Let’s take a look at some other Colorado offerings found on brochure racks throughout the state.
Also flight-oriented, Glider Rides in Boulder, Colorado, are not the small, lightweight hang gliders that these high-performance aircraft are often confused with.
Here an FAA-certified commercial pilot tows the glider, you and another pilot to a suitable altitude. Once there, the glider pilot releases the towline, allowing the aircraft to soar effortlessly and silently with no engine noise. Passengers can take the controls for a portion of the flight or just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Back on solid ground, the Downtown Aquarium in Denver features Diving With The Sharks in which visitors dive into the aquarium’s sunken shipwreck exhibit where they experience Sand Tiger Sharks, Brown Sharks, Zebra Sharks and Barracudas.
Another experience available, Swim With The Fish, lets kids ages 6 and up snorkel with the facilities 350-pound Grouper, Moray Eels and more.
Also water-oriented, Raft Colorado, run by Raft masters since 1989 offers a variety of raft adventures and specializes in group experiences. On the Arkansas River in Canon City and Clear Creek in Idaho Springs, Colorado, Raft Masters provides all the equipment and safety training.
Beginners to advanced rafters at Clear Creek experience some of the best and most exciting whitewater, about 30 minutes away from Denver. Arkansas river programs boast spectacular scenery on America’s most popular rafting river.
Package deals include a Rail & Raft offering that begins with a scenic round-trip train ride through Royal Gorge. After an included buffet lunch, choose an afternoon raft trip on either Bighorn Sheep Canyon or Royal Gorge. A Boat & Bridge package combines Royal Gorge Bridge and Park with a half-day raft trip.
There are thousands of haunted house attractions that open up in cities around the country each year around this time but there’s only one place where you can see the world’s longest snake in captivity, nearly get your leg chomped off by a live alligator and slide five stories from heaven to purgatory to hell. Kansas City’s “The Edge of Hell” claims to be the country’s oldest commercial haunted attraction and some think that it, and its sister attraction, “The Beast,” are the scariest haunted houses in the nation.
When I saw a photo of Medusa, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest snake in captivity, I had to find out more about her and the other attractions at this place. I spoke to Amber Arnett-Bequeaith, whose family owns “The Edge of Hell,” about Medua, Clamp the Alligator and why people still love haunted houses.
How old is Medusa?
She’s 8. We got her as a baby; she was tiny. She weighs over 350 pounds. It takes 15-18 people to get her out and hold her.
Why would you want to do that?
She likes to go for walks in the park sometimes. Only in the summer when it’s very warm. And we get her out for media events. She has a lifestyle cage where she lives in the offseason and she’s in “The Edge of Hell” show during the season.
A lifestyle cage?
(Laughs) She has her own slide. “The Edge of Hell” has a five-story slide where you go from heaven to hell. She has her own slide where she goes down to swim. She loves swimming and she likes to climb trees at the park.
You bring a 25-foot-long snake and let her slither around in public parks? Is that legal?
It’s not a public park; it’s a private area.
What kind of snake is she?
She’s a reticulated python.
Did you have any idea how big she’d get?
No. In captivity, snakes don’t usually eat regularly. But she wants to eat all the time. She’s very hungry. She loves to eat.
How big is she?
Twenty-five feet, two inches.
What does she eat?
She still eats rabbits, but they’re really small for her so she might have to eat 7 or 8 of them at a time. She’s graduated up to eating hogs, goats, deer. She really likes raccoons too.
Hogs, goats and deer? You drag an entire dead deer or hog into her cage for to eat?
No. Constrictors have to kill it themselves, otherwise they won’t eat it. We buy her organic hogs and organic food.
So you put the live animal inside the cage and just let her go at it? That sounds grisly, do you watch this unfold?
The trainer stays in there to make sure she doesn’t choke.
What’s he going to do, give her the Heimlich maneuver?
That’s what we always joke. I don’t know what he would do. Our trainer was made unconscious by a snake before. He passed out before he even knew he was in trouble. His wife saved him.
So does Medusa eat an entire hog or deer in one sitting?
Constrictors swallow hole, so she can’t eat half and save the rest for later. They don’t bite that way. She has to eat it all in one sitting and the lump moves down through her body.
How large an animal can she swallow?
She usually eats 50-75 pounds at a sitting. She needs at least a 50-pound meal about once a month, sometimes more.
And does she snack in between?
No. She just has the one big meal.
Where does she come from?
She comes from the Sulawesi Islands in Indonesia. The trainer bought her on the Internet, but you can’t do that any more.
She doesn’t just slither around the haunted house free does she?
I don’t know, you’ll have to come to the show (laughs). No, she has her own cage at “The Edge of Hell” and we’re open two months out of the year. Her cage is probably 20-by-20, but we’ll have to expand it next year because she’s getting too big for it.
How did she get big enough to make it into Guinness?
A combination of her eating habits and genes. Also, she’s very happy and just loves to eat.
Tell me about “The Edge of Hell.”
“The Edge of Hell” is the oldest commercial haunted attraction in the U.S. It opened in 1975 and this is our 38th season. It’s a family business. Before we did “The Edge of Hell,” we did one called “The Chambers of Edgar Allan Poe.” It got rave reviews and the next year we purchased the building and opened “The Edge of Hell.”
Is Medusa one of the things people like to see the most?
She’s something people look for. We study the psychology of fear. Every person scares differently and has their own adrenaline reaction to things. “The Edge of Hell” is a five-story warehouse building. The premise is that if you live on the edge, you’ll encounter these sorts of demons – rats, snakes, the hounds of hell, vampires. You get a glimpse of heaven, but unfortunately you made too many bad choices and you go to purgatory down the five-story slide and end up in hell. People gaze at her; she’s a beautiful beast. Mesmerizing.
Does she scare the crap out of people?
She does just by capturing their gaze.
Has she bitten anyone?
Oh no. I was bitten by a black snake when I was young but I still don’t have the snake phobia that others do. Sometimes she isn’t in a good mood when we get her out though. She gets nervous and has to go to the bathroom when people are taking pictures of her. But she’s very loving toward her trainer, Larry Elgar.
Is this something everyone likes to do at Halloween time, visit a haunted house?
It is. Especially here in Kansas City, with us being the oldest, and “The Beast” is really the best haunted attraction in the U.S. And we have “The Chambers of Edgar Allen Poe” and “The Macabre Cinema” and those are 501 3c’s for a local charity called the Dream Factory.
What’s “The Beast”?
“The Beast” is patterned around time travel. You go into a Southern Louisiana mansion; you enter into a swamp where we have a live alligator. His name is Clamp. You look at this live alligator and proceed into the swamp and an animatronic alligator snaps at your leg. And then you go down a shoot slide to Jack Ripper’s London, and you’re in a pub.
And the werewolf forest is a quarter acre in size and over 10,000 square feet. In the old days, people looked over rails into attractions; we pioneered the open theme where you are inside the attractions. In “The Beast,” it’s all about the phobia of being lost. There are people who are in the werewolf forest for 45 minutes and can’t find their way out.
Tell me about Clamp.
He’s growing like a weed. We’ve had him since he was tiny. Now he’s 8 feet long. He’s very fond of chicken.
You throw him live chickens or give him breasts?
He likes all chicken parts. We don’t feed him anything live.
And how often does he eat?
He prefers to be fed regularly – every week. But Larry doesn’t worry about him choking on anything like he does Medusa. That’s his love.
And what does he do in the offseason?
He has a lifestyle cage as well but he’s a real bear about being transported. We have to wrap his mouth but he likes to swat around a lot. He’s funny like that.
[Photos courtesy of “The Edge of Hell” and Kevin Scott Ramos, Guinness Book of World Records]
Chuck Miller not only speaks in the same Southern twang as Jed Clampett from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” but he kind of looks like him, too. Dressed in a straw cowboy hat and a button-up shirt tucked into his jeans, the silver mustachioed farmer’s destiny, however, didn’t lie in black gold – instead it was in corn whiskey.
Along with his wife Jeanette, Miller owns Belmont Farm Distillery, where he produces a true American spirit: moonshine. The homemade corn whiskey is made in the Appalachian tradition using a recipe passed down from his grandfather, a real bootlegger who supplied thirsty flappers with the drink during Prohibition.
Unlike his grandfather, however, Miller’s moonshine is legal. It’s even sold in Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) stores throughout Virginia. Even better, this concoction is as straight-from-the-source as you can get; every single ingredient in the hooch is grown right on the Miller’s 189-acre farm. Even the leftovers are used to feed the livestock at the farm, which is why Miller explained they have very “happy cows.”
“We make it all the way from scratch, and we use the old time methods,” explained Miller, the master moonshine distiller.
Even though you can purchase Miller’s corn whiskey in stores throughout the country (and in some cases abroad), one can only get a true taste for the spirit by visiting the distillery, which lies off a dusty road about 15 minutes from downtown Culpeper, Virginia.
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The couple’s distillery sits in the middle of a cornfield and was built using the remains of a church that burned down in the 1960s. The only leftover evidence of the building’s former incarnation is a pair of peaked doors that lead to the gift shop and the start of a distillery tour, which is open to anyone who passes by.
If your lucky, Miller himself will lead you on the tour. As you wind your way through the tiny distillery, he’ll spout off facts about the Prohibition-era copper pot he uses and allow you to take a big whiff of the drink as it’s being made (if you can handle it, that is). You’ll also understand why this drink became known as “white lighting,” a nickname given because it’s bottled straight from the still without any aging. This method was developed so that bootleggers – including Miller’s grandfather – would be able to produce the spirit quickly.
But just because Miller’s moonshine is made quickly doesn’t mean it’s made with any less expertise or enthusiasm, a fact that becomes immediately clear within moments of stepping into the distillery. Miller himself has encyclopedic knowledge of the drink.
“The first time corn whiskey was ever made was in 1612 at the Jamestown Colony,” explained Miller as he bounced around from machine to machine. “The settlers had the technology, and the Indians had the corn.”
As you’ll see on the tour, the resulting spirit is clear like a vodka and although it smells a bit like rubbing alcohol, it goes down smoother than many other whiskies. And even though the drink is technically a whiskey, this is one place that you won’t find on the American Whiskey Trail.
“We asked to be on the Whiskey Trail, but they didn’t think moonshine was suitable,” said Miller with a smile. “So if you see any of those Whiskey Trail people you tell them they’re missing a big thing!”
Tours of Belmont Farm Distillery are offered Tuesday through Saturday from April 1 through December 24. Groups of 12 or less depart every 15 minutes.
Marietta, Ohio, is your quintessential small town. With a population that wavers around 15,000 and a little liberal arts college, Marietta College, nested within the downtown perimeters, Marietta is a quiet escape, especially for those spending time in the relatively larger nearby cities of Columbus, Pittsburgh or Cleveland.
As the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory, history often guides the sightseeing in Marietta. Established in 1788, reflections on Marietta made by famous historical figures are readily recited by schoolteachers. President George Washington remarked on the beauty he had seen in this area in 1788 when he said, “No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum … If I was a young man, just preparing to begin the world, or if advanced in life and had a family to make provision for, I know of no country where I should rather fix my habitation …” Benjamin Franklin acknowledged Marietta’s beauty a year earlier though and said, “I have never seen a grander river in all my life.” But Marietta’s historical intrigues extend beyond the settling of the area for the Northwest Territory.The Native Americans, primarily Shawnee, were settled in the region of Marietta prior to 1788. The large, still-standing burial mound, which is the oldest west of the Appalachians, is erected in the middle of Mound Cemetery. Many Revolutionary Soldiers, including Rufus Putnam, are buried within the cemetery. Mound Cemetery is now a must-see attraction when visiting Marietta, but the town’s attractions aren’t limited to the history books.
Marietta was built at the confluence of two rivers, the Ohio and the Muskingum. The town is nestled into the Appalachians and so if Ohio makes you think of flat cornfields as far as the eye can see, you’re not thinking of Marietta. Just across the river is West Virginia and like West Virginia, Marietta is marked by the dramatic slopes of the hills. Because of the rivers and the low mountains, Marietta is a great destination for outdoors enthusiasts. Whether you’re hiking, biking, or water-skiing, it’s nice to be outside in Marietta. But the town is also recommended for those who are drawn to antiques and haunted tours. There are a few good restaurants and bars in town and a strong arts community that keeps the town interesting with concerts and art walks, among other activities.
If you manage to make it to Marietta, here are some recommendations from a person who grew up there (me).