I am a little behind on the documenting of adventures, but I’m going to try and catch up this week.

A week ago yesterday, my friend, who is in town, joined me on another adventure. Looking for the Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Growing up in Missouri, we heard of her often as she started her life in the illustrious Hannibal, Missouri. I have been to Hannibal many, many times and it was always so fun and the stories and tall tales shared about the famous people from Hannibal, such as Margaret “Molly” Brown, Jake “Eagle Eye” Beckley, and of course Samuel L Clemons better known as Mark Twain.

But Molly Brown was different. I liked the movie, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a lot when I was a kid, the one with Debbie Reynolds. I also loved Kathy Bates portrayal of her in Titanic.

When I moved to the Denver area, I knew that Molly Brown’s house was here and probably a museum, but I had no idea who Molly Brown actually was.

I searched her name to find the address of her home on Pennsylvania near downtown Denver.

It was eye opening. First because I had no idea that she was called the Queen of Adventure, or that she was a negotiator in a miner strike, that she preformed on stage, or that she was a “suffragette” for women’s voting rights and ran for a seat in the US Congress representing Colorado. All before WW 1.

That is a lot!

Side Note: I also learned that there is a there is a Suffragette Trail where you can visit sites across the US and Canada where women gathered, marched, and were imprisoned because they wanted the right to vote, that they wanted to be able to see their children again and for their husbands to not have them declared insane and lock them away.

I also learned she had another house, a summer get away place. It was in South Denver, at Yale and Wadsworth, so we made our way down there.

On the way we passed the state capitol and the US Mint. It was a Sunday and those government buildings were closed, so no tours, but I got some pictures.

You know, when you stop your car to take pictures when you’re downtown, people want you to not stop, but to keep moving. If you were in downtown Denver, a week ago yesterday, and someone in a Jeep was randomly stopping and leaning out of the drivers seat taking pictures, I truly apologize for being a frustration on your drive to your event. (Did that sound sincere?)

We made our way to the Avoco Lodge, the summer home for the Brown family.

The website shows this beautiful, picturesque home that was on a gentle river. I thought that was the house. It was a picture of the area in County Wicklow Ireland the house was named for. Not south Denver. 🤦‍♀️ So you can see why I was so confused when I arrived at the address from the website, and the website said it was closed at this time, but…I think they must being doing renovations.

This was all we could see. But, after we left this area and headed back up north, I read some more from the website.

“The Browns never called it the Molly Brown Summer House; they called it Avoca Lodge. It’s an Irish word that hails from Wicklow County, Ireland, where you can go and stand at the convergence of two waters. Avoca is a tourist site in Ireland where visitors go to see the meeting of the waters, made famous by poet Thomas Moore. We think the Browns must have gone through Avoca at some point, because this convergence looks exactly like Bear Creek Valley, where the Browns’ summer home stands. Mr. Brown brought Margaret to the top of the hill, and as they looked down over the valley they were reminded of Ireland.” (From MollyBrown.org)

It was a good day to explore and a good day to be in Adventure Mode!

The goal is 60 new things before I turn 60 and I have 49 more to go and I can’t wait!