My godson, Joe, told me about an app called Atlas Obscura. On the app, you can locate oddities or unique items of interest in your area.

I thought, gosh this will be an easy way to find some kind of funky things, but I had no idea! 😳

So, after I finished with work for the day yesterday, I lined up 3 things and while on the hunt for 2 of those things, I came across 2 others and the 4th had been moved. So, my friend, Dawn, (mother of Joe), my doggo copilot, Opal and I piled into the car and we had a mission of the following:

1. Shep The Turnpike Dog’s grave
2. Hypnotic Turtle DreamBox
3. Vampire Grave of Lafayette

What we discovered:

1. Broomfield Depot Museum
2. The biggest JART I have ever seen

Phone calls from kids, stopping for tacos, and lots of laughter filled the car as we chatted about everything and nothing.

Our first stop was over in Broomfield, CO, for Shep the Turnpike Dog.

Back in the early 1950s, during the construction of the Boulder Denver turnpike, a dog wandered onto the construction site and soon became the unofficial mascot of the project. He spent years at the tollbooth on US 36, accepting tolls and treats from drivers. The Colorado Department of Transportation adopted Shep as their mascot too and he held that position until his death in 1964. He was buried by the side of the road. Someone tended his grave and added a little fence to the modest headstone. Colorado built up around his grave and his area eventually became a park with a small museum near by.

When we found Shep’s grave and saw it was next door to the Broomfield Depot Museum, we saw it as a bonus side quest. Alas the museum had closed, but it looks like a nice place to learn more about the history of the area.

Our next stop was to the Hypnotic Turtle DreamBox. It was supposedly near by, however we discovered the drive by art installation had been moved. It is a neighborhood art project that fosters creativity. These mini galleries were in the tiny free lending libraries in Broomfield, CO. I really wish I could have seen it, but maybe when they rotate out.

Next up, was looking for tacos so we had the strength to find the Vampire Grave of Lafaytte!

As a kid, I loved the Abbot and Costello “horror” movies. I would pull up the afghan and hold a throw pillow to my face in case I needed the protection from the vampire/mummy/zombie/monster in a movie made 30 years before I was born! In the ‘90s, as an adult, I watched “Bram Stokers Dracula” and Ann Rice’s “Interview With h A Vampire”. And I was fascinated by the lore. I also had a daughter who was a “Twilight” fan. I also found it hysterical that in the “Wild West” of Colorado, there would be a town called Lafayette with a vampire grave.

The robot in my car (navigation system for the new readers) took us to the Bob L Burger Recreation Center. We were first struck by a huge JART. It’s funny because I remember playing with these as a kid, but never hit the center of the plastic ring. I am pretty sure no one my age read the directions or rules for this game, we just threw the lawn darts around. Well, I do not think our weak, little arms could have heaved this one, but I bet we would have tried.

So now the robot told us we had arrived at our destination, but nowhere could we find a grave. Now here was our clue – a tree grew out of the stake in the vampires heart. Grave and a tree on top of it – got it! Wrong! It started to get dark and we thought that going on the hunt for the grave of a vampire, in the dark, would be the best fun – and it was!

We read on the Atlas Obscura that there was a cemetery there and they were right. Now, let me tell you, first, if you hear stories about two middle age women driving the wrong way on a one way lane, in a cemetery in Lafayette, Colorado and laughing hysterically, or if a lady in a Jeep was semi-illegally parked, with flashers on, waving wildly for you to go around while holding her cell phone as a flashlight to help her friend navigate the cemetery while giggling. That would have been us. It took some expert Nancy Drew skills to find it because there was not a tree growing from the heart thru the grave. There were a copse of trees, three to be exact, and there we found the grave.

We weren’t really able to read the headstone and it did not appear to be in English.

Later we learned from Colorado Stories Online that the “vampire” was named Theodore Glava, an immigrant from Eastern Europe that died of the Spanish flu in 1918. The area where his grave lies was the “potters field” for the area and Theodore and others line the curb. Because he was from Transylvania, Theodore proclaimed himself a vampire. Quite a conversation starter and certainly beats my “I was senior class president, student body president, homecoming and prom queen, yearbook editor and valedictorian. And I was also homeschooled my Jr and Sr years of high school while my parents traveled the southwest working with Home Missions to the rural churches in that area.” 😂

The local lore of Lafayette, Colorado says that the townspeople, began thinking about what Theodore had always joked about being a vampire, and the dug up his grave! They found blood in his mouth (hello Victorian morgue) and that his teeth seemed more extensive and his nails were very long, they believed he had to be a vampire. It was that belief that led them to drive a stake into his heart. For years, the story was that a tree grew from the stake right thru his grave and that the red roses from the blood. Well, since it is February, I cannot vouch for any red flowers, but I can say for certain that there is no tree growing thru the grave, but there are three surrounding it. If you find yourself out this way, take the turn off the interstate to Lafayette and head down Baseline Rd to the Lafayette Cemetery, on the north side, across from the soccer fields, you’ll find the grave of Theodore “Fordore” Glava, miner and vampire.

The goal is 60 new things before I turn 60 and I have 7 more to go and I can’t wait!