There is no official date that is considered mid-summer, but if there were, it would have to be about now. The hot and dry spell has continued, and Denver is about to have the most consecutive days above 90 in its history. Because of our elevation, we don't get as many, and even the hot days don't usually stay there as long as they have this week, it was still in the 70's at 10 last night.

Hot weather makes me think of mountains, and one popular mountain town near the Springs is Cripple Creek (shown above). Back we were new to the Springs in the early 90's, one of the big issues was how to save the old gold mining towns. They came up with a scheme to allow gambling in a few of them to see if it would work. Well, Cripple Creek, Central City and Black Hawk were the only 3 towns they chose, and it was to be limited stakes gambling. It worked, for the most part, and started a revival of sorts of these towns. Now the great issue is that they outlawed smoking in the casinos, and the casinos are unhappy because revenue is down. We aren't big gamblers, and if we spend $10 on nickel slot machines once every few years, it about does it. With the economy so poor, I almost laugh when they blame it on the non-smoking thing, I am surprised business is not down more, even tax revenues are down about as much. And then there is $4 gasoline. It is a little drive, and many people are being more careful about how much they are driving these days. Not to offend you smokers out there, but I like the new smoke free environment, and my guess is that when the economy picks up, so will their business. Ironically, the increase in the price of gold is also having an effect on these towns, spurring interest in expanding mining operations. The response? Not sure they want that, since the newer strip mining techniques might make the towns less attractive to gamblers. Go figure.

So how come gas prices haven't started dropping with crude oil prices? If gas prices dropped proportionally to the recent drop in crude, I think we'd be around $3.40 / gallon here, and while that is not exactly a bargain, it is better than the $3.90 or so we are at. I guess it is like interest rates, they go up easier than they go down, and there is not always a lot of rhyme or reason to them.