luke strawalker
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- Joined
- Oct 8, 2006
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Hi all! Just returned from two weeks on the road after leaving the MIL's house in Indiana returning to Texas via Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and a tiny bit of New Mexico. WONDERFUL trip thru the mountains really refreshes the soul for us flatlanders down on the Texas coast!!!
Anyway, I planned on stopping in at Apogee Components in Colorado Springs. We stayed in Motel 6 in CS after leaving Rocky Mountain National Park at dark and getting into CS about 11:30-midnight. We got up, loaded up, and set off to find Fillmore Ridge Heights. Turns out it was 2 blocks behind the Motel 6! Handy! We drove down thru the nice little industrial park and got out at Apogee, camera in hand, with my wife and 3 1/2 year old daughter. They have a really nice lobby/storefront area with a lot of nicely finished rockets on display, and some pegboard sales racks, and can also get anything else you want from the back that's too big for the pegboard. Michelle was very nice and gave us the 3 minute tour, as it's mostly offices and warehouse with tons of kit parts and shipping/assembly area, and meeting rooms and Tim Van Milligan's office. He came out to greet us and visited with us for a few minutes, but knowing he's busy I didn't keep him a long time. He showed me his newest project he's working on, hoping to get flying soon and get kitted out soon (a VERY cool looking futuristic looking 'space tourism/exoatmospheric business jet' looking rocket that strongly resembles a Learjet!) We talked about rockets, RockSim, and our club back home here, Challenger 498. We laughed as Michelle played with my daughter Keira with a little 'rocket pen' toy that you pushed a button and a spring loaded launch pad shot the finned rocket ink pen about four feet in the air, and Keira was giving the full 5 second countdown and 'launching' it like she has at the launches here before. Tim's daughter is 3 1/2 too
I saw a TON of rockets I'd have loved to buy while I was there, but settled for a 1/150 Sky Shenzou, a Quest Tomahawk, and a builders resource pack, since I have some other irons in the fire at the moment. We had a nice chat and saw some neat stuff!
After a VERY foggy drive to the summit of Pike's Peak, and a white knuckle descent for my wife thru the fog to the midpoint (and she wasn't even driving!) we headed south for Penrose. After a bit of searching and asking quick directions at the service station, we zipped down to Estes and pulled in the parking lot. The first thing we noticed was the weeds growing out of every crack in the parking lot and that the buildings looked a bit, um, unkept (trying to be polite). We got out and headed for the door, and while reading a Sharpie-scrawled message taped to the inside of the door a somewhat unfriendly and annoyed sounding receptionist voice wafted from a nearby speaker asking if she could help us. I asked about the note as I was reading it, which stated on such-n-such date they no longer had a company store and no tours. She quickly and somewhat more courteously replied that, "sorry, we don't have a store anymore and no public access, sorry, thanks for coming". (speaker off). SSSOOOOO.... We snapped a few pics (including one thru the door of a glass case in the old lobby that had some really nice scale/sport rockets from Estes's heyday that were probably there when it was a storefront area, old BUILDER'S kits not the toy buy-n-fly they sell now) and took a pic of the missile picnic table area, drove back past the warehouses, and split for Canon City and Royal Gorge.
I was somewhat disappointed but not too surprised I guess, that they don't have any 'public access' anymore. After all, the Ertl farm toy factory and Spec-Cast factory I visited ten years ago in Dyersville, Iowa, no longer has a storefront or tours either; they have an agreement with a local big mom-n-pop toy store in downtown Dyersville that handles their storefront stuff. Ten years ago I even got an impromptu tour and hunt for a scale tractor model I really wanted to buy while I was there from Joe Ertl III himself, after closing time! (Now THAT'S service!) Now given that the toy farm tractor market is probably 100 times the size of the model rocket market, I guess I just expected the 'worlds largest model rocket company' to be a bit more, friendly perhaps?? My wife Betty asked me as we left, "are they in trouble?" and I told her 'Lord I hope not; they're the primary manufacturer of model rocket motors!" She replied that the weeds growing in the parking lot and the buildings looking a little shabby is usually a presage of a business in trouble. I commented on the buyouts of Estes over the years and the 'toy buy-n-fly' business model (which is a choice they made that I understand even if I don't necessarily agree with it) and that I was somewhat surprised in this day and age of mergers, moves, and outsourcing that they were even still in Penrose, as it's at least 35 miles from both Colorado Springs and Pueblo, which are off the beaten path as well, and a long way from chemical suppliers for rocket engines and other suppliers as well as from shipping terminals/distribution points. Betty, ever in former retail/manager/personnel dept. view, commented that the labor pool was probably pretty cheap in Penrose. Probably quite true.
Anyway, if you're visiting Colorado, stop by Apogee, talk rockets, take the tour, visit with Tim and Michelle, and pick up some of their excellent products. Don't bother stopping in Penrose- read the article in LAUNCH magazine a few month's back and if you pass by the Estes plant, reflect on former glory and keep going, because you can't go in the front door.
OL JR
Anyway, I planned on stopping in at Apogee Components in Colorado Springs. We stayed in Motel 6 in CS after leaving Rocky Mountain National Park at dark and getting into CS about 11:30-midnight. We got up, loaded up, and set off to find Fillmore Ridge Heights. Turns out it was 2 blocks behind the Motel 6! Handy! We drove down thru the nice little industrial park and got out at Apogee, camera in hand, with my wife and 3 1/2 year old daughter. They have a really nice lobby/storefront area with a lot of nicely finished rockets on display, and some pegboard sales racks, and can also get anything else you want from the back that's too big for the pegboard. Michelle was very nice and gave us the 3 minute tour, as it's mostly offices and warehouse with tons of kit parts and shipping/assembly area, and meeting rooms and Tim Van Milligan's office. He came out to greet us and visited with us for a few minutes, but knowing he's busy I didn't keep him a long time. He showed me his newest project he's working on, hoping to get flying soon and get kitted out soon (a VERY cool looking futuristic looking 'space tourism/exoatmospheric business jet' looking rocket that strongly resembles a Learjet!) We talked about rockets, RockSim, and our club back home here, Challenger 498. We laughed as Michelle played with my daughter Keira with a little 'rocket pen' toy that you pushed a button and a spring loaded launch pad shot the finned rocket ink pen about four feet in the air, and Keira was giving the full 5 second countdown and 'launching' it like she has at the launches here before. Tim's daughter is 3 1/2 too
I saw a TON of rockets I'd have loved to buy while I was there, but settled for a 1/150 Sky Shenzou, a Quest Tomahawk, and a builders resource pack, since I have some other irons in the fire at the moment. We had a nice chat and saw some neat stuff! After a VERY foggy drive to the summit of Pike's Peak, and a white knuckle descent for my wife thru the fog to the midpoint (and she wasn't even driving!) we headed south for Penrose. After a bit of searching and asking quick directions at the service station, we zipped down to Estes and pulled in the parking lot. The first thing we noticed was the weeds growing out of every crack in the parking lot and that the buildings looked a bit, um, unkept (trying to be polite). We got out and headed for the door, and while reading a Sharpie-scrawled message taped to the inside of the door a somewhat unfriendly and annoyed sounding receptionist voice wafted from a nearby speaker asking if she could help us. I asked about the note as I was reading it, which stated on such-n-such date they no longer had a company store and no tours. She quickly and somewhat more courteously replied that, "sorry, we don't have a store anymore and no public access, sorry, thanks for coming". (speaker off). SSSOOOOO.... We snapped a few pics (including one thru the door of a glass case in the old lobby that had some really nice scale/sport rockets from Estes's heyday that were probably there when it was a storefront area, old BUILDER'S kits not the toy buy-n-fly they sell now) and took a pic of the missile picnic table area, drove back past the warehouses, and split for Canon City and Royal Gorge.
I was somewhat disappointed but not too surprised I guess, that they don't have any 'public access' anymore. After all, the Ertl farm toy factory and Spec-Cast factory I visited ten years ago in Dyersville, Iowa, no longer has a storefront or tours either; they have an agreement with a local big mom-n-pop toy store in downtown Dyersville that handles their storefront stuff. Ten years ago I even got an impromptu tour and hunt for a scale tractor model I really wanted to buy while I was there from Joe Ertl III himself, after closing time! (Now THAT'S service!) Now given that the toy farm tractor market is probably 100 times the size of the model rocket market, I guess I just expected the 'worlds largest model rocket company' to be a bit more, friendly perhaps?? My wife Betty asked me as we left, "are they in trouble?" and I told her 'Lord I hope not; they're the primary manufacturer of model rocket motors!" She replied that the weeds growing in the parking lot and the buildings looking a little shabby is usually a presage of a business in trouble. I commented on the buyouts of Estes over the years and the 'toy buy-n-fly' business model (which is a choice they made that I understand even if I don't necessarily agree with it) and that I was somewhat surprised in this day and age of mergers, moves, and outsourcing that they were even still in Penrose, as it's at least 35 miles from both Colorado Springs and Pueblo, which are off the beaten path as well, and a long way from chemical suppliers for rocket engines and other suppliers as well as from shipping terminals/distribution points. Betty, ever in former retail/manager/personnel dept. view, commented that the labor pool was probably pretty cheap in Penrose. Probably quite true.
Anyway, if you're visiting Colorado, stop by Apogee, talk rockets, take the tour, visit with Tim and Michelle, and pick up some of their excellent products. Don't bother stopping in Penrose- read the article in LAUNCH magazine a few month's back and if you pass by the Estes plant, reflect on former glory and keep going, because you can't go in the front door.
OL JR
