The Crazy Man's Castle

Bishop's Castle Photo Album - Click here!

So we were thinking we would have another tame (and boring) weekend, when Brian's parents suggested a trip to Bishop Castle on Friday night. Our only commitment the following day was to take Nala to the groomer at 8am, and a quick call to Petsmart assured us that she could wait there until we returned from our adventure so we were set!

After dropping Nala off on Saturday morning, we headed on over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Brian and Lily were being rather goofy, jumping down the driveway and all, then it was time to go. We all stopped by Village Inn for a now-rather-late breakfast. One more stop to gather yummies for our planned picnic, then we were on the road for real. Lily watched a couple of Blue's Clues episodes on the iPod, by the time those finished we were only about 20 minutes away. Finally we pulled up in front of Bishop Castle.

Now, first a little background... Bishop Castle is a one-man project (or obsession...) by a man named Jim Bishop. It is still a work in progress, stairways that end abruptly, balconies with no railings, rooms with door-less openings to the ground several stories below. It is not a place for the faint of heart. Nothing is regulated, no large barriers keeping people out of places they shouldn't be. You are just expected to use your own good sense. And trust that the one-man architect-builder knows what he is doing.

We had heard he was a little eccentric, as the day progressed we would come to realize he was absolutely crazy. He has spent the vast majority of his life (the last 40 years) building this honest to goodness Medieval Castle - all by himself! He refuses to let anyone help. This alone makes him sound a bit odd, but it doesn't end there.

Jim Bishop is a very angry person, an extreme libertarian, almost bordering on anarchist. And a big 9-11 conspiracy theorist. He apparently hates all government and anyone with any fame, fortune, or power. He is certain the whole world is out to get him, and that he is the only worthy person anywhere. I suspect this Castle is the product of his life-long temper-tantrum about the rest of the world.

You ask me how I know all this, well you would know it all too if you spent but a few minutes touring his castle. He is always there working on it, and does not hesitate a bit to share his views with all his patrons. Whether they want to hear it or not. In fact he seems to spend more time shouting his paranoia's and rants to everyone within hearing distance than he does working. Except that sometimes he works while he is yelling about the current state of the world, which is even scarier. He seems like he could snap at any moment!

Later we looked up some stuff online and found that last year he was charged with assaulting and threatening a patron with a deadly weapon. That case is still pending. Probably best that we didn't realize quite all this when were on the high, more precarious parts of the castle!

So, back to our tour - after hearing a brief tirade about the government by Jim Bishop as we came in, we started by climbing the very tall and narrow staircase that went up the outside of the Castle. All I can say is that I am very glad there were rails. That led us to the main room, which was very impressive indeed! The walls and ceiling were vaulted and there were stained glass windows covering the front and back. From there we headed up one of

the towers that led to more outer areas with balconies. Those wrought iron walkways really freaked me out - it was like walking on air - nothing below you at all! I am not usually so afraid of heights, but I found myself uselessly gripping onto the wall as I walked nonetheless, and was very glad when my feet reached the rock and concrete part again! I found myself remembering that this was all just built by one guy - an anti-government guy who would never allow any kind of safety inspectors on his property. What was his training again? I seriously d oubted it was anything to do with engineering... this was a medieval style project - probably along the lines of trial and error more than mathematical modeling.

We started to head up the highest tower, but Lily go scared so we went back down to the main room and crossed to the other side, where there was another, slightly shorter tower. The top of this one, though more easily reached, was still quite precarious. At one point Brian and Lily walked out onto a wrought iron bridge connecting to another tower. When some other guests walked onto it with them to take pictures, Brian became a little panicked wondering how much load that flimsy looking bridge could take! The other end wasn't finished so there was no where else to go. Once again the thought was in our heads - no engineers, no inspections, no insurance, just a crazy guy with some rocks and metal...I am amazed we survived at all in hindsight.

We headed back down and explored the lower parts of the Castle a bit. There was more nice stained glass at the bottom. The girls went for a quick walk through the gift shop once we had seen the Castle, while Brian waited outside at a picnic table with his dad. This was when they got a real earful of Jim Bishops political viewpoints. And it was then that Brian began to realize that this man's mental state went a little beyond odd. On our way out he was still raving mad about something, and we worried for a second that he was about to run us over in his concrete mixer truck! Time to be moving on...

We drove a few minutes back to the San Isabel National Forest, and found a nice recreation area by the lake for our picnic. We hauled everything (including the leisure table) down to the lake, only to find that there was already a nice picnic table in the shade available. It was turning out to be a rather warm day - the shade and breeze were sure nice! Couldn't have asked for a better spot. After lunch we took the stuff back to the car, then went back down to the lake for a walk. We had seen several people in row boats on the lake and were hoping we could find a place to rent them- sure enough we found it around the other end of the lake.

We couldn't all fit in one boat, so Brian and I got a row boat and his parents rented a paddle boat. Lily wanted to go with them first, so we set about the somewhat tedious task of getting them into their boat, and then their boat clear of the dock. With them

finally on their way, we headed out in our row boat. The lake is not very big, so we were almost always within shouting distance of each other. Lily thought it was fun to try to race us sometimes! I didthe rowing for a few minutes, but Brian was much better than meso he ended up doing

most of the work. After about 30 minutes Grandma and Grandpa headed back to the dock,we met them there so Lily could come with us for a while. She liked that in the row boat she could lean over and stick her hand in the water! Finally our hour was up, we turned in the life jackets. Brian later realized though that he had forgotten to turnin the key for the dock lock! We'll have to mail it back now.

Once back in the car Lily was asleep almost instantly. she woke up as we were almost back to their house. We took off right away in our car since we needed to get Nala, who had been at the Petsmart groomer since early that morning. After collecting her, we went home for game and pizza night! We played a round of Blokus - which I won for what was probably the first time, and Lily made a much better showing than she ever has before. We were, needless to say, a little bit tired by the time we drug ourselves upstairs to bed!