S T E A M B O AT
TODAY
FRIDAY
JULY 3, 2009
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
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Vol. 21, No. 158
RO U T T
C O U N T Y ’ S
DA I LY
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INSIDE
Explore: Your guide to weekend entertainment Page 21
SPORTS
JOHN F. RUSSELL/STAFF
Charlie Holthausen stands next to his iguana car, a vehicle he has created using a minivan, trailer and items he’s found in his home and in other places. He plans to unveil the car as a float Saturday in the Fourth of July Parade downtown.
Patriotic nights Page 45
■ INDEX Briefs . . . . . . . . .10 Business. . . . . . .44 Classifieds . . . . .54 Colorado. . . . . . .28 Comics . . . . . . . .52 Crossword . . . . .53
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Lizard car ready to roll Holthausens’ iguana vehicle to be in Fourth of July Parade Margaret Hair
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS
Under a couple of garagesale car coverings in an Elk River Estates driveway, a 40foot-long reptile is waiting to be unleashed. On Saturday, Charlie and Gail Holthausen’s iguana car will slither down Lincoln Avenue as part of Steamboat Springs’ Fourth of July Parade. At its core, the iguana car is
■ LOTTO Thursday night’s Cash 5 numbers: 6-8-10-26-31 Drawings are held Monday through Saturday.
a once-totaled Dodge Caravan Fourth of July and a boat events calendar trailer. From See page 21 the outside, it’s the elaborately decorated answer to a problem the Holthausens wanted solved: How do we make this thing look like a lizard? “We enjoy the process of it. How are we going to make the arms, how are we going to make the head — how are we going to make an iguana?” Gail
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PILOT & TODAY STAFF
■ WEATHER
A couple of p.m. storms. High of 76.
Page 63
Holthausen said, standing on a mid-June morning in the couple’s driveway, which in the past two months has become iguana central. There are Internet photos of iguana heads, with key features circled and a model iguana car made out of a plastic Volkswagen Beetle. Extra paints and supplies litter tables in the garage, and the iguana’s tarp-covered house takes up much of the long driveway. For about six weeks, Charlie Holthausen devoted a couple of
hours a day to the car. He got the idea after attending a class on how to build dragons out of clay at The Potter’s Wheel — which Gail Holthausen owned until recently — a few years ago. A car mechanic by trade and former owner of Black Diamond Automotive, Charlie Holthausen often has projects — his most recent was converting a Steamboat Springs School District bus into a livable travel See Iguana car, page 17
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