Well last week was busy… little projects all over the place but the major happenings was a trip to the Fort and then down to visit my sister and visiting Brother at her mountain house…
First up… I had offered to take GS#1 to Bents Old Fort for some actual history before he went back to school… It is very interesting but not as much fun as it was back about 40 years ago. Back then they had way more volunteers that wanted to dress in period costume and explain how things were done back about 100 years ago (from that point so is about 150 years ago now)… As I remember the fort opened just about the same time or right after the TV series of Centennial was shown. There was a lot of history connection to the Fort in that show, of course not all they showed was factual but there was a lot of it that linked right up… I though it was a great TV show with a lot of good stuff about how it was in the early days of the west… but oh well on to our visit.
You know it is a damn long day drive down to the Fort form here and back but we made it all the same… It is also a damn long desolate drive if you take the back road, like we did… yep we took a back road out to Peyton then south and jogged to Ordway and there is almost nothing out there… but we did make a short side drive through Ordway and found this…
Ordway was a big farming community with a lot of irrigation 50 years ago but then the big cities needed more water so they offered way more money than the farmers could resist and bought up a lot of the water rights so a lot of the farming has gone away out there. This was one example of old time farming… wonder how many would remember what “Disc Rolling” was all about?
But on to the fort… we tracked through Rocky Ford then LaJunta and I made a short side trip there to show GS#1 where his mother lived , even when she didn’t ‘t remember it… (part of year one)… and the Hospital she was born in… not sure he really cared but a walk down memory lane is always good… sorry no pictures… I was disappointed that the wood fence I worked so damn hard to get put in (split cedar picket abt 6 ft. tall) was in really bad repair but still standing which is in it self a statement on how strong I built it… or that material was much better 50 years ago?
We got to the Fort and only had a half dozen cars in the parking lot… seems they are slow these days..
I did get GS#1 to pose a few times…
From my memory they have moved a few things around . the tourist store used to be here in the front but now it is and added store display…
As we are circumventing the lower level of the fort and passing through the dining room I told GS#1 to set at the head of the table and he went over and then looked at me and said he couldn’t… so we got this picture but…
It appears one of the Fort cats occupies that chair… and has not need to move either…
we made it around the bottom and the tourist store is now located way in the back… probably an add on and some offices back there. The lower parts on this west side are mostly all store rooms that the actual fort used for stuff in and stuff out and some living quarters in the far right lower corner… then up stairs were the Doctors quarter, camp clerk, officers (when they came to the fort and some of the troops in a group room…
Officers room and laundry hanging…
On the south end middle was the “card” or gentleman’s activity room? but as you can tell the other Fort cat had the pool table taken…
We spent maybe 2 or 3 hours there and tried to see all of the fort… and the intro video and GS#1 got some info pamphlets that explained all the rooms and who stayed there as told by a then visiting officer that had drawn out the fort layout which the historians were able to piece together to rebuild the old fort… as it had burnt down over 100 years before they started the rebuild.
We left the fort and headed back in to LaJunta and grabbed some fruit and drinks and then on back toward the mountains… I did by chance stop at the far west Farmers market in Rocky Ford and caught up with my old boss from the 80’s. He is family to the Knapp farms and works with his brothers and family to keep some of it running. Back in the day he worked as I did for the USDA – Soil Conservation… which has changed names, and structure and seems is nothing like it was … but that is how things go. We got back just about dinner time so it was a great day trip… ALL DAY…
Next up, My brother came up to visit and was staying with my sister at her mountain house , they all made a trip up to our place on Friday and we had a good visit… and concluded that Sunday we would all make a trip down to her place for a bit more as the kids all wanted to go down… but first we had to make a trip down to Guffy and take in some afternoon music so that we did..
Saturday morning we headed out the back way, up the back trail of Mtn. Herman
About half way up looking back toward out place on top of the first ridge out there… it is just 7500 ft. the mtn to the left is about 9000 ft.…
and then down to Woodland Park and over to Florissant and meander off down to Guffy… had lunch at the bar and then music for about 2 hours by a pretty good group Calanni’s a family thing but the keyboard player is really good and they do the 60’s and 70’s music real well… I should have gotten pictures but wasn’t in the mood… I guess…
Sunday we headed off to Rosita. Got there about 1pm (yep it is a pretty long drive down there as well , about 2 hours from here)… we had a good visit and got to see the new updates she had made at the house… and the kids had a great time…
https://www.facebook.com/goofyswife/videos/10216696668032907/
https://www.facebook.com/goofyswife/videos/10216696668632922/
Not sure they will show but the kids had a zip line to play on… some had a great time some were not sure the first few times…
We sat out on the deck and watched the humming birds fight over the feeder for a little while but it gets hot out in the sun at 8800 ft. so we headed back in pretty quick…
We headed home about 4:15 once we got every one rounded up… and I left my camera… had to make a trip to Denver to retrieve it as my daughter was good enough to grab it and take it home with her… only a 45 minute drive and not a 2 hour one… ha! Which we made today after I got the oil changed in the Jeep…
so that is how the last week and weekend went here… not to focus on other things…
WD0AJG