Superior CO, Fort Laramie

July 2, we left Hart Ranch and drove the car to Colorado to visit our son, daughter -in-law and grand kids in Superior CO. A few of the high lights were a trip to the Denver Zoo. Caught the hippo in a big yawn and my grand son, Chris & I shared a seat on the park train.

The afternoon before we left Gabby had a Track & Field event. Chris is too young, next year he will be in kindergarten and can be in it. Gabby ran the 100 meter and came away with a second place ribbon.

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Meanwhile Chris and a friend were having events of their own.

All things must end and the next morning we were on our way back to pick up the motor home and continued our trip. On the way we make a short stop at Fort Laramie. I guess you would call it a power tour. There was a man who was dressed in clothes of the period manning the original bar. He told me that the soldiers made less than $20 a month but a good bar tender would make over $100. He said that the bar tenders were responsible for a lot of the book keeping. Maybe some of it would be called creative bookkeeping.

 Officer, kitchen, bakery, and laundry were on the first floor , while the sleeping quarters were on the second floor.

The fort is near the North Platte River. I never realized how important this river was to the settlement of the west. It was the route for the Oregon and Mormon Trails. It is about 310 miles long, a tributary of the Missouri River and drains a large portion of the central Great Plains in Nebraska and the eastern Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. The road we took to the fort crossed the river over a modern bridge. Nearby was the old Fort Laramie Bridge that was built in 1919

The bridge has a lot of bolted joints that I took several pictures of. So, we arrived back at the art Ranch and got the motor home out of the storage lot and on to a site. The next day we went into Rapid City and bought food, etc for the next leg of our journey. We found a great grocery store named Family Thrift. It is like a Publix or Winn Dixie. One of the items that is at the top of my list of favorites is their Dutch Apple Pie. Those stores have a terrific bakery.

I have more pictures at: http://jackbarbic.shutterfly.com/2068