Not much to report till today, Saturday, just highly enjoyable solitude (except for cows) and the silence of the Colorado prairie.
Wednesday:
Uma, the URRV, nestled in the trees
A mild sunset along County Road 2G
Thursday:
Early morning visitor stopping at the nearby pond for a drink
The visitor's herd, very close to the campsite.
Incoming weather clouds hid the sunset
Friday:
We had us a double rainbow after a brief but intense rain storm
After the rains, Martha, my loving wife joined me after she left work. That's her Honda CRV parked in the picture below as we enjoyed the sunset together.
Saturday, about two hundred miles of riding on Scarlett, the 2014 Ural Patrol with Martha in the sidecar. Had some early stressors as she ran out of gas between our campsite and about 24 miles from Ordway, the nearest town. I put in my spare gas tank's contents and we fortunately made it to the gas station in Ordway, with 2/10ths of a gallon to spare!
Not sure what happened to the gas, the trip meter read only 128km! She'd been sitting in the garage since before my recent trip to Wisconsin so all I can figure is that she lost gas through evaporation? Not sure.
Anyhoo, crisis over, we motored on south to La Junta, CO and from there reached Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site, run by the National Park Service.
I'd been there before, almost 12 years ago, when I was riding Maria, the 2004 BMW R1150RT Oilhead. LINK
This time, I took way more pictures and was not in such a rush. Back then, the idea was to rack up lots of miles in one day, ending up back home each time. Now, not so much.
Some of the things that caught my eye in this interesting and quite well restored and outfitted historic site.
Martha at the fort's front
The largest piece of artillery the post displayed
along with a Conestoga Wagon to represent the trading
done at this fort.
I was startled to find the fort's cat sleepily watching
visitors from the top of a cabinet in one of the rooms.
Lieutenant James Abert's quarters. It would be
his drawings/measurements of the fort which would enable
latter rebuilding of the fort after it had burned and been
abandoned in the mid 1800s.
Looking towards the front entrance of the fort.
That press in the middle was used to press/compact
piles of furs/pelts for shipment.
An impressive skull I saw inside the desk cabinet used
by the fort's doctor. Not sure what it is, there was no
signs in the rooms with information. You had to keep up with
a self-guided tour booklet.
From Lieutenant Abert's quarters, his sword's sheath with
the Corps of Topographical Engineers emblem and
his uniform cap.
Tools at the Blacksmith's Shop
Martha jokingly called the above a set of Ural Repair Tools.
I would have to say she was close to the mark!
Storeroom where compacted pelts/furs were stored
prior to shipment back to St. Louis.
One more view of the fort's inside structures from one
of the corner "turrets"
The small cannon at each turret, guarding the open fields
surrounding the fort.
The second largest canon, pointed at the main
entrance. It wasn't there almost 12 years ago.
Trading goods on display
Map showing how Bent's Fort was one of several back
when the Arkansas River formed the international border
between the USA and Mexico.
Replicating the pose, with a different motorcycle of course, of
almost twelve years ago.
On the way home, we stopped at this farmer's market for a cantaloupe for which Rocky Ford is famous. In 2011, there were sickness and deaths caused by an outbreak of Lysteria from cantaloupes grown on a farm 90 miles away but who used the name Rocky Ford, tarnishing the town's proud reputation.
Before we got to Rocky Ford, we stopped for a late lunch of delicious Tacos at Lucy's Tacos in La Junta, CO
We detoured on the way home to check out the community of Karval, home of the Mountain Plover Festival. Plover is a type of bird apparently and the festival draws bird lovers from all over.
The town itself didn't seem like much, didn't see anyone moving about on a Saturday afternoon. So all we did was take a picture of the sign:
We got home back to the campsite in the Hugo SWA with issues, and while Martha prepared dinner, I went out for some sunset pictures.
4 comments:
Nice pictures and write up of the fort. The area does look to be on the warm side or are you getting cooler, fall temperatures?
And, are you trying out your new antenna?
Thanks RichardM, the experienced significant drops and rises in temperatures but overall pleasant. No testing of antenna yet, need adapters to connect to weboost
I so envy you guys. Boon docking... my favourite part of camping. Glad to hear that Martha could join you. The rainbow really takes the cake this time, Dom. Lucky guy.
Thanks SonjaM, that is one thing about Europe, not big enough to have the "luxury" of land that can be boondocked on .... having said that, the eastern half of the USA is quite used up in that regards anyways, it's only in the western states where one can find such locations easily.
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