A beautiful morning out at the state park this morning, sunny, but still nice and cool until about 9:30. I was up earlier than I thought I would be. Just hung out reading and drinking hot tea until it warmed up when I had to then switch to ice tea.

    Was in the truck and on the road to the town of Crawford by 11:00. Crawford is a small town about 26 miles west of Chadron and for some reason I have just fallen in love with the place. I was headed there this morning to meet up with my nephew Luke, from Scott's Bluff, his wife and his young daughter. We were all going to meet at a local restaurant, The Ranch House, that we all like, and have some lunch before heading on out to the play at Fort Robinson.

    I arrived a bit early so there was enough time to drive up and down pretty much every street in the town and see what houses had come on the market since the last time I had been in town. I very nearly bought a place here a couple of years ago when this really sweet little 2 story Victorian came on the market for less than $50K. It finally went for a good deal under $30K, and sometimes I regret not buying it, but really, I wasn't ready to settle down then, and I'm not ready to settle down now. There is still one on the market though that I have looked at before. It sits on 3 lots on top of a hill and has a pretty nice exterior, but the whole interior has pretty much been stripped out of it. That would be a good thing actually for someone who wanted to rehab a house up to a more modern standard. At $20K it is a pretty good deal, but the agent told me two years ago that I could probably get it for around $13K. It's somewhat tempting, but again, I'm just not ready to settle down yet and buying that would mean being in one place for at least a year if not longer. So I think I'll just keep doing what I'm doing for the moment and not think about it to much right now.

    We had a nice lunch once we all met up. Turns out that they do a buffet there on Sunday afternoon. Basic home cooked comfort food of roast beef, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, corn and salad etc.... All well cooked and tasty.

   The play was a lot of fun also. The theatre was sold out as far as I could tell with a good third of the patrons being under the age of 12. I had never seen the play Seussical before so I wasn't sure what to expect. A cute little story that melded several of the Dr Seuss stories together with the Cat in the Hat and Horton hears a Who as the basis for most of it. Cute dance and singing numbers and even some dialogue geared more for the adults in the audience. I had a good time and it seemed like the time went by way to fast. But it was finally over and after saying good bye to the kids it was time to head back east towards Chadron. The plan now is to sit out some more of the heat in the air conditioned luxury of Micky D's and then head out and do a nice hike later this evening. In the meantime, here are a few photo's from a trip I took several weeks ago while in upstate New York.

 Tibbetts Point Lighthouse near Cape Vincent New York 

June 3, 2013

  

Tibbetts Point Lighthouse marks the point where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence River in Northern New York State. the original lighthouse was built in 1827 and features the only original working Fresnel lens on Lake Ontario. This view shows the lighthouse tower, fog signal building behind it and the original fuel building where they kept the kerosene for the original light.  

The Coast Guard operated Tibbetts Point Lighthouse from 1939 until it was automated in 1981. The Coast Guard station in Oswego now services the light periodically. The keeper’s dwellings did not remain vacant long after automation, as they were opened as a youth hostile in 1984. The Town of Cape Vincent acquired the lighthouse in 1991, but the Tibbetts Point Lighthouse Society carries out the care and restoration of the tower. A visitors center, built by the town and staffed by the society, was added to the grounds in 1993. After renovations, the fog signal was opened to the public in 1998       

In 1852 the Lighthouse Board, responding to a “numerously signed” petition from parties interested in commerce on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, requested $15,000 to replace the “notoriously inefficient light long neglected on Tibbett’s Point.” A new lighthouse, the present sixty-nine-foot circular tower, was completed on July 15, 1854, and its fourth-order Fresnel lens, illuminating 270° of the horizon, was first activated a few weeks later on August 1st.



Another view. 



More views. 

 

 

 



 



A fog whistle was added in 1896. It was replaced with an air-diaphone in 1927 operated by a diesel engine with automatically timed blasts.
 

    Headed out on a short road trip this morning. Went on up to the town of Hot Springs, in the Black Hills of South Dakota just to the north of Chadron about 60 miles. Have been up there a couple of times over the years, but it is an interesting town to go walk around in as there always seems to be something going on there, at least during the summer tourist season anyway.

   Today was no different either. Pulled in and found they had a street fair going on in the river park right across from the main street in town. Dozens of booths of arts and crafts items of all kinds, as well as several booths catering to anyone with a yen for something to eat. In all cases it was pretty much western themed, either in the arts and crafts depicting cowboys, or Indians, or wildlife or in the food you could get, including wild game jerky, sausages and brats. A nice hot brat with a cold beer while listening to some guy singing cowboy tunes under an awning, was a nice way to enjoy the day for an hour or so.

   Also spent a couple hours wandering through the mammoth site museum again. I was there a couple of years ago and took dozens of photo's at that time. I wish there was some way I could access all of my facebook albums from here, but if there is a way, I haven't figured it out yet. I can't even figure out how to access the photo's I've posted on this site yet.

    Lot's of people out at the campground/State Park this weekend. Not quite full yet, but a lot more than have been there this past week. I would imagine that most of them will be pulling out sometime tomorrow like usual. Looking forward to another play tomorrow afternoon with one of my other nephews from Scott's Bluff, as well as his wife and daughter. In the meantime I'm going to let it cool down just a little bit more and then go take another short drive up into the forest to see what is out running around this evening.

   Finished up the evening last night by going to watch the play 'Annie Get Your Gun' at the Post Playhouse, at Fort Robinson State Park. Like every play I have seen there to date, dozens by now, this one was very enjoyable, well performed and full of laughs and good songs. I have to admit that there were several songs during the performance that I did not recognize from other viewings of this play, but then, I'm getting older, so who is to say what has been in a play before or not.

   A nice drive back to the campground after the performance and only two deer along the way who seemed to want to step out in front of the truck. Managed to miss everything on the way home though. A beautiful evening again with soft, 70 degree temperatures and a bazillion stars out in the sky. I'm afraid they made the few fireflies that were over blinking in the bushes along the creek seem a bit pale in comparison.

    Up in time to take a nice hike around the campground here before it got to hot to do much. It is interesting to see how the park and surrounding areas have bounced back after the forest fire last year.  First off, like most forest fire's, it kind of bounced around a bit and left whole swatches of trees and ground unburned. It also failed to kill all of the trees even in areas where it did burn. So while there will be large areas without tree cover for a few generations, there are still plenty of trees for the deer, elk and big horn sheep to hide behind. Today it was a couple of deer and a bunch of turkey's.

    Spent some time dealing with trailer issues this morning. Had to check and inflate a couple of tires that were down a little bit and checked the bike tires also while I was at it. Also changed some batteries out on my indoor/outdoor temperature gauge. Found that the outdoor sending unit is most likely kaput, so I will need to get another one of those at some point. I find that it is nice to be able to tell what the outside temperature is before having to open a door or window in the morning. Plus it gives me a good reference for the overnight lows.

    Just hanging out in town right now. Have found that my WiFi signal out at the state park is more aggravation than it is worth. I can usually get logged into email or fb from out there, but if I actually want to read anything, more often than not, it bombs out and gives me the 'Blue Screen of Death' and I have to start all over again at that point.  It's just not worth it most times, but it does remind me how wired in even I am at times. I feel so 'superior' at times not owning a TV or listening to the radio all day, that I forget how much I crave those things at times. As long as it doesn't come to being an addiction I guess I'll be okay. Is there a 12 step program for people who would be content to watch old episodes of Star Trek or Happy Day's? Maybe I should take up drinking instead.

     So here are the last photo's from my trip to see the Boldt Castle a couple of weeks ago. Hope they haven't been to tedious for some of you, but then I guess you can always choose not to look at them. If you do like these though be sure to check out the last three posts for the rest of them.

Boldt Castle on Heart Island near Alexandria New York 

June 3, 2013

Coming back down the central staircase you notice this beautiful fireplace with a portrait of Louise over it. The docents that afternoon evidently thought it was cool enough outside to warrant a real fire. I have to admit that it did feel good.

Going on down to the lowest level, or basement, we came across a couple grounds keepers putting away their mowers for the day. Not much of anything has been done in the basement area except for some structural and safety items such as this stairway.



The one thing they did seem to be working on in the basement was the swimming pool. It will be interesting to come back some day and see how this has turned out. In the meantime I thought it was really interesting to note how the exterior trees showed up really well in the reflected images in the water and not in the windows themselves.

A couple things here; first is that there are two separate steel beams right here in this area. I don't know the design at all but I'm speculating that they hold up the inner and exterior portions of the stone wall above the swimming pool. You can see what I mean two pictures down from this one. Secondly though, is that for some reason part of the support cap was inset into the side of the post, but not the other side. It could be as simple as it had to be because it wasn't wide enough to go on the outside, but I just don't know. It's a mystery, and I like mysteries.

My friend Anita, who was touring with me at the time, standing on one of the exterior arches the mowing guys came in.

So the swimming pool is located inside of this little bump out with the balcony on the top of it. I think the steel beams are probably holding up the brick and stone walls of the main house.

A view of some more of the stone work.

A closer view. Note the number of Hearts designed into some of the stone as well as the 'hart' statue on top of the center roof peak. Many of the flower beds on the grounds carried this same theme by being laid out in heart shaped beds.

A view of the rear section of the castle.

Off in a part of one of the flower gardens was this exquisite carved stone fountain.

One last view of the building that held the steam generators and boilers that provide heat and electrical power for all the buildings on the island. It is still open to the public also and even has some of the original generators and electrical panels on display.
 

A ginkgo tree. I just thought this was interesting because there was only one of these that 'I' knew of in the Denver area. So it's neat to see one somewhere else and actually know what it is.

What is known as the 'Alstar Tower', this structure was originally designed as a children's playhouse. It included a bowling alley, billiard room, library, dance room, bedrooms, cafe, grill and kitchen. It is currently under reconstruction, so next time.....

One last view.

    Spent a quiet night at the state park last night. Read some more of my book, I'm now done with the whole Aubry/Matruin series by Patrick O'Brian, (21 books), and am now back to finish up the last couple of chapters of Saga of a Wayward Sailor by Tristan Jones. A really pleasant evening with warm temps and fireflies over along the creek. Stayed up long enough to watch the moon rise up above the trees in the park and hear the coyotes up on the hill behind camp.

    Up way to early this morning for some reason. I'm thinking it must be because it is summer and the sun starts to stream in by 5:00 in the morning. I seem to be able to resist until a more civilized time around 7-8:00, but I don't seem to be able to stay in bed any longer than that right at the moment.

    Anyway; fixed a bit of breakfast and took a quick shower before heading out on the road. Headed over to the town of Crawford and Fort Robinson just beyond. Had a real pleasant hike this morning up into the Soldier Creek Wilderness Area. Saw a couple of deer, a few turkeys and lots of other birds of all kinds. Hiked into a couple ponds I have fished before with my nephew and just checked them out. They were full of water weeds already, but still looked like there were some nice trout in them. We have both caught some nice 12"-18" natives and rainbows out of them before, as well as a few nice brook trout down in the creek. No fishing today, but still fun to be out looking at everything.

   Spent a couple of hours wandering around the grounds of Fort Rob afterwards, rereading all of the signs and going to the natural history museum here on the grounds. It is an interesting place to explore and you can either camp in one of several campgrounds, rent a cabin that once housed  U.S. Cavalry Soldiers or a room in one of the old multi-story barracks buildings. You can go horseback riding, take a hay ride, do a bar-b-que, hike, swim, play a little tennis or go to a play. That of course is what I intend to do tonight. The selection for this evening is 'Annie Get Your Gun', one of my all time favorites. Looking forward to seeing some great entertainment this evening.

   Right now though I'm sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of one of the barracks buildings. I had a nice lunch here earlier on, a nice buffalo burger, fries and ice tea. The buffalo they use here is from part of the herd they have at the park. They evidently cull a few animals every year so the herd doesn't get to big for the amount of pasture they have. It was very tasty for sure, not dry like it can be as I asked them to cook it medium rare so it hadn't dried it all out.

    They have WiFi here for the guests so it wasn't hard to latch on to their signal. Not real fast, but good enough for what I want to do today. Will read some more this afternoon and then take another hike this afternoon. Will find some dinner somewhere in Crawford later on and then head back here for the play.

    A few more photo's from my trip to Boldt Castle a couple of weeks ago. One more batch to go after this group. Enjoy!
  

Boldt Castle on Heart Island near Alexandria New York 

June 3, 2013



What would of been George's bedroom. At that time it was customary for husband and wives to have separate bedrooms.



This would of been Louise's bedroom/sitting room.




Looking in the other direction at the sitting area and the fireplace. A very inviting place to have tea and read a book.



The bathroom off of the two master suites. The whole house had been plumbed for modern running water and sewer systems as well as that new fangled electricity.  



The daughter, Clovis's bedroom. I really love how the TIBA has decorated the various rooms they have finished rehabbing. I particularly like the color pallet they have picked for each room.



Looking at the sitting area in Clovis's room.



A separate sitting area on the second floor. Used to entertain guests that were staying over perhaps.

On the third floor you can start to see what the TIBA had to start with. In most cases there was even less than what you can see here. One of the first things to do was to install new, temporary windows and a new roof just to keep the elements at bay.



Another room and another view of what they had to start with. In most cases all of the plaster had fallen off because of the elements, and the walls exposed down to the original bricks that faced the inside of the exterior walls as well as most of the ceilings. The bricks were all made on site by some of the workmen. All of the hard wood floors were gone and only the sub floors remained, though sometimes even they were missing big sections. So you can begin to see what a large project this is, considering there are 120 rooms in this building alone.



Looking out from one of the upstairs balconies you can see  the light house on 'Sunken Rock'. This is located in the channel between Heart Island and the mainland at Alexandria Bay.

Looking out at some of the exterior roof details.

Looking in the other direction. In the distance is Sunken Rock Light House.

On top of one of the towers is one of several bronze Hart statues.

One of the roof lightning arrestors. Note the 'heart' details included in the decoration.

One of many porthole style windows. This area has yet to be redone.

   Pretty quiet since my last post. Last night was certainly beautiful, took a short drive last night out and about the local forested area in search of critters. Saw quite a few deer of course, as well as a couple wild turkeys and a couple of cow elk. Seems like every local farmer/rancher decided it was a good day to cut hay yesterday as all the fields where the grass had been nearly waist height were suddenly all mowed and waiting for the baling machine.

   Kind of surprised that I'm not seeing 'more' animals out and about, as I often have seen hundreds of each on a 1-2 hour drive. But guess it makes sense in a way, the nights have been nice and warm and with enough of a moon that they don't have to come out until after dark. There has also been enough rain lately that there are standing puddles of water everywhere so they don't have to visit any of the regular watering holes. Then on top of it all, I think the hen turkeys are all still sitting on their eggs and the deer and elk were late in dropping their fawns and calves this spring, as I'm not seeing any of them yet. Did see a couple of nice bucks last night, though so far their antlers are still not very far along in their development.

   No rain last night so I didn't get a chance to see if my latest roof patch will have any effect on my leak inside the trailer. Found some new butyl backed duct tape last time I was in the hardware store and decided to give it a try. Certainly went on well and it seemed likely to stick to everything, even going down the road at 65 mph. Really hope this solves the problem, I'm really getting tired of hanging a umbrella upside down over the bed. :)

   Another wonderful summer day here this morning. Took a road trip over to the Agate Fossil Bed National Monument earlier this afternoon. Had been there once before a couple of years ago, but I still find stuff like that to be fascinating. Checked out all the displays of long dead and extinct rhino's, camels and dire wolves as well as this other kind of wolf like predator that was actually related to modern day pigs. Looked more like, and about the same size as, a lion to me. But I guess it is some extinct kind of pig-dog. Also hiked out to the old fossil beds and looked around a bit out there. Really not much to see out there as far as the 'dig' itself, but the view of the surrounding hills and prairie are worth the hike.

   Back down and around the southern edge of the area and back through the towns of Wilford and Berea. That town sure doesn't look anything like the town of Berea in Kentucky, that's for sure. Going to head on back to the campground in a little bit and then wait for it to cool down a little bit so I can go take a bike ride. It hasn't been that exciting of a day so far, but it has certainly been a fun day.

    Here are some additional pictures, (15), from my visit to the Boldt Castle in New York state a couple of weeks ago. The first 17 pictures were posted last night so you might want to check them out also.

Boldt Castle on Heart Island near Alexandria New York 

June 3, 2013

The formal dining room with the original Boldt family dining room table and chairs. There are not many original family artifacts or effects in the castle, but some family members and other friends who ended up with bits and pieces have donated some of them.

A close up view of the carved legs on the dining room table. Boldt would of chosen furniture and other decorations to go with his overall theme of a Rhineland style castle. I think he picked very well in this case.

A carved wooden panel on a buffet in the dining room. I am not sure if this piece originally belonged to the Boldt's of not, but it certainly went with the rest of the décor.

One other carved wooden panel.

Back in the atrium with the staircase, you can see one of the doors that leads to the staircase to the basement. All of this work is new and superb in it's execution. Here, if you look close, you can see the only real defect I noticed in any of the work. At the top of the custom made door, on the inside, you can see where one of the joints has come apart very slightly. Most likely because the wood they used to build it wasn't quite dry enough when they put the door together. Otherwise everything else is pretty much perfect.

Looking up at the ceiling on the 2nd floor. Note the plaster work on the column and around the edge of the opening for the atrium.

A closer look at the ceiling and some of the 'wedding cake' plaster work that was done.

Heading into the grand ballroom you have a piano.

At one end of the ballroom in it's own little niche is this working pipe organ. The ballroom itself was just to large to photograph, but I would guess that it would hold well over 250 dancers at any one time.

One corner of the ceiling in the grand ballroom.

The sitting room/library. I don't know who they have doing the research and buying of period appropriate colors, material and furniture, but who ever it is, is damn good at what they do.



Another view of the library. Notice the ceiling plaster and the custom built mantel and bookcases. In the distance you can see one small part of the grand ballroom.

A close up view of some of the carving on the custom made fireplace mantel.

Over the main stair case, out in the atrium, is this wonderful stain glass dome. Again, this is a reproduced version of the original as nothing was left of it other than some plans and a few small pieces of glass. It is at least 20-25 feet on each side.

And because I'm an engineer, and this kind of stuff fascinates me, here is the supporting framework holding up that stain glass dome.

    More photo's to follow in a day or two.