Goin' Mobile-A Dance Gypsy's tour of the country

   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.