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.