bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We went to the grocery store, Walmart, and the Farmers Market. We went to several other local stores looking for long underwear to wear at the ABQ Balloon Fiesta in early October, which we did not find.

We had a quiet afternoon at home. The wind was still blowing and the smoke was still covering the area so it was hunker down time!

Sunday- We had another quiet day, doing laundry and other tasks around the motor home. We took a short nap and stayed inside due to the wind and smoke.

Monday- Labor Day- We left very early, by 7 AM. We wanted to get ahead of the winds. We traveled south on Hwy. 28 to Rapid City SD. We stopped at the Flying J and then back tracked to Three Flags RV Park, where we have stayed before. The gal was not there, but she called me back and told us to just take site 30 and settle in. She would catch up with us later.

Right after we arrived, the winds picked up! We were lucky to get settled in. We went to dinner at Texas Road House. When we got back, I went over and paid Vicky, the owner. We were getting a PA discount, so the cost was $23 per night. We had decided to stay 2 nights.

Tuesday- We ran around Rapid City, going to Walmart and Panera for lunch. We stopped at Sears, still trying to find some long underwear. At Walmart, I found some leggings. Nothing for Bob. He finally decided to just order some online and have them sent to the Elks Lodge.

We had a quiet afternoon, and took a nice short nap.

Wednesday- Moving day again.  We left Rapid City and traveled south to Hwy 89. We tuned right and went to Ft. Laramie,WY for the night. We had a $15 FHU site thru PA.

Since we arrived before 2 pm, we decided to go visit Ft. Laramie. There is nothing to the town, literally, they do not even have a gas station. We drove thru to Ft Laramie.

What an interesting place! It was  built in 1834 at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte rivers. It was originally named Ft. William., then Ft. John. Indian tribes traded buffalo robes for manufactured goods there. In 1841 the first of the westward bound immigrants arrived. Over the next two decades thousands of people passed through the fort on the trails to Oregon, California, and Salt Lake City. It was on the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Pony Express. It was also one of the first places with the telegraph. Fort Laramie hosted several treaty negotiation with Northern Plains Indian Nations.

We parked and went to the Visitor Center and watched the movie.

The above saddles looked pretty uncomfortable. They were made for the comfort of the horses, and not for the rider. They were all made at the fort.

Above is the soldiers dining area. Below is the sleeping area.

Below is the building where they lived, ate and slept.

When the fort was closed the towns people stripped the place of most everything. It was the recycling of the 1800’s. So the NPS had to rebuild the entire place.

We returned to the MH and had a quiet evening. The weather was fair, with light winds, but cool. There was a book exchange at this park, so we went over and dropped off a bag of books.

Thursday-  We continued our journey south to Westminster CO. Wow, on I-25 we could not see the mountains, or even the foothills,  due to the smoke from the Colorado and Utah forest fires. The air is horrible! The air in the Denver area is never great, as there is usually a cloud of brown area over the basin, but this is so much worse!

We arrived at the Elks Lodge and parked in the 50 amp site on the wall. There was only 1 open site on the hill, and it was under the trees in the 30 amp area. So we will be staying for 3 nights on the wall, until people start leaving on Sunday.

We settled in and Julie the camp host arrived a couple of hours later. We had a quiet evening.

Friday- The air is still putrid! Friend Marianna cannot even go out of her motor home. She has developed a Adult Reactive Disease, where she reacts to chemicals.She does not have asthma or other lung disease. The smoke is making her miserable. Her voice is horse, and if she breaths any of the outside air, she coughs.

I joined the gals at the Lodge at 11:30 to play Ponytail Canasta. We had a nice lunch then played cards. I returned to the MH at about 3:30, and we had social hour outside in the pavilion.

We did not like the dinner selection at the Lodge, so we went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. We had been there before, and were not impressed, but thought we would give them another try as there is always a crowd there. The food was good, but we had a problem with the service. After 5 minutes, Bob started a timer. At 12 minutes, with the timer going on the table, a waitress noted that we had not been served. So she took over the table and took our order, putting a rush on it. We had our food very rapidly there. She was very apologetic, and we gave her a good time. We never did see the waiter that was assigned to our table.

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