Our first stop in Colorado was Bent’s Old Fort. For some reason they put the parking lot at the street and had a 1/4 mile walk into this reconstructed trading fort rather than placing the parking lot next to the fort. For those who could not make the walk there was a phone to call for a golf cart to ride to the fort. With the 100F heat the golf cart sounded tempting but we opted to walk.
As we approached the entrance we noticed a peacock sitting under the covered wagon. As Mr Ram asked if it was native to Colorado it let out a great screech. We were clearly not sneaking into the fort.
The entrance had no admission booth or store. In fact initially it seemed deserted. We went into a couple of the rooms and noticed another couple and a person in period dress who said he was available to provide a guided tour.
Our tour guide, Dillon was dressed in period clothes and started our tour in the trading room. he seemed somewhat tentative at first as he was clearly trying to remember all of the information he wanted to tell us. As we moved to the next room he had a Hagrid moment blurting out that this was the first tour he was giving by himself and then muttering “I shouldn’t have said that.” The peacock obviously knew the tour well and preceded us at each stop around the fort.
Since this fort is a re-construction on the original foundation, there was very little that was off limits. We walked into the wheelwrights shop, paged through his journal and checked out the feel of his tools.
From there we moved on to Colorado Pueblo Lake State Park. The campground was a wide open area typical of a number of southwestern campground. This one however had a lake view and we were fortunate that our site had a tree as well as a shaded table.
The wind picked up on our first night and we wished we had that wind gauge from Lamar, KS.
We did have a companion for our stay. We enjoyed his company but never knew his name. With a busy weekend coming we suspected that he would find a new friend and continue his travels.
With all of that water we thought we might rent a boat. The smallest motor boat available was $250 and they did not rent kayaks on Thursdays. So boats were not an option.
We thought we could just go swimming then, right? No – swimming is not allowed. You can park next to the water, walk in and splash around but your feet can’t leave the ground – unless you are getting into that $250 boat. So we sat by the shore and occasionally walked into the water to stay cool.
The site across from ours had a cyclist so Mr Ram had to say hi. Gary was cycling across country from Delaware to the Pacific on his Fuji Touring bike. Why? Why do many of us ride – for the challenge. During the first part of his journey he had a similar experience to us – too much stuff.
He was following the Trans America route using paper maps for directions and phone apps to find hot showers for cyclists.
Hopefully we can stay ahead of him for a while. Nick Jones managed to pass us on his bike between Valentine NE and Sage Creek SD.