Old Fort Bent

Saturday

At about 7 am the temp was 39 degrees. But the temp quickly went up and by 9 am it was back into the normal range of 60-70 degrees.  

We had a 60 miler to Lamar CO and for the first time we had a slight tailwind.  Didn't care that it was not a big tailwind - just that it was not a headwind - like we have had every day so far.  We are coming down from the mountains so it was flat with a slight decline - so I was able to average 16-17 mph for the ride.  Felt good.

One of the highlights of the ride was to visit Old Bent Fort.  A National Park that was created in 1976.  The fort was a key safe haven on the Santa Fe trail for the travelers.  It was burnt down in the 1800's but the Park Service reconstructed the fort from drawings one of the soldiers had made during his stay at the fort.  It was a commercial trading post and it featured a bar with a billiard table that was brought over the Santa Fe Trail by wagon (one of these wagons could carry 6000 lbs of goods).

That large thing in the middle is a beaver skin press.  The trappers would bring in the hides and they would stack them up in a pile and then turn down a large screw device and press the beaver skins down to get them dried for the trip back East.  The building on the top (upper left) was the bar with the billiard table.

Admission was $3 and ignoring the advice of Cathryn (seems to be a constant theme of my blog) I left my Golden Eagle pass back home.  That makes three National Parks we have visited so far.  Was going to buy another pass - but these parks did not sell the Golden Eagle pass.  Tried to tell them I left my pass home and that my dog ate it - but felt pretty stupid when they told me that it was only $3 bucks to enter.  

We are staying at Lamar Community College tonight behind the gym.  Bugs are really bad - and no bug spray.  Another item to add to my list of things to remember when one camps. Not sure where dinner is but the showers in the gym were fantastic.  

Pretty good night's sleep except for the occasional trailer truck blasting through the town and the college kids partying until about 2 am (not much else to do in Lamar, CO).  One thing I have noticed is that all these Community Colleges have dorms (kids have to come from all over the county and nothing is close) and large gyms with a bunch of teams including football.  Football is big out here.

 Tomorrow we have another 85 miler and I think we enter Kansas.  While I've made some sales calls in Kansas before this will be another opportunity to see a State the right way - at the ground level.  

Should be fun.