Sounds like you had an awesome day. The dunes, that is something I've wanted to do alongside hang gliding. I've heard that the last Pirates was really great. Chuggs went and saw it and Carter was overflowing with comments. Good comments. So, the camels, did you really ride them? Or did you watch other people riding them? Cause I was telling Grandma, "We go horseback ridding, and they try to top us with camelback riding." She replies,"Yeah, anything they do over there is way over the top." I loved riding my horse though. It was a unique feeling, it's hard to describe.
Today we saw some other horses, we went to a "ranch," where they have live history. There are little trails with warnings about rattlesnakes (Jessica found all of those signs,) that lead to different areas. First, you have to pass through the Visitors Center, which is an old hut built back when there was a contagious disease period. It was a very contagious disease of the lungs, and the high altitude helped the health of the patients, while providing an out of the way place, where others won't catch the germ. The man at the cashier was dressed as a pioneer dude. After some sunscreen, we took the trail to get to the Native American camp, which is run by Indian decedents. There was a tepee made of six buffalo skins and sticks. The other shelter is like a lean-to, it has lots of space, and room for gazers to see into. They also had lots of custom made stuff, like vases, beaded things, chairs, dresses and balls, and they also had a bearskin, a buffalo hide, three foxes, a rabbit and a mink.
Something about this ranch is that everyone volunteers. You have to be at least ten to volunteer there, and there were lots of kids. At the second place, the homestead before the invention of the railroad, it was almost entirely run by kids. This homestead was a single room, a bit smaller than the room you slept in at Grandma's house. There were lots of girls, dressed up in 19th century style, and a teen, dressed in the same manner. They showed us the milking bear, a toy used to teach kids how to milk a cow, (a wooden bear moved up two strings which were attached through holes in the bears hands when the strings were pulled correctly) and a bunch of stuff that they made, like dolls, doll clothes, doll houses and beds, fireplaces, the food entirely from scratch; the list goes on.
The next house we didn't do much at, it was a big barn with a farm, a garden and livestock. The kids here wore overalls and plaid shirts, and bonnets and long dresses. I got a video of Makenna and Jess Dancing on the upper level of the barn. At this point we ate lunch before going to the General store, sampling some old fashioned candy, and heading off towards the large house.
This next building was built when the family moved to the ranch in the 19th century, right before the wife gave birth. They were living on the small homestead I talked about first, while they were waiting for the larger house to be built. The bigger house had two stories and was about as big as our house in NLV. It did not have running water yet, but it had excellent heating from stoves. The people who lived there had three maids.
Next is the blacksmith, who really is a black smith. He had his bellows, and he hammered at the red hot iron like it was nothin'. We tried to solve some blacksmith puzzles. They made these steel contraptions from scratch. We saw him make an S hook on the fire; it is really cool. Right before we left, he gave it to us for free since we "saw him make it." He was a really nice, and generous guy.
Finally we went to the biggest house, and the most modern house with running water and electricity. We took a tour from one of the volunteers dressed up as a maid. This house had three stories, a guest quarters, family quarters, and servant quarters. Many rooms had doorbell type things that alerted maids if they were needed. There were a total of about seven servants here, or rather, volunteers dressed as servants. One interesting thing I learned, was that rooms are coded by the doorway. Not all are the same size, if one is a tall door way, it was available for entry. If the doorway was low however, the rooms were private, and you needed permission to walk in. The studies were most private, some had two doorways, and you needed to receive permission twice to enter. Afterwards, me and Grandma taught the girls croquet in the grassy grounds, outside the house. We then went home, much later then we had thought we would. I went to scouts, but I'll talk about that tomorrow, it's a whole other story.
Get some sleep,
Love,
Isaac
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