Back to Gering - Bluegrass In Bayard

We got up on Friday morning and headed down the road to Gering, back to the same campground that we had left a few days before. When we called them, they said that they only had two spots left!

We hung around camp midday, and then Richard headed over to the nearby Farm and Ranch Museum. His tour started with a 30 minute video, made from 8mm movies shot by two bachelor farmers in the 1930s and 1940s. The narration explained what you were seeing. They demonstrated various farming practices of the time, as well as building a barn and moving a house. It was more interesting that Richard had expected, kind of a snapshot of time. Later Richard met the man who had interviewed one of the farmers, and learned about the existence of the 8mm movies. The museum had a vast collection of old machinery, showing amazing mechanical ingenuity. The picture shows a potato planting machine.

After dinner, we headed to Bayard for the bluegrass festival. We particularly liked the young Mr Gilmore, as well as the High Plains Tradition band. We left after seeing a couple of songs from the Stanleytones, also very good. It was a very small festival, perhaps 100 attendees, but perhaps there would be more people there Saturday. It was in a dude ranch type place near the North Platte river, who offered rides in covered wagons.

As we left we noticed that the Chimney Rock was lit up at night, a nice touch.