Saturday Adventure, Part 2

Hi everybody!  It's me, Ragnar, here to tell you a little bit more about our very cool trip to Fort Riley yesterday!  

As Maggie mentioned, once we left the reviewing stand, we headed over toward the US Cavalry Museum.  There are all kinds of touching memorials over there AND lots of awesome tanks, artillery pieces, and personnel carriers used by the 1st Infantry Division over the years.  The first thing that caught my eye was this cool tank:

"Hey, Mags!  Check out this cool Sherman tank!"

Mags thought we should pose by it!

"This is so ... wait.  What's Dad doing over there?"
"I see a squirrel."

We decided to move on.  We found a Stuart Light Tank and tried a pose by that.  

"I like the Sherman tank better."
"Tanks a lot.  Ha roo roo roo!!!"

And she says I spend too much time with Mom!!!

This cool artillery piece caught my eye:

"Oh, Raggi.  I see something over there we HAVE to get a shot of!"
"OK, quick smile for Mom first, though!"

What Mags saw is this very special statue:

The dedication reads,
"In memory of the one and a half million horses and mules of the Union and Confederate Armies
 who were killed, wounded, or died from disease in the Civil War."

The statue was given to Fort Riley by Paul Mellon.  Mom and Dad were there for the dedication in the 1990s, when Dad was still on active duty.  Mellon served and trained at Fort Riley during WWII and was very proud of his service. It's a very touching memorial.

Also on the subject of horses, we did a little more walking and found the Duty statue.

Me and Maggie at the Duty statue!

The statue honors the cavalrymen and horses who served our nation!

And speaking of horses ... did you know there are horses assigned to Fort Riley?!?  And you know how much Maggie and I love horses!  We HAD to walk over to their stables to see if they were there!

"Hello!?!  Any-horsie home?!?"
"We're very friendly!!!"

They were in there -- we could smell them and hear them!  They must have been working, though -- in a meeting or something -- because no one came to the door.  Mom and Dad said we'll go to Fort Riley again and take another shot!

In the meantime, here's a photo of them in action, courtesy of the US Army and the Commaning General's Mounted Color Guard webpage:

Commanding General's Mounted Color Guard, Fort Riley, KS

You can read more about them here. 

It was starting to heat up, so we headed back over to where we'd left the vehicle.  We got to walk on the trail we started out on a bit more and JUST when we thought the day couldn't get any better ...

"Ragnar!  Look!  A BRIDGE!"
"This is SO AWESOME!!!"

I mean ... really!  What a GREAT adventure!

Sköl!

Ragnar

PS:  Have a serene Sunday!!!