Superior and some Goodbyes

Since we had Catherine's birthday on my actual birthday I didn't feel too bad when on Catherine's birthday I took off on a little road trip with the 'ons.  Dad (Ron), Don, John, Shar*on* and I headed down to Superior to see where the Pozun family began.  Superior is a town a modern 2 hours south of Hudson, WY and was a coal mine along the Union Pacific line.  All the kids were born there and went to school there while papa worked in the mines.  

This is where the mine used to sit.  If you travel back around the area you can see bits of machinery leftover here and there but for the most part there is very little evidence of a once booming mine.

 Up on this hill, probably to the right of the two trees (I think) is where one of their houses used to sit.  They lived on two different hills while they were there.  Apparently over the past 50+ years the hills have gotten smaller than they were when the kids had to trudge to school :-)

 Here was the remains of the swimming pool.

 And overlooking the school for a different vantage point of where their old house used to sit:

 Superior calls itself a "living" ghost town but with no services (gas, grocery etc., though possibly an open bar) and no seeming industry, the town is rather sparse.  However, a few years ago they received some grant money to save the Union Hall, which is now a building front/memorial/info center on the history of town.

 There they had a map of the area where John found their old house:

I was intrigued by these Ice Caves and when we saw a sign for them on the edge of town we figured what the heck.  

 
However, a 1964 article about them and a sign on the edge of town were not enough help to find them.  We did find this cool outcrop of coal:

 And fault:

 We then headed to the old elementary school (now town hall/library/museum) to drop off some yearbooks.  Turns out the old kindergarten classroom is now the museum room.  I liked this old poem about Superior:

Dad and his siblings had lots of memories to share, not only of Superior but of the drive there and back.  My great-grandfather (Grandma Jennie's dad) had mined in Rock Springs (about ~10 miles from Superior) and at some point, walked with his buddy Frank Antich (and possibly a jug of whiskey depending on who tells the story) from Rock Springs to Hudson where he then settled.  Besides going to visit their grandparents, the "kids" also drove back and forth between Superior and Hudson many times while building their house.  It was actually an old ice cream shop/soda fountain in Superior that Grandma and Grandpa purchased to salvage and use to build their house.  While no one has quite enough information to help pin down exactly what building was purchased (and there seem to be very few photos from Superior at the time) we have this picture of the building process:

And of course the final product:

Halfway between Superior and Lander is Farson, where it is pretty much required to stop and get some ice cream if you are traveling through.  Further down the road was a bar that apparently Papa would stop at.  As the kids sat in the car and he finished visiting, they apparently were quite confused by Papa's brazen disregard for the "NO MINORS ALLOWED" sign.  The kids just knew he was a miner!

 After this adventure it was sadly time for Sharon to leave.  We all accompanied her to the airport where much like when Uncle Matt left, the kids learned to fully exploit their relatives for change. It started innocently enough with a physics lesson with few pennies in the Vortex Wishing Well:

But before hugs were given at the entrance to security these two had cleaned out everyone's pockets of spare change.  Catherine just had to walk toward the group with her hand out and say "money" and six hands went digging through purses and pockets at lightning speed to spoil these monkeys with various gumball machine treats.

We hit the park one day:

 And of course had to go hang out with JJ and his family one last time:

 More death grip hugs:

 Goobers:

 Playing creep mouse with Sharon:

 And one more attempt at a 4 generation photo:

For a myriad of reasons, my whole trip to Wyoming was amazing.  Though there are many ways for families to say goodbye to a house and to some memories, this was the best way for ours.  There were stories shared, tears shed and a lot of laughter.  As grandma advised in her post-it note wills for the "kids" to be good to each other and love each other, I think they have and she has a lot to be proud of with those guys.