Our adventure, traveling to the Pacific NorthWest towing our Travel Trailer; plans change.

 

01

8/2/15

Sunday

WaKeeney, KS

KOA campground

Full hook-ups

 

From OKC we headed north on Interstate 35 to Salina, KS; then West on Interstate 70.

Uneventful day just learning how to drive pulling a trailer.

The rear view camera that we had installed did really well….the 12 volt connection was the trick.

The grandkids started the trip with us because we are taking them to South Dakota to their other grandparents for a first time visit by themselves, then Grandma  will fly back with them to OKC next week.  Memories in the making.

They are of course excited about the trip and we promised we would stop at campgrounds with playgrounds and a pool.  That makes any trip exciting if you are 7 and 3!

Nice campground in a KS field with a pool that is 8 feet deep on one end! B did an amazing job of going to the bottom to touch….could hold her breath forever!

 

02

8/3/15

Monday

Strasburg, CO

KOA Campground

Full hook-ups

 

We began to see tons of windmill farms with some dominating the landscape as far as you could see.  The blades are massive.  At one point we saw the blades being transported on a truck that was an extended two bed truck for each blade. 

We continued west on Interstate 70 to Strasburg,  just east of Denver.

It is hard to get acclimated to traveling only 4 to 5 hours per day, all of our years of traveling we have been 10-12 hour travelers but with the girls and pulling the travel trailer 4 to 5 is enough.

The girls were in the pool for only about 15 minutes as it was too cold and windy. They were disappointed but since they were cold they were agreeable. A front came in during the night and it turned windy and chilly.

This campground was very crowded not a favorite.

 

 

03

8/4/15

Tuesday

Douglas, WY

KOA

Full hook-ups

 

From Strasburg we went north on Hwy 79 to Prospect Valley then west on 52 over to connect with Interstate 25 and avoided Denver. 

Sturgis is having their 75th anniversary motorcycle rally this week and there are lots of bikes on the roads, at rest areas, at gas stops and at restaurants. We stopped for gas just before the Wyoming line and saw about 20 bikes lined up using one credit card….too funny! Wonder whose card that was!!

We stopped at the welcome center as we got into Wyoming and it was so windy you could hardly walk but once you got inside the welcome center it was absolutely great!  Jail cells for the criminals of the old west and/or restless little kids, dinosaur bones, and a teepee to climb inside, not to mention many things for adults to learn about Wyoming as well.

 

The campground in Douglas,  home of the Jackalope, was a really nice campground for the girls and for us to leave the trailer while going to Spearfish, SD to drop off the girls.  We are not taking the trailer that close to Sturgis and into that many bikes. They were estimating that 1 million people would be visiting Sturgis for the rally!!!

 

 

04

8/5/15

Wed

Douglas, WY

KOA

Full hook-ups

 

We took the girls to see the Oregon trail wagon ruts in Guernsey.   B was quite impressed once she figured out what the ruts actually were.  P just asked “Why” to everything.  The ruts were very impressive to us….it was unbelievable the stamina and determination it must have taken for the pioneers to cross these hills and then the North Platt River immediately after.  

Next we went to Register Cliff   and B really wanted to sign her name to the rock because after all we visited there too!

Ate lunch at a dinner in Guernsey- definitely western theme. 

Girls had a lot of questions about that too!

We finished our day by going to Guernsey State Park to look for a swimming area. Really pretty lake but not really good for shore swimming…more so for a boat.

 

 

05

8/6/15

Thurs

 

Left trailer in Douglas and we drove the girls to Spearfish to stay with other grandparents.

Drove to Spearfish via Lusk (US 20 then US 85 then state 585 to Interstate 90 into Spearfish)

In Lost Springs, Wyoming where the population was 1 about 7 years ago when Alan stayed in Douglas for about a month while working a wellsite-the population has now exploded to 4!!!!

Stopped at the Outpost Dinner in Lusk for lunch and it took an hour and 45 minutes for that stop because there were so many bikers there eating.

Got to Spearfish around 4:30 and the girls were super excited to be in Spearfish and to see their other grandparents - also glad to be in an environment where they could run!

Had a very nice dinner with Great Grandparents.

 

 

06

8/7/15

Friday

Douglas, WY

 

Left Spearfish after stocking up on some items at the Walmart, washing the car and going by what used to be Two Pines Coffee shop for some great scones and coffee.

Nice drive back through Gillette on Interstate 90 and then down 59 to Douglas.

We were surprised at the number of oil and gas locations and activity there were on the drive.  There were also lots of evidence of coal mining-including really, really long coal trains…so energy resources production were everywhere.

 

Got back to the trailer and were organizing for a two person trip westward….missing the girls but looking forward to the next phase of our Great Western Adventure.

Met a couple next door- one from Texas and one from British Columbia.  They had gone fishing for salmon in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and smoked their catch.   They gave us some they had prepared in a candied blend - which means the salmon was marinated in brown sugar, teriyaki sauce for 48 hours then smoked using apple wood.

Very nice!!

 

 

07

8/8/15

Sat

Boysen State Park, WY

between Shoshoni and Thermopolis  at the Upper Wind River campground

No hook-ups

 

Travelled  Interstate 25 to Casper then US20 to Shoshoni towards Thermopolis. Pulled into a beautiful campsite (following Granddad's suggestion of going to the  north side of the lake for a campsite).

Really nice area with beautiful views.

When we stopped, we had an issue with one of the EZ lift support bars,  so we took it into Thermopolis to see if we could get it fixed.  Went everywhere that was open with no luck….Saturday afternoon in a small town the odds were stacked against us.

Alan decided to pull into Eagle RV campground to see if anyone could give us any information.  We connected with Bill who lived in the campground and did odd jobs there.  He used to build houses and cars then just gave up work and home, bought an RV and began traveling.  He connected with the owner of Eagle and decided to stay.

He worked for about an hour on the EZ lift and was able to fix it…..can’t believe he was able to do so! Yeah Mr. Bill!

Got back to the campsite where it was still very windy. Looked for big horn sheep on the mountain side but didn’t see any however, we did have a beautiful sunset.

Because it was so windy, we hooked the Jeep back  to the Travel Trailer to add more stability and went to bed.  The wind immediately died down. We woke up around 12 and the clouds had cleared and there were more stars out than I have ever seen in my life; like a dome with the Milky Way clearly visible.

 

 

08

8/9/15

Sunday

Boysen State Park , WY between Shoshoni and Thermopolis at the Upper Wind River campground

No hook-ups

 

Woke up and had coffee outside by the Wind River (our campsite).

Alan fixed bacon, eggs and even toast.

The location is so nice we decided to take the day off and just hang out at the campsite.

We took a walk and found a site with more shade as several campers were leaving.  We really liked our spot but it was in the sun most of the day.  We moved to a shady spot just down from where we were and we liked it even better than the first spot. 

There are little finches all around our campsite and as the day went on they became more accustomed to us and would come right into the sitting area. They must have told their friends the magpies and the bunnies, because we wound up sharing our campsite with lots of friends. In addition, at night we had lots of bats that would fly very close to us, not a problem and there were certainly no mosquitoes with those bats around!

We had a bottle of white wine and ate the smoked salmon the couple we had met in Douglas gave us for lunch. Oh my, not a bad Sunday afternoon!!!!

We put the telescope together in hopes of another beautiful sky tonight.

Had new neighbors move in – John and Georgian – a couple from England that had moved to Michigan many years ago for career, to raise their family and to experience sunshine more frequently than in their homeland. They were pulling an A-frame.

 

 

09

8/10/15

Monday

Boysen State Park, WY between Shoshoni and Thermopolis at the Upper Wind River campground

No hook-ups

 

Went to Thermopolis, Hot Springs State Park, via the Wind River Canyon Hwy to take a shower and soak in the hot springs. The Wind River Canyon Scenic Byway: Wind River flows north thru the canyon, ~14miles long, ~1 – 2 miles wide, the steep canyon walls display Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks; markers along the drive point out the ages.  

Ate Thai food at Bangkok Thai Restaurant, a very pleasant surprise in such a small town.

Alan had his glasses fixed which he had stepped on and broken. Again very friendly service and didn’t charge for the repairs….though we were certainly willing to pay whatever it took to get those glasses repaired.

Stopped to pick up some beer but the liquor store/bar was closed on Monday, however the owner was just coming outside as we were pulling up.  He told us he was closed on Mondays but to come in anyways,  he had just stopped by after working the lunch shift at his other business, the Thermopolis Café.  He was a very friendly guy and told us he had moved to Thermopolis 10 years ago from Penn.  He had a high profile job as a broker with a seat on the floor.  He now happily lives in Thermopolis and owns the liquor store/bar and the Thermopolis café. Very interesting guy.

Loved Thermopolis!!!! We will be coming back!