Wyoming heading North

With a mere 4 hours of work removing all the glue left from the old ones, then new insignia were installed! Not perfect but a lot better than the old ones.

And suddenly it was time to move on. What a fun couple of weeks this has been.

We decided that from our experience so far we don’t need to make reservations in advance. Campgrounds haven’t been full and have been more than glad to have us stay. After Vernal we would go back to our regular method of wandering without plans.

Our general plan was heading North and East towards South Dakota taking roads we haven’t been on before, staying a couple of nights here and there or longer if we wanted to experience more of an area.

Lander was our intended spot the following night but about halfway there we turned onto WY 28 on a windy afternoon to see an illuminated sign saying “South Pass closed to highsided vehicles, 60+ MPH winds”. We backtracked a couple of miles to the intersection at Farson WY to review our alternatives.

A lot of nothing in Farson

Farson isn’t a fancy place. There’s a gas station and a general store. That’s it. Oh and a big dirt lot behind the gas station. We had a cell signal so got on our favorite app “RV Parky” to look for somewhere to camp.

There wasn’t anywhere within 70 miles, and we would have to go back on our tracks to get to that one. We went into the gas station and asked if we could stay on the dirt lot out back. They said to help ourselves, so that was where we stayed the night, dry camping and using the generator and our ROKU to stream TV while the very strong winds rocked the rig.

The next morning we awoke to a sunny day with calm winds and we set out at the unearthly hour of 7.30am for a different destination than we had intended. Instead of Lander we headed for Thermopolis WY and we were rewarded by a magnificent drive thru the South Pass of the Rockies across the Continental Divide and the tracks of the Pioneers.

Wind River Gorge

Another 100 miles brought us to another great area, the Wind River Gorge thru which the Big Horn River flowed, and into Thermopolis.

The swastika's are Indian symbols in Thermopolis

The Eagle campground was right there and had just had somebody cancel their reservation so we got the last vacant spot! 2 nights here would suit us just fine!

Thermopolis is a pretty little town and better yet has a brewery! Naturally we sampled their beer and we enjoyed lunch a couple of times too.

The rig had come up with another little problem. The new (Much larger) tire I had fitted to the front grabbed the left front mudflap and flipped it over, bending the steel bracket it was attached to. This caused it to rub on the tire on full lock. Fortunately this only occurred briefly on extra sharp slow speed corners, but the noise was fearsome! The campground owner lent me a grinder with a cut off wheel and I had the bracket off in a minute or so. No more noises!

The Occidental Hotel once frequented by Teddy Roosevelt

Buffalo Bill drank here too

Under the floor was the cellar.

The route we were now on continued to follow the Big Horn River. The scenery was spectacular. As we headed North East towards our next stop Buffalo Wyoming we climbed and climbed over the Powder River pass, 9500’! 

The Monaco having a big diesel engine in the back sailed up the incline almost silently. We both remember the Rexhall on passes like this. It would have been flat out in 1^st gear with the engine screaming between our seats. We still miss that old rig though, lots of good memories. 

Old Town Buffalo, a very clean and tidy town.

The Elks Lodge symbols (Closed the day we were there!)

Buffalo was nice too and a trip to Sheriden led us to Fort Phil Kearny where the biggest defeat of the US Army prior to the Little Bighorn took place. 

These were the real Plains Indians around Fort Phil Kearny

The museum took the white mans side, although it did mention the many treaties made and broken by the US Government, all of which became a hindrance when Gold was discovered in the area. The tribes came together and pulled a masterful ambush of a cavalry unit who disobeyed orders by following a decoy into an undefendable valley.

Just a reconstruction of the Fort which was burned by the Indians after it was abandoned by the Army.

Then we moved on again and had a boring trip down I90 as there aren’t any side roads to take. This brought us back to our “Home” state of South Dakota and a few nights near Deadwood where we came during a huge car show 5 years ago. With less people we had a chance to explore in depth, only to be disappointed by the tacky tourist nature of the place itself.

All the tourist trappings in Deadwood

T Shirts everywhere

Some stately buildings hidden by the bling.

We have had good weather (apart from some high winds) since we left Casa Grande, so our first night at the Steel Wheels CG surprised us with the heaviest rain we have ever experienced! It sounded like a giant fire hose was being directed straight down onto the roof of the rig.

We were doubly lucky in that it lasted only about 20 minutes at that strength and the really great news – the new slide seals and the work we had done at D&R RV before we left have cured the couple of slight leaks we had in the past.