Day 132 Thursday September 8, 2022 We didn't do much today. We had seen all the highlights in the Park that we had planned to see so we decided to sleep a little late and relax a little.
I studied the operation on our new GPS and created a trip in it to test it out when we leave here Friday. It looked like a storm was brewing so we put up our chairs and others things outside so they wouldn't get wet and have to pack them up wet. While we were doing that a neighbor walked over and said that while we were gone Wednesday a strong wind came up and was blowing canopies and chairs in the park over and he folded ours up so they would not hit our motorhome. We thanked him. Then we mentioned we were working our way home from a trip to Alaska. He said his grandfather worked on the construction of the Alaska Highway. He said every time he saw a photo of the construction he looked for his grandfather. Later we got several rain showers and it was a bit cooler than the last three days.
Day 133 Friday September 9, 2022 It was 30 degrees at 7AM. We slept in again a little and departed about 9AM and headed to Ponderosa Campground in Cody Wyoming after topping off our fuel.
We saw several bison on the side the road as we drove through Yellowstone NP on our way to Cody. We also saw a large herd of them in the valley where we saw them Wednesday.
After driving out the East Entrance of Yellowstone NP we took a break at Pahaska Tepee (where Buffalo Bill's original lodge was). We shared a bowl of homemade chili and huckleberry cheesecake.
The drive between the East Gate and Cody was breathtaking. The road crooked around the edge of the mountains with sharp drop offs on one side down to a river several hundred feet below. Anyone that drives this road sure needed to stay alert or end up down the drop off. We drove through 3 tunnels at the Buffalo Bill Dam about 6 miles from Cody.
We got to the Ponderosa Campground about 2PM and setup in site 92. The sites on the row we are on sure have the utilities position weird. All the utilities should be on the driver side when parked. The power hookup is on the passenger side, the water is on the drivers side and the sewer hookup is behind the motorhome. But we made it work. The man that checked us in gave us a quick rundown of things to see in Cody. Then we drove to Walmart for a few groceries.
Day 134 Saturday September 10, 2022 We thought we might extend our stay in Cody by one day to see all the things that interested us but we didn't need to. We had a busy day starting out at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West which is actually 5 museums in one complex – Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Plains Indian Museum and the McCraken Research Library. The admission ticket is good for two days and if you visit all the exhibits and read all the plaques it would take two day probably. We visited the museums we were interested in but didn't do the entire complex. The Cody Firearms Museum had 4,700 different firearms on display and more that are not on display. They had everything from normal hunting rifles to all kinds of military weapons. I was surprised to find Matt Dillion's pistol, Bat Materson's pistol, Hoss Cartwright's pistol and holster, Little Joe Cartwright's pistol and holster, Ben Cartwright's pistol and holster and Paladin's pistol and holster and others from the western movies.
Buffalo Bill Cody was a man of varied interests and talents. One fact I was not aware of was he road for the Pony Express for two months. He founded the town of Cody Wyoming and was quite the entrepreneur and benefactor for many things to make the town of Cody prosperous. He was not just a Wild West Showman he lived his character.
After touring the museums we returned to the motorhome for lunch and rested our feet for awhile before going to Old Trail Town. Bob Edgar a native of Wyoming Big Horn Basin worked as an archaeologist for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody and began to realize that old historical buildings were rapidly disappearing from the landscape so in the Spring of 1967 he began to gather historical buildings and relics to be displayed at the site that Buffalo Bill Cody had chosen for the town of Cody in 1895. They had to build the town of Cody a few miles away because there was no water at the planned location. The Old Trail Town consists of 28 buildings dating from 1879 to1901, one hundred horse drawn vehicles, lots of memorabilia. Some famous outlaws used some of the buildings.
There is also a small graveyard where some famous or infamous people have been relocated to. One is Jeremiah Johnston. Robert Redford played him in a movie that I have seen. He came to the Old Trail Town and was a Pall Bearer when they relocated him to the cemetery at Old Trail Town.
Then we drove about 4 miles to visit the Buffalo Bill Dam and Visitor Center. This Dam was a project that Buffalo Bill wanted to happen so the land in the area could be irrigated for farming. Now over 93,000 areas of farm land benefit from the Dam not counting all the other activities that benefit from the water reservoir including drinking water for the town of Cody. Construction was started in 1905 and after several failed attempts if was completed in 1910 and was the tallest Dam in the World at its competition at 325 feet. It was modified by adding 25 feet and this project was completed in 1993. There are two power generation plants, one is 25.5 megawatts and one is 3 megawatts.
After touring the Dam we returned to the motorhome and rested until about 6:30PM when we went to the College Rodeo just down the road. Cody claims to be the Rodeo Capital of the World. They have a rodeo every night in June, July and August. Tonight was the second night of the College Rodeo where only college students compete. We enjoyed watching the rodeo. These were young men and women but they sure could ride and rope. We returned to the motorhome about 9PM ready for bed after a busy productive day.
Day 135 Sunday September 11, 2022 We departed Cody about 8:15AM and headed for Rawlins Wyoming 250 miles away. We saw several Antelopes a few miles outside Cody. One ran across the road and it looked like it almost hit a person riding a bicycle on the side of the road. We are not sure they even saw the Antelope because they looked like they were bent over on the bicycle looking at the pavement as they rode. I saw the Antelope and had slowed down, we don't need anymore broken fiberglass.
Most of the roads today were good two lane highway with very little traffic mainly because we were in an area where very few people live. We did drive through a few small towns.
The terrain changed several times today. Vast open range with rolling terrain of sage brush with mountains in the distance.
Then we drove through Wind River Canyon which is part of the Wind River Indian Reservation. This was a rugged place with high rock face mountains on either side of the canyon with the road, the Wind River and a railroad down in the canyon.
We got to Rawlins Wyoming and filled up with fuel at a TA Truck Stop, parked the motorhome and went inside and had a good meal at the Country Pride Restaurant. We got to the Western Hills Campground about 3PM and setup in site 93 for the night. Later Lena did laundry and I cleaned about 3 days worth of bugs off the front of the motorhome.
Day 136 Monday September 12, 2022 We had a mostly boring 327 mile trip to Limon. Colorado except for trying to dodge all the potholes on the Interstates once we got into Colorado. They like concrete road surfaces apparently and we don't. They are great when new but with some time they seem to develop bad potholes more so than asphalt. And the bridges on I70 were horrible and the road department just seems to ignore them. They were almost as bad as some of the roads in Canada and Alaska and that is saying something. And they collected enough tolls from us in just a few miles near the Denver Airport they could afford to fix some of the potholes. They do like their tolls. It seems in our travels the roads with tolls are in the worst shape.
We did see some Antelope today and cattle and a whole lot of nothing but open space as far as we could see. We stopped at a Loves Truck Stop for a break and went inside to get a snack at McDonald's. Well that is out last time ordering chicken nuggets. Dry as shucks and no taste. We asked for two packs of sauce and they gave us 8, Huh! The parking lot here is designed kind of weird. We found a place to park beside another motorhome and when we came out we were kind of sitting out in the driveway it looked like. After waiting for about a dozen 18 wheelers to either get parked or get by us we finally got turned around and left.
We got to Trailing Edge RV Park about 3:30 and setup in site 2.
Day 137 Tuesday September 13, 2022 We departed for Dodge City Kansas about 8AM but only had to drive a mile on I70 before the GPS took us on some nice two lane roads almost all the way. The scenery today was boring to begin with but got better the nearer we got to Kansas.
We begin to see huge fields under cultivation with corn and Milo. Some of these fields are so big I would image the farmer on the tractor packs a lunch and water in the morning because it is a long way back to the house.
We also started getting yellow butterflies hitting our windshield in masses. It must be the mating season. We soon had yellow splatters all over the windshield. Those spots you see on some of the photos are bug splatters.
We also began to see a lot more Feed Yards with thousands of cattle in them. We passed through several small remote towns. They sure are a long way from Walmart. Like in the remote areas of Canada and Alaska they must do some careful planning before they “run” to town for supplies.
We fueled up in Garden City and was in site 64 at Gunsmoke RV Park in Dodge City about 2:30PM. I was tired and hungry so we decided to go to Miss Kitty's Cafe for a late lunch but when we got there they were closed today for some reason. So we opted for Applebee's and got a really good meal.
When we got back to the motorhome it took me probably 30 minutes to get the bug mess off the windshield and front of the motorhome.
Day 138 Wednesday September 14, 2022 After breakfast we went to the Boot Hill Museum which is located on the original site of Boot Hill Cemetery and highlights the glory days of the Queen of the Cow Towns. The museum was very well done. Very informative about the beginnings of Dodge City and the growing pains it went through from a Wild West Frontier town to a civilized town. Most of the old town of Dodge City was lost in a fire as was a lot of old towns in that period. There are two buildings that are from the late 1890's on the premises. The Hardesty House and the Union Church. They were relocated to the museum area and a replica front street town was built. The different buildings have some original relics from Dodge City and that era. During the main tourist months there are gunfights in the street, Long Branch Saloon has variety shows, and a restaurant and ice cream parlor is operating. They were doing some major renovations to the Hotel so we could not visit it. We did try a Sarsaparilla in the Long Branch Saloon. I had heard of that drink on the old westerns but was not sure what is was. As the ticket lady describe it – it is like a Root Beer but more creamy tasting. One 16oz bottle was $3.00, it was good but a little sweet tasting. I prefer the ICB Root Beer that I get from Sam's Club and I can get a case of 24 for about what they wanted for 6 bottles.
For lunch we went back to Miss Kitty's Cafe and had a good Mexican Lunch. There must be at least 2 dozen Mexican Restaurants in Dodge City.
Then we drove out to the Overlook where we could see the biggest Feed Yard we have seen. There are two beef processing plants located by the Feed Yards and together they can process 10,000 cows per day 6 days a week. That is a lot of T-Bones. According to the info sign 1,000 18 wheelers a day service the plants. That is hard to imagine.
We stopped at Walmart for a few groceries on the way back to the motorhome. We will be moving on tomorrow.
Day 139 Thursday September 15, 2022 On our return trip we have stayed in three more states that we had never stayed in with the motorhome – Washington, Colorado and Kansas and probably never will again.
Not much to say about today except more boring scenery, just eating up the miles on our way home. We have seen lots of windmills in the last few days but at least most of these were turning. On other trips we have seen huge fields of windmills and none were turning.
We did finally see some green grass that was not irrigated and some real trees that were more than a few feet tall as we got closer to Oklahoma.
We got to Bush Creek Park Campground about 2:30 and set up in site 5. This is a Corps of Engineering Park and Campground that sits on the banks of the Arkansas River. The Keystone Dam sits across the river behind our site. This is a nice 20 site campground with paved streets, nice long level gravel parking pads and huge Oak trees for shade, full hookups and enough space between sites that you don't feel like you are ease dropping on your neighbors and is only $25 a night. It was nice to set outside after we had our lunch and enjoy the views and relax. We walked down near the dam and watched several people fish for a few minutes.
Day 140 Friday September 16, 2022 Our drive today was a little shorter at only 217 miles to Ivy Cove RV Park in Russellville Arkansas. Today's drive was back on interstate 40 except for about 40 miles of what Oklahoma called a Turnpike. I think they just use that name so they have an excuse to charge you a toll. Went through several today. I hope our EZPASS Toll Transponder is compatible with their Toll system because I didn't stop at any of the Toll plazas and pay in cash. I guess if it isn't I will be getting a bill in the mail because they usually have cameras that take photos of your licenses plate so they can send you a bill in the mail. At least the Cops didn't come after us on the road.
The scenery today was much better than the last few days. Green rolling hills and real trees, almost like home.
One thing that Kansas and Oklahoma had we like was on their “Turnpikes” they had a Rest Stop built between the two sections of the divided highway. There was a place to get fuel even for big rigs, big rig parking and a couple of places to get something to eat and clean restrooms and a convenience store. Somewhat like a truck stop but not just for trucks and no overnight parking. Easy in and out. We like them. Sure wish more states would do this.
This will be the last update before we get home.
