Cabin at Dubois Wyoming

This is the wonderful little town of Dubois.  Take a step back in time and meet great people and a great town.  We ate lunch at the Cowboy Cafe.  Picture a tiny cafe, were you try to squeeze in as many people as you can and get great homemade food and Pie.  Everybody says Hi and offers their ketchup off their table.  We were lucky to eat there for lunch because when we came back into town at supper time the Cowboy Cafe was having a grease fire in the kitchen and the fire department was there.  They had to close down for 2 days to clean up, but were open again.  Hope none of the pie was destroyed!

Many miles west of Dubois is the mountainess, gravel road that leads to Howard's cabin.  It's not like the cabins we used to rent in Northern Wisconsin for a summer vacation.  This was a resort.  Unbelievable thought and design was gone into this cabin and only God could paint the view.  We had our own bedroom and bath.  Buddy got to hang out in the cabin and met 2 new dog friends, Ruger and Brownie.  Everyone in Wyoming owns a gun for a dozen.  We got to do a little target practice.  Lots of fun.

This was the panoramic view from the cabins window.  It looked like a painting.  Undescribable.

The inside was gorgeous and very homey.  We had lots of fun visiting, laughing, and eating together.

 Randy caught himself a Jackalope, roped it and rode it down the streets of Dubois.  He stopped for a moment so I could catch this picture inside the grocery story.  Ride em Cowboy!!

 The Rodeo on Friday nights in Dubois was entertaining.  It reminded me of a Friday night football game back in Wisconsin.  All the kids show up and they sell munchies and all the crowds of kids and parents hang out.  This was the youngest barrel racer, age 4.  They start them young.  Go to school Monday thru Thursday and Fridays is Rodeo training and show days.  This little cowboy didn't win, infact his time was twice as long as everyone else, but he's learning.

This was Jackie's favorite lake, mountain area to go to.  Brooks Lake.  Beautiful lake in the middle of the mountains.  You would never know it was there unless you took a right turn off the road and drove way back in the trees.

 

Where else in America do you slow down to let a herd of cattle cross the road?

It's a beautiful country we live in.  We are so blessed to be able to see it and meet the people. 

Riverton friends

 Got to spend a week with my best friend, Jackie Smith and Howard Johnson in Riverton.  Her 4 grandkids from Wisconsin were there to visit.  Really enjoyed the time with all of them and the wonderful city of Riverton.  Jackie works as a Dialysis Nurse on the Shoshone Indian Reservation and had many stories to tell.  Her and Howard do alot of traveling and hunting.  She is the new and improved Annie Oakley of the West. 

Went on an adventure to the Sink Canyon area southwest of Riverton.  Hundreds of trout in this small area were the water flows up from cracks and caverns in the ground.  Dimension doesn't show but this endless hole in the ground comes up to a beautiful pool by the side of a mountain.  I suppose it helps that the National Park Service has a quarter fishfood machine so that little and big kids can feed the fish.   

 Approxiamately 1 miles up the road on the other side is were a beautiful waterfall and rapids leads down to a cave and the water enters underground and flows underground.  Huge cave and crazy rushing cold water.  It was an awesome sight.

We also visited Thermopolis Wyoming.  North of Riverton.  Steam coming from the ground in many places and then overflowing the rocks and adding to the cold moutain water in the river.  Many swimming and enjoying the beautiful weather.  In the distance is a swinging bridge.  I hate these moving bridges but this one wasn't too bad because they covered every inch of the floor so I couldn't step wrong or see below. 

Friends and Casper WY

We stopped over in Casper Wyoming to visit friends originally from Fort Atkinson and then Upper Michigan.  Scott and Iryna took a huge adventure and traveled west to take root.  It is amazing how many people they have met in Casper that originated in Wisconsin.  Seems like a bigger suburb of Wisconsin then Illinois is.  They gave us the royal treatment and Iryna cooked up some wonderful food.  Even included Elk meat spagetti. Mmmmmm

Toured the area and saw some wonderful beauty and historic sites.  Independence Rock.  The goal of every traveling family in the late 1800's - early 1900's was to arrive at Independence Rock by Independence day.  That way they would know they could make it over the mountains before the snow hit. To see their carved names or initials in the rock and know they didn't get to travel in comfort like we do, blows my mind.  I am so thankful to be able to travel coast to coast on 8 wheels, comfy chair, refridgerator, and smooth (well somewhat) roads.

This is where the Sweetwater River has carved a narrow cleft in the Sweetwater Rocks that is about 370 feet deep and 1500 feet long. The cleft is 30 feet wide at the base but nearly 300 feet at its top.  This was the next landmark that the settlers looked for while traveling.  The Oregon and Morman Trails passed through these parts.  History!!   Why didn't I listen more in school??  Oh well, we are learning and experiencing it NOW.

Escapade Rally back in Gillette

So we've been back in Gillette for the Escapade Bash.  An RV group that was started in 1978 by a couple that wanted to connect like minded RVers on the road full or part or occasionally traveling.  Miss Kay was at the Rally to celebrate the 35 years of the club.  She's this adorable and witty 86 year old 4 foot 11inch woman who started the club with her husband.  She gave up RVing when her husband died a few years back but is still helping her family and others run the club.  There are approx 50,000 members.  I would guess 1500-2000 of them were at the Rally in Gillette.  There big thing is Hugs.  Everyone gets a hug.  No hand shakes or waves.  The have numerous "sub" groups that connect you with like minded people.  We hung out with the Boomers (Baby Boomers) one time, Randy checked out the Geocacher's, and the SOWERS (Servants on Wheels Ever Ready).  It's like a Habitat for Humanity but involving Christians and projects to help build, repair, maintain, or anything else for Christian based organizations.  Churches, Christian schools, camps, missionaries residence to name a few.  There are projects going on in 39 of the 50 states that you can help with for a months committment.  There are 2 projects in Wisconsin, so we'll have to check those out for when we come back.  Anyway, its a way of giving back and helping while we still get to travel. 

We even were surprised tonight when a picture of our coach and truck showed up on the big screen in the nightly slide show of the days events.  The official photographer told me she just like how our coach looked and all the added "extras".  So she took a picture today and threw it in her slide show.  I still feel like we're the circus coming to town and just need that little red wagon attached to the back.

 

Kinda bummed this week as we found out the renters in our house in Fort Atkinson moved out July 1st and the management company has yet to let us know.  The only reason we found out was that James drove by and saw no cars in driveway and a ton of garbage out by the road.  Amber went over and looked in the windows, sure enough all empty.  Lawn needs mowing, waterfall for pond had tripped a breaker and stopped.  Fish appeared to be alive.  So now we've got to figure out what to do next, and how to take care of the yard and pond 1200 miles away.  Maybe we'll try selling it again, as that is our whole goal in the first place.  Emailed the management, but no response.  She'll figure it out when the rent doesn't come in.  Don't we feel secure.   Pray for guidance and the answer to our dilemma, please!

This is Buddy's new Thundershirt.  I found a pattern on the internet and made him one, as he is not a fan of thunder and lightening.  We'll see how he does at the next storm we have.