Sunday, October 29/2017

I woke up this morning to sunshine and blue skies.  I should have been happy with that little tidbit of information but oh no, I had to actually check the Accuweather App on the phone.  Some people are never happy with just looking out the window and enjoying the moment!!
A Severe Weather Alert has been issued for this area with high winds bringing in a cold front with rain and snow with accumulations of snow between 1 and 3 inches in some areas!!  Holy Buckets!!   That is not good and sounds like we need to be making some miles today to outrun this corruption!!
I wasn't up for more than an hour before the wind came up and I had to turn on the power so that I could put the satellite dish down so that it wouldn't blow off the top of the camper!!
John was up and we were headed down the road by 10:00 a.m.  Yes, that's right, 10:00 a.m.!!
The wind was blowing like crazy but at one point we actually had a tail wind!!  Of course that didn't last very long!!
Eventually, after miles and miles of more boring scenery, we managed to get out of the impending weather system and much further into the Southern part of Wyoming.
We passed a few interesting things along the way.  One of these was a huge "wind garden" where there were tons of wind turbines situated along the highway on the hills to catch the "ever blowing" wind and harness its energy.  It was pretty cool to see the numerous arms of the tall turbines slowly spinning around and around on their endless  360 degree journey.

Headed out - bad weather coming in

The best scenery of today!!

Lots of snow fence

Wind power

Right it is

John and his damn road signs!!   Who cares about road signs??

More wind power - all arms turning

Boring!

We called it a day after several miles of travel at a U.S. Forest Service campground.  It was a self pay station (as they often are) but the Forest Service had closed it for the season by taping up the pay envelopes and the deposit cylinder.  Bonus!!  Free Camping tonight!!  There was no gate to the area and we were thinking it was because it is also a fishing access to the North Platte River.  It worked out well though as we found a cute little spot that overlooked the surrounding hills and forest.  It was the nicest scenery of the day so it did indeed work

out well.

The sun was shining when we arrived but there was a bit of wind but we used the slide out on the trailer initially to block it while enjoying what remained of the sunshine.
We noted that the fridge was flashing "check gas" and decided that we were probably out of propane so John switched the tanks over to the full one and tried to relight the fridge.  Of course it was not going to cooperate and after more than several tries decided that perhaps the fridge was not functioning properly and that was just a headache we didn't want or need.  We tried in vane for the rest of the evening but to no avail.  Good Grief!!
Booko was busy checking out all the new smells and running around like an idiot.   Man, he runs hell bent for leather and if he is headed towards you....well, it could get ugly.  You have to be on your toes to direct him away from your legs!!  He truly can be quite an idiot!!

6 Mile Gap Road, which is only 2 miles long!!

Our spot for the night - a US Forest Fee Campground

While John and I were sitting in the sunshine, enjoying the view and thanking our lucky stars that we had not had any "weather" issues today, several deer wandered through the campground.  They were far enough away that Booko (our great protector) didn't even notice them.  In his defense though, the wind was blowing the wrong way for him to smell them!!  He was busy laying in his bed on the ground in front of us after his speed runs up and down the nearby hills!!
While we were sitting there, a small bird (I'm thinking Sparrow) flew up to us, landed on my lap then jumped up onto my hand!!  He was a bit curious as to what we were doing in his neck of the woods!! He didn't stay for long but it was quite a "Kodak" moment and of course.....our phone was in the trailer as there was "no service" in this area.
There was actually no service for most of the day so that tells you right there just how remote and desolate some of this State really is.

Sitting just above the Platte River

As the sun waned, John got the campfire in a can out to take the chill off and managed to find a few chunks of what I presumed was cottonwood as it had huge grooves in its very thick bark so cottonwood came to mind.  They were heavy chunks but the propane powered fireplace soon had them burning and throwing some good heat and once again, life was good!!
Booko, after his little afternoon rest in the sun, was busy running around again.  You always knew he was coming back into camp as he was full speed ahead and his tags on his collar where banging against each other.  Man, if only I had his kind of energy!!

Getting the fire going

Marie breaking the wind with her umbrella ella

It was a nice evening but it was soon time to head into the camper to watch the football game and almost time for John to start supper.  I had already wrapped the potatoes for baking so my job was pretty much done in that regard!!
It was nice to just sit and chill and not have to worry about weather or icy roads or anything!! The beer wasn't as cold as it should have been (damn fridge) but all in all........ Life is Good!

Another awesome evening