The Devil you say!

6:16 am - Thursday - June 25th - Devil's Tower, WY - 63° F, 73% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 80° F.....we had an amazing electrical storm begin around 2 am with winds, then heavy rain.  We had to get up just before it hit and stow all our awnings, including the patio awning.  The view this morning......↴

After 2 delightful days lazing around the campground on Lake de Smet it was time to roll our wheels once again.  By 8:50 am we were on our way back to I-90 and the eastbound lanes, but for just a few miles....we needed to dump our gray and black tanks and TLE had found a free dump station at the CENEX fuel station in Buffalo, WY.  By 9:15 we were parked next to their dump station and doing the deed.  By 9:35 am we were back on I-90 eastbound through rolling countryside.....a little up, a little down....over and over again......

.....eventually we left I-90 for US-14, which would take us to Devil's Tower, WY, our destination for the day.....

.....soon the tower came into view, and then it was just a matter of a couple of miles until we arrived at Devil's Tower View Campground.....

.....where we quickly paid for one night ($45) for electricity only (50 amp)....the other places here are really expensive, so what's not to like about an actual view of Devil's Tower, and electricity to run your A/C units on a very warm 91° F afternoon?  Claude and Gail  had stopped in Moorcroft, WY to visit a local museum, but arrived about an hour later.....

....setting up in site #5, right across from us (we are in site #2).......

.....TLE and I were here back on June 29, 2013 very briefly....we were traveling with two Newell couples and friends, the McClouds and the Oliviers, with whom we were headed to Alberta, Canada.  It was suggested we take the US-14 loop by Devil's Tower on our way to Great Falls, MT, so we did.  As soon as we turned off our engines in the visitor center parking lot I began to wonder how we would extricate our large rigs from this tightly packed parking lot.  We stopped for about 20 minutes, took the obligatory pictures, and were on our way west again after some tight maneuvering out of the very crowded parking lot.  I have always wanted to do the hike around the base of the tower, which is why we are here almost 7 years later to the day.

We spent the afternoon inside the air conditioned wonder of our individual coaches, but met for dinner at the campground diner around 6 pm for dinner.  We all agreed to meet at 8 am Thursday morning to drive in the VW the 5 miles over to the visitor center to do the aforementioned hike.  The food was surprisingly good....I had their bacon cheese burger, while TLE their Reuben (of course!), and Claude and Gail their fish and chips.

This little 8 site campground with electric only (no water, no sewer) is perfect for a quick overnighter.  They have very nice restrooms and showers....I know, because I used one of their showers whilst TLE took hers in the coach, and they do have a nice onsite gift store, and restaurant.  Thursday we roll our wheels again to Keystone, SD where we will spend two weeks....time to be in one place for a while!

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She said stay, so I stayed......

7:34 am - Wednesday - June 24th - Buffalo, WY - 64° F, 45% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west......mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of 86° F....gettin' warm!  Startin' to feel like summer....maybe.

Our original Jello plan was to reside at Mikesell-Potts County Park one night, but it was such a nice day Tuesday morning that TLE said we should 'stay', so we decided to stay one more night and just enjoy the clear skies, and beautiful Lake de Smet.  Claude and Gail decided to continue eastward to Gillette, WY where they would visit with an old friend of Claude's.  We'll probably meet up again at Devil's Tower Wednesday.

We took a walk around the campground about mid morning, and after passing by this nice picnic table with a shade so we decided to retrieve our eBooks from the Newell and sit there reading and enjoying the view, which we did for a couple of hours......

....we haven't had our patio awning out since 'The Big Eddie', but it was so sunny Tuesday we had to deploy all the awnings.  By 4 pm we had the rear A/C running as it had really begun to heat up, and it ran until after 7 pm....that is another first....I can't remember the last time we slept with all the windows open, and had to run the A/C in the same day....maybe, just maybe summer has caught up with us.

Also, for first time in a long time I pulled out the Sea-B-Que to grill a tri-tip we bought back in Surprise, AZ almost two months ago.  Not much else to report....it was just one of those lazy nomad days.  I had aspirations to work on a couple of projects, but they involved working in direct sunlight, so I decided to wait until our view changes again, and the sun is elsewhere.

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Buffalo, or bison?

8:02 am - Tuesday - June 23rd - Buffalo, WY - 63° F, 55% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the north.....clear, blue, warm skies today with a forecast high of 79° F......what a change of fortunes....what's not to like about Buffalo, Wyoming? Our view this morning.....↴

 Lake de Smet near Buffalo, WY

What's that up in the sky?  A bird, a plane?  No, it's ultra lite!

Sleeping in a big box store parking lot is not optimal, and the older I get the less I look forward to  it, but when you are moving across country it makes a lot of sense.....it is free, after all, right?  And the  convenience being near restaurants, and grocery stores is quite handy.  All that being said, I slept pretty well in the shadow of the Cabela's big box store Sunday night.  There was, however, the semi tractor/trailer rig a few sites over which had its refrigerated unit run about 10 minutes every half hour, the sound of the I-90 traffic 2 blocks away, and the usual noises of vehicles ingressing, and egressing the parking lot at all hours.  When you have been used to pretty much NO sound at night as we have these past few weeks, the sudden, jarring sound of a city while seeming benign to those who reside there is not benign to those of us who get used to the lack of night time sound in the often very rural areas we seek out as we move across the northern latitudes of our great country.  I went to bed around 9 pm Sunday evening, and was up by 6:30 am typing my blog.  Around 7:30 am I received a text message from Claude asking if we wished to dine out for breakfast to which I replied in the affirmative, and suggested we haul anchor and head over to the local Cracker Barrel just one exit back west off I-90, so that is what we did at 8 am.

We were there, and parked within 10 minutes to find a sparsely populated dining room.....this is a national chain, and they are practicing social distancing, with all employees wearing face masks.  Hmmmm......in Yellowstone County there have been 3 deaths, and 125 cases in over 4 months.  I asked our server about wearing a mask for 6-8 hours and she said it's not too bad once you get used to it, but it is difficult for her patrons to understand what she is saying....yeah, I would be in total agreement with that.

As is always the case at a Cracker Barrel the breakfast was consistent, and very good, which is what I like about them.....the food is consistent across the country.  By 9:30 we were on our way eastward on I-90 once again heading for Sheridan, WY where TLE and I would spend about an hour a the local Walmart Super Center shopping, and getting lunch (got some of their 'Orange Chicken at their deli.....love it!)......  

 Rain....

Stopped raining about a mile from exit #25

......by noon we were back on the Interstate heading for our destination of the day.......Lake de Smet just outside Buffalo, WY.  It rained on and off for the last 20 miles, but quit just as we reached the lovely county campground on the shores of this large reservoir......Mikesell-Potts County Campground (located in Johnson County....15 cases, 1 death).  I found this hidden gem on 'The Days End Directory' which is available to members of Escapees.  It has been an amazing resource over the years for free to very inexpensive places to stay.  For instance Mikesell-Potts offers 50 amp electrical service (no water, sewer, or dump) for $15/night right on the shores of the lake....this place definitely has the 'IT' factor.....

....we decided to pull into our site as opposed to the traditional back in....easier to get into, and get out of when we leave....as you can see the trailer is already angled for a quick getaway.....all I have to do is start backing and the trailer will track perfectly as we exit.  Claude and Gail spent time in Sheridan at a local saddlery museum, and finally arrived here around 4:30 pm.  They took the site directly across from the front of our rig.  Each site is surrounded by bushes which provide privacy....something we have not had a lot of lately....

......privacy has not been a big issue, however, it's nice not to have to worry about closing the curtains when it gets dark, and we still have the lights on in the Newell.....yeah, you get the picture.......the problem is we don't want anyone else to 'get the picture'.....lol.

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Ever eastward.....

6:34 am - Monday - June 22nd - Billings, MT - 53° F, 78% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear, blue skies this morning with a forecast high today of 83° F.  The view this morning.......↴

After four glorious days dry camping at LaDuke Springs Campground on the Yellowstone River we bade farewell around 8:40 am and began rolling our wheels north back to Livingston and I-90 eastbound.  The 43 miles on US-89 were mostly flat and slightly downhill.  As we came into Livingston we decided to make a quick stop at the CONOCO fuel station to take on 30 gallons of diesel.  My fuel gauge showed about 1/8 of a tank left....it gets terribly inaccurate when it is below 1/4 and we had put on almost 1,000 miles since we last paid the rent in Grand Junction.  Once I put in the 30 gallons the gauge jumped from 1/8 to over 1/3 full, so we did have plenty of fuel after all to make it to Laurel, MT where we could use our fuel card at a Travel Center of America fuel station to get 22¢  off a gallon, or $1.97/gallon.  I took on 126 gallons saving almost $28 off the pump price of $2.19/gallon.  This is the second time I have paid under $2/gallon for diesel since we left Wittmann, AZ almost 2 months ago.  In all we covered 1,046 miles from Grand Junction, CO to Laurel, MT on 156 gallons (the 30 gallons we took on in Livingston, and the 126 gallons we added in Laurel) for a rough average of 6.6 miles per gallon....not too bad considering the number of grinding climbs and descents we made over that time.

The distance from Livingston to Laurel was just over 100 miles of mostly flat driving along the banks of the mighty Yellowstone River which I-90 follows, and from there it was another 12 miles to the Cabela's in Billings, MT where we planned to overnight.  This Cabela's has about 10 RV lanes, a well as a free dump station, which we plan to utilize Monday morning before we depart Billings for our next destination......

.....the drive was effortless.....just set the cruise control, and hang onto the steering wheel.....we were parked in our overnight sites by 1 pm, and enjoying the balmy breezes associated with the 3,400' elevation of Billings compared to LaDuke where we sat at 5,500' elevation.  The high temp in Billings was 82° F Sunday, and it was nice to begin to feel summer like temperatures again.  After a brief rest TLE and I went inside Cabela's to do some shopping.  We needed a grease splatter screen for when we are cooking bacon inside, or outside and wanted to check out their small, cast iron Dutch ovens.  We found both items at very fair prices. Of course, TLE also found a new, short sleeved hiking shirt without which she could not live.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, but around 5 pm decided to walk over to the local Pop Eye's Chicken place to eat dinner.  Upon our arrival by foot we found that ONLY the drive through lanes were open for service.....no in store ordering, or dining.....doh!  We ended up walking back a block to Burger King.....a very poor second choice, but certainly serviceable.  We were back home a little after 6 pm and continued our reading endeavors.  I finished the two book Western series by Elmer Kelton (Sons of Texas), and began another Western by William W. Johnston, recommended to me by Claude.  By 9 pm I was ready for the rack and bid adieu to TLE who is more of a 'night person', and continued to read into the night.....

.....of course the sun does not set in these northern latitudes until after 9 pm, and I was able to get these pictures before hitting the aforementioned rack for the night....

.....we are once again in travel mode, and will be moving pretty much every day until we arrive in Keyston, SD on Thursday, or Friday for a two week stay.

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Early Father's Day.....

7:34 am - Sunday - June 21st - Corwin Springs, MT - 45° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM....AGAIN!  Heavy cloud cover once again today with a forecast high of 66° F.  The view this morning.......↴

Apparently, I took no pictures of anything, or anyone Saturday so you will have to use your imagination more than usual this morning.  Saturday began with clear, blue skies and it was so nice I was outside pretty early wiping a few weeks worth of grime off the riveted aircraft aluminum sides of the Newell.  Keeping a coat of wax on her sides makes it easy to wipe off dirt, grease and grime, and within 30 minutes the deed was done.....no water necessary to get her looking her best once again.

As I was finishing the last section TLE came outside to inform me that had purchased a 1 hour massage for me at the Chico Hot Springs day spa beginning at 11 am.....it was just before 10 am, and to get there in time I would need to be rolling the wheels of the Beetle by 10:20 am....what a surprise!  She said it was an early Father's Day gift for the most important father in her life.

Within 30 minutes I was in the car rolling south toward Pray, MT where Chico Hot Springs is located, and arrived at 9:50 am as had been requested by the receptionist who took the reservation.  Within minutes I was shown into a massage room and the one hour session was underway....a full body massage.  I think the last full body massage I had was here at the same day spa back on August 29, 2017.....our 46th wedding anniversary.  I'm sure at some point that I lost consciousness, and suddenly I heard the voice of practitioner saying 'That's it Clarke'......it doesn't get much better than that.

I was back home by 1:30 pm after stopping at a Sinclair fuel station in Emigrant, MT to add 12 gallons of premium unleaded to the VW's tank.  I spent the rest of the day napping and reading.  We'll be on the road Sunday morning heading for Billings, MT, and within a few days we will be in Keystone, SD for our two week sojourn over the 4th of July.  Around 7 pm I joined Claude and Gail for a campfire....our first here at LaDuke Springs Campground, and that wrapped up our fourth day here.  I was a good four day stint, and we spent a lot of time reconnecting with friends....time to move onto our next rendezvous.

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The Beaver revisited.....

8:00 am - Saturday - June 20th - Corwin Springs, MT - 39° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM!  Clear, blue, chilly skies today with a forecast high of 64° F.  The view this morning......↴

We haven't been this busy in a long time....nothing like social obligations to get you off your butt doing stuff, right?  We had another social engagement Friday....this one was of the hiking variety.  At dinner at Art's home Thursday night we agreed to meet at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store at 10:30 am to hike the Beaver Pond trail.  This was one of our favorite hikes when we were here in 2017....I wrote about it here.  This hike which began at our car, and ended at our car is 6.2 miles in length.  As usual I ran my STRAVA program, but neglected to start it until we were well over a mile into the hike, but at least you'll get an idea of the trail.....

.....when we were working at the Grand Canyon back in 2017 we did several hikes with Art, and always enjoyed our time on the trail together, and we pretty much talk the entire time.....

....when you hike this loop trail counter clockwise you begin with a rather steep climb, but it eventually levels out somewhat and the views are spectacular....

 
.....while the name implies a single beaver pond, there are actually 4, or 5 along the trail....this is the first one you come to going counter clockwise....

.....wild flowers were every where, and the views continually change for six miles from heavily forested to wide open views......

.....almost home.....at this point we have covered 4.3 miles of the actual trail, but have walked close to 5 miles....about 1.2 miles back to the car from here.....

 The Lovely Elaine is still smiling after 5 miles!

TLE at the end of our July 26, 2017 Beaver Pond hike...smiling as always

 When you see the hot springs you are very close to the end

.....the entire hike, end to end, took about 3 hours.....we saw no bears, or beavers, but did see elk, and deer several times.  Upon our return to the cars we bid adieu to Art who had an appointment to keep, and went inside the General Store to buy some Wilcoxson's  ice cream, and then back outside to sit at a picnic table in the sun to eat our spoils.....what a great way to end the hike.

Of course, every 6+ mile hike deserves two rewards, and our second reward was to soak for an hour in the Yellowstone Hot Springs hot pool, which seems to have remarkable healing powers.  By the time we exited the hot pool we felt like limp noodles....totally relaxed, and no more muscle ache.

On our way back home we stopped at the Gardiner Market so TLE could buy a pizza for dinner that night.  She adds a lot to a basic store bought pizza to make it her own....in this case onions, black olives, mushrooms, and anchovies.....when it comes out of the oven you would swear it was homemade.

And that my friends was our Friday....we returned to the coach to find our batteries at 100% once again with all the sun we had.  Friday was the first day in a long time we have had so much sun, no wind, and no rain.....wonderful!

The end of day 3 on the Yellowstone River

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Then and now......

7:01 am - Friday - June 19th - Corwin Springs, MT - 31° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM....mostly clear, very cold, blue skies today.....so far.....with a forecast high of 63° F.

Thursday began with heavy overcast, there was some rain in the middle, and ended with clearing skies making for a very cold evening.  In between all of that we headed into Yellowstone NP with Claude and Gail in tow to see some sites.  We got sprinkled upon a few times, but never for long.  After entering the North Gate our first stop was the sign marking the 45th parallel....why is that significant?  Well, the 45th parallel is exactly 1/2 way between the equator and the north pole......just in case you might care.....

 June 18, 2020 - COLD

June 26, 2017 - HOT!

....we made a quick stop at the top of the hill just as you enter Mammoth Hot Springs from the North Gate to catch the never boring view back down the Gardiner River gorge....

.....next up was Mammoth Hot Springs themselves....the namesake of the little enclave......

....we were saddened to find that over the last three years about 2/3's of the bubbling springs which provide the rich mineral colors, and the beauty have stopped flowing....the pictures you see in today's blog show all that is available to see in the summer of 2020.....most of the viewpoints look like desolate moonscape....the area in the picture below was covered in mineral water, and full of color three years ago......

 Compared to 3 years ago about 2/3's of the water features at Mammoth Hot Springs are no longer flowing

.....everywhere else we went, including Undine Falls, looked the same as 3 years ago, but perhaps a bit greener....all of the rivers we passed  by (Lava Creek, Gardiner River, Yellowstone River) were all flowing at pretty much their maximums just like three years ago....

 Undine Falls - June 18, 2020

Undine Falls (different angle) - July 19 2017

.....we continued our drive out to Tower Junction stopping to take pictures here and there....

.....we even stumbled upon a bison bull grazing all by his lonesome, and there weren't 100 people and cars stopped blocking the road......just us, and we were in a 'pullout' to take this shot, not blocking the road....

....unfortunately, when we reached Tower Junction we found the road to Tower Falls closed to traffic due to a summer long construction project (road work), so you cannot get to Canyon, or even Dunraven Pass from Tower Junction.  At this point it was after 4:30 pm, so we turned around and headed for home arriving there around 5:20 pm.  The traffic in the park was surprisingly light, but understandable in light of the COVID-19 world in which we live.

At 6:20 pm TLE and I headed back into Gardiner to the home of good friend Art Young, whom we first met while working at the Fernley, NV Amazon Fulfillment Center back in 2015.  We subsequently worked with him at TVC in 2017, then Yellowstone the same year, then the Grand Canyon from November 2017 to March 2018.  We met his significant other, Heather, for the first time, and had a lovely street taco dinner accompanied by good Bourbon, good brews, and most of all great conversation until after 9 pm when it was time to head for the barn once again.....as we passed by the Yellowstone National Park Post Office TLE got this picture of the two sculpted bears wearing face masks.....lol......

....and she got one more great picture of our 'picture postcard' sunset over Yellowstone Hot Springs.  Thursday was full of nostalgia, and time spent with good nomadic friends.....'my cup runneth over'!

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