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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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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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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Out of South Dakota.....

6:42 am - Wednesday - July 15th - Sheridan, WY - 45° F, 68% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south.....clear, cold, blue skies today with a forecast here in Sheridan of 86° F, but we are rolling our wheels in less than an hour ever westward...the view this morning......↴

 Sheridan, WY Walmart

Our Jello goal was to be out of site P-6 at Spearfish Campground and on our way west by 9 am....it was 9:07 am as we exited the park after inserting the VW into the trailer in front of the campground office.  The drive west on I-90 Tuesday was just spectacular.....that is all I really have to say.  I set the cruise control at 60 mph and just hung onto the steering wheel enjoying the giant vistas as they unfolded before us.....

....within minutes we had crossed once again into Wyoming after almost three weeks in South Dakota.......

 Snow fences

A short video for you viewing, and listening pleasure

 Just missing a rain storm to the south of us

 The hay is cut, and rolled

.....we took time to stop twice in 'Parking Areas'....no bathrooms, or trash, but a place just off the Interstate in Wyoming where you can take a break, stretch your legs, and check the temps of your tires if you so desire.....I so desired.

We exited I-90 just before 1 pm in Sheridan, Wyoming, and were set up in the local Super Walmart parking lot a few minutes thereafter.  We were here a few weeks ago doing a small shopping before heading to our destination for the day at Lake de Smet (I wrote about that here) when we were still heading east.  We parked in this exact same place because it is so level.   It's been a long, long time since we did a BIG shopping, and this was the day for another.  We spent over an hour in Walmart filling our shopping cart.....the final tab?  $262....yup, that's a 'BIG shopping'......

....when we left Spearfish, SD it was threatening rain, but as we continued westward the heavy cloud cover eventually gave way to mostly sunny conditions, but the temps only got into the high 60's for the day.....perfect.....

.....by the time TLE had put away all the groceries from our 'BIG shopping' it was almost 4 pm, and time for a nap.  Around 5 pm we walked back into Walmart to their Deli section and bought some 'Orange Chicken Wings'.....one of our favorites....to which TLE added rice she had prepared just for this occasion.....we love Walmart's Deli section....you can get the same thing anywhere in the U.S., and the food is so consistently good.

We read for the rest of the afternoon, and evening hitting the sack (me) around 10 pm....TLE followed a little later....we roll our wheels in about 30 minutes....life is good.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

On the 5th day......

 3:00 am - Monday - June 23rd - Medford, OR - 54° F, humidity  59%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northwest......clear, blue skies and the high for the day has been reached.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were at Lake de Smet in Wyoming......

Sunday was my 5th consecutive day of work, which will be now be followed by 5 days of no work....YAY!  I arrived at the 'Cart Return' area at 7 am to begin my day, so I could be off by 2:30 pm.  After checking the tee time sheet I staged 20 golf carts, then another 9 later in the day for a total of 30....a very good Sunday for LPG&RVR.  Once the carts were staged I headed down to the night office to turn on a few sprinklers, then back to the parking lot grass to do the same....

A beautiful day at LPG&RVR  

....I noticed on my drive back from the Night Office that 6 of the 10 back in sites had been vacated, and needed to be trimmed, and mowed.  By the time I finished mowing/trimming I had mowed 7 of the back in sites, the large gazebo grass, the grass by site #30, tent sites 1-3, and the grass area next to the restrooms.  Since TLE was off Sunday I did not have to give Kathy (TLE's counterpart) a lunch break, as she has Lynn give her a lunch break.  I just kept on going all the way to 2:30 pm, by which time I had been able to wash and stow 6 of the 30 golf carts.  Claude agreed to take my place from 2:30 pm through 3:30 pm, and I'm hoping he was able to get a good portion of the remaining 24 golf carts washed and stowed.

TLE and I were in the VW headed northwest to Medford, OR by 2:40 pm.  We have a 5:14 am flight out of Rogue Valley International Medford Airport Monday morning.  It's about 3 hours and 25 minutes to Medford, so TLE drove the first 90 minutes to Merrill, OR where we refueled, and I took over the driving.  We arrived right at the hotel right at 6:05 pm, and were in our room a few minutes later.  We'll be up at 3 am to catch the 4 am shuttle to the airport.  We'll leave our car here at the hotel while we're gone.  As is usually the case our 3+ hour journey was without incident.

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