Cowboy Country

We slept in a bit this morning before showering and packing up for the day’s traveling. We stopped by to see the church that Carla works at. It is an interesting campus and it was good to see and connect it with her. Per her recommendation, we stopped at The Bean Yard for some coffee for the road. Dana’s drip brewed coffee and my cortado were excellent. If you ever pass through Salt Lake City you should ask her for recommendations. She is 100% spot on for great recommendations.

We headed out of town on I-80 and headed east. Once again we were amazed at the changing landscapes. We passed through the mountains surrounding the city and before too long the mountains were behind us and the hills/mountains were lower and back to the rugged nobby sort. Then before too long we were passing through flatter grassy lands.

You’ll see in one of the pictures the “highway to heaven”. You should be able to identify which one it is.

We saw signs for .75 cent ice cream cones at Little America. We didn’t need ice cream but you can’t turn down a cheap cone when you have my heritage. We stopped and the exit was just for that place. It was a combo of hotel/rv parking/restaurant/gas/and ice cream cones. We walked into the front door and the woman at the reception desk said, with hardly a glance, “bathrooms to the left and cones to the right”. We went left and then right. I bought a waffle cone just to appear less cheap, and we were on our way.

Back on the road the scenery continued to change. As we began approaching our destination, Casper, Wyoming, we suddenly saw fields of hay and several fields of corn. Then several miles later those disappeared and we were back to rugged and jagged hills.

The drive was basically without incident but was filled with beautiful and varied scenery.

We have landed at Casper and will spend the night at the Walmart parking lot. The other night I made the statement that has to be a website that indicates which Walmarts allow overnight parking and which do not. So I goggles and sure enough there is. According to that map we should be good for the night.

We are heading toward Edgemont, South Dakota. There is a quite popular 100+ mile trail that begins in Edgemont and ends in Deadwood. Our plan is to find a place to park and then take two days riding north, and then maybe one day in Deadwood before taking two days heading back. There are several towns with hotels and we will take advantage of them for our lodgings. We looked at the weather and we will be riding in some chilly temps in the mornings but the day temps should be pretty good. I guess why not go from hot to cold. Go figure.Read more