• Car Keys and Dirt Roads!

    May 21 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    Today was another travel day, but it started with a few extra surprises. First was there were two large male bison wandering around the camp site. Not inherently dangerous if you give them space, but not everyone has the appreciation of just how powerful, fast, and ornery a bull bison can be before his coffee.
    Second, instead of walking together, we did our separate things, Melissa did a work out with the bands, and then went for a walk. Dan got on his mountain bike and did a gravel ride down Lame Johnny road. The ride had some hills, and the elevation caused a little heavier breathing on the uphills than expected, but the scenery was wonderful and found an equestrian campsite and some horse trails that would make decent single track.
    While Dan was on his ride, he got a phone call from Bryan saying that he had sold the little camper. It is a little sad to say goodby to the little camper that we had so much fun it, but we now have our Casita and are making grate new memories with it.
    When Dan got back from his bike ride, Melissa was just returning from the shower with the good news that she had misplaced her car keys. This turned into an all-out tear it down and put it back together search of our camper and car. Melissa retraced her walk twice (once with Dan) to no avail. After resigning to the fact they were lost, we packed up the trailer, and went to pull out, when Melissa found her keys UNDER the car. This brought great closure to a couple of OCD people!
    Once we got done with the dump station, we went to a National Park that neither of us knew existed before this trip. Wind Cave is a National Park with a huge cave system underground and some spectacular prairies above. We tried, but were unable to get a cave tour, so we drove out into the park and hiked Cold Brook Canyon Trail. It was not too difficult, with some absolute scenery and rock formations. There were some very ugly clouds that wandered near us and the sound of thunder spend up our return trip to the car. A very enjoyable hike.
    The drive from Wind Cave National Park to Glendo State Park in Wyoming (yup, that’s where we are now) was all on local roads running through some very BIG SKY country. No trees, just green rolling hills and some angular rock structures dotted the landscape. Very large ranches with free range cattle and a lot of prairie grass, for several hours while we drove to our destination.
    About 1 hour away from our campsite, Google Maps had us turn off onto a dirt road. We bounced down a single lane, way out there, dirt road kicking up a cloud of dust just like you see in those western movies. Dan wanted to take some movies of it, but it was too windy to put the drone up.
    When we finally got to the campgrounds (through the back entrance), the campground office was closed. We drove around until we found some potable water, and filled the camper. Then we set up camp, made dinner, and stayed inside the camper because of the wind and rain that moved in. Made some tea at watched a movie together snuggling on the bed. Life is good!
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