Scotts Bluff

August 28 & 29, 2012
Gering, Nebraska
aka Scottsbluff, NE
Robidoux RV Park

High of 101' with slight breeze, more fires are reported in northern Nebraska.

Disclaimer:  I have seen Scotts Bluff, and Scottsbluff spelled both ways, don't really know which one is correct.

I remember as a child we would watch Wagon Train on our black and white TV.  Like most young children this really made an impression on me.  I remember as the wagons passed by Scotts Bluff there was a LARGE bluff out in the flat plains.  Well, it's not quite like that.  There are many bluffs and many rolling hills, but this particular bluff meant that the wagon trains were 1/3 of the way to Oregon or California and one thing that made them so excited is that they had been traveling for weeks along the North Platte River and their was nothing to see, no hills, no big rocks, just flat prairie, so it was exciting to see the many different bluffs.  They named the bluffs, such as court house bluff, jail house bluff or whatever their imagination could come up with.

This is the main "Scottsbluff" that they were looking for

 on their long trip to know where they were.

This is the Conestoga wagon

This was known as the Murphy wagon

Inside the Murphy, I like my Airstream a lot better

The Studebaker wagon.

I think this is the same Studebaker as the car

Looking down from the Bluff 

You can see another bluff behind this sign

A fun and well presented museum

If you look real close you can see the wire running between these bunches of twigs.  There were no trees in the area so they used what they could.  The things next to the twigs helped make the fencing but not sure how.

This is how the eggs were stacked in order to take them to the market

 .

You could weigh a chicken in this by stuffing the head down the small hole.

 I guess these were live chickens,  Who would have known they needed to be weighed.

Anyone know what this is?

check answer on tomorrow's blog

Buggy taking the Humpty Dumpty egg crate to the market

More bluffs in background

 Chimney Rock 

 The field corn is a little dry but they seem to make it

This flower though is on it's last leg, and no water in sight

Safe travels to all and have a blessed day

Nancy

Busy day

August 27, 2012
Douglas, WY
Fairgrounds

Boy was this a hot, hot day.  Too hot to dry camp so we stayed at the Fairgrounds, as long as we had power for the A/C we didn't care where we stayed.  It was about 98' when we arrived at 2:30 pm, all we did was hook up the electric, turn on the A/C and the floor fan and take a nap.  We are just not use to this heat.  This was the 3rd day of a 3 day of a pro-rodeo, horse trailers everywhere.  The campground had three sections of about 50 sites per section.  Later in the evening we walked over to the grandstands to watch the last of the rodeo.  The barrel racing was the best.

Our next day was going to be only about 150 miles so in the morning we headed out to Ayres Natural Bridge with a small county park and about 10 camping spaces with a few that could take up to about a 30 foot trailer, but no electric, which would be ok if it wasn't so darn hot.  A beautiful oasis, big trees, creek going under the natural bridge.  The bridge is one of only three natural bridges in the world with a trout stream running  underneath.  Wagoneers traveling west often rested in this spot which sits only a mile or so from the Oregon Trail..

On approach to park

The Bridge

I had to climb up the trail going to the top of the bridge, it's a good thing I had my hiking stick, this was very steep and rocky.  I wasn't sure just how I was going to get back down.

I made it to the top. 

 The white rock is the top and the reddish is another outcropping of rock

Looking down you can barely see the truck where Joe and Buddy are taking a rest.

Douglas is also known as the founder of the great mysterious " Jackalope".

 In fact you can to go to www.jackalope.org for information on the city.

At the visitor center is a museum of old trains. 

 I don't know what it is about old trains but I seem to be drawn to them.

The dinning room car.

  I would have loved to travel "back in the day" on this train.

The sleeper car

It's sort of hard to focus on this picture, it's looking down the isle of the sleeper car.

 I didn't see any rooms that were like the bunk bed style that was in

 "Some Like It Hot" (one of my favorite movies)

Visitor center of Douglas Wyoming. 

 A charming small town with many interesting things to see and do when it's not too hot. 

 There was a cute little lady in the center about 5 feet tall, she said she was born and raised here and in her 82 years she has never seen it this hot. 

 She said it might get hot for a few days in July, but never all summer and never in August.

Since we only had about 150 miles to go we didn't leave until about 11:30 am.  We were headed to Scottsbluff, well actually to Gering, Nebraska about 3 miles south of the actual Scottsbluff.

Well you know us and BLOW OUTS.  Yep, it happened again.  A reminder, these tires are from Discount Tires, luckily we bought the flat tire insurance policy on these tires. There is no Discount tire around here, but when I called they said to replace the tire and then take in the receipt to the next Discount tire center and they will pay us for the new tire.  

This time we went to a Good Year tire center in Scottsbluff and got a Japanese tire instead of the Marathon.

The 150 miles took us about six hours to complete, luckily we were able to pull into the drive of a farm house with a really really nice lady and her high school age son.  He changed the tire for us and we were on our way.  We gave him $20.00 for his efforts, I hope that was enough,  probably 25 or 30 would have been more appropriate.  He was a lifesaver, otherwise we would have had to wait for AAA for about an 1 1/2 hours or more.  We were in the middle of ?????

We eventually settled in at Ribidoux RV Park, a City Park.  Very nice place, big spots.  Did I mention that it was 103' when we got there?

Safe travels to you and may you have a blessed day

Thanks for stopping by

Nancy

The Wild West

August 24 - 27, 2012
Cody, WY
Ponderosa RV Park

After leaving I-90, heading to Cody WY there are two ways to go, through Bridger or through Red Lodge, we choose Bridger.  We went through Bridger, the shorter way but long and boring.  We should have taken Hwy 212 and gone through Red Lodge, longer, but I have heard that it would have been a nicer trip.  Arrived at Cody in time to go to the famous Cody Rodeo and dinner at the famous "The Cody Cattle Company" with a Chuck Wagon Dinner and a Western Music Show.

 We had an excellent Chuck Wagon Dinner of very tender Beef Brisket and chicken along with delicious beans, cole slaw and caesar  salad, topped off by gooey brownies and coffee.  Then we were entertained for  a little over an hour. The group was excellent and really put on quite a show.

Next was "Cody Wyoming Rodeo Capital of The World". 

 The rodeo was fun but I don't think we would go again only because we have been to many rodeos. 

 \

This big bull was available to to sit on so you could take a picture, but.....

 they wanted $10.00 so I said no thank you.

This was the best part, all the kids came into the arena, then  three very small calf's with a ribbon on their tail and were let go.  The kids had to run after them and they got a prize if they could get a ribbon.  The group was separated with kids 5 and under got a head start.  The whole thing was hilarious.

It was still smokey here because of the fires in Yellowstone and elsewhere in Montana.  But, look at how this red hill just stands out.  There were many "outcroppings" of red  hills from iron in the soil/rocks.

Wild sunflowers along most roadways

We took a narrated history tour of Cody in a trolley, they even let Buddy come with us.  

And they picked us up and delivered us back to the RV Park.

While there we visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  One part of it was a gun museum.  

Probably the largest gun collection in North America.

This is the gun and belt that "Hoss Cartwright" used.

Then there was the gun fight!

The end result was all the bad guys are dead

The Irma Hotel was built by William Cody in 1902 and named after his daughter. 

This is a picture of the famous cherrywood bar in the Hotel, 

of course the picture does not give you the feel or look of this beautiful bar.

The outside of the Irma Hotel that was built in 1902.  The northwest addition was constructed in 1929 and the southwest addition was added in 1976 -  1977.  

On the left side is a large porch with tables where you can eat or enjoy your favorite adult beverage.

We saw another musical variety show, this was spectacular.  This is the Dan Miller's Cowboy Music Revue. We would definitely see this again given the opportunity.  Somehow I missed getting a picture of Dan's daughter Hannah, at 14 she is quite the musician, a very talented young lady.

Next, a trip up Shoshone Canyon out toward Yellowstone to the Historic Buffalo Bill Dam.  This dam was one of the first three major ones built by the bureau of reclamation with construction beginning October 19, 1905 and was completed January 16, 1910 for a cost of 929,658.  The original height at completion was 328 feet, then the highest dam in the world.  An 8-year modification project, increasing the dam height by 25 feet to a total of 353 feet, was completed in 1993.  This added about 250,000 acre feet of water storage capacity for a total of approximately 650,000.  The reservoir is for irrigation and drinking water for Cody and most of the Big Horn Basin and of course recreation.  Bill Cody originally talked about this dam and was very instrumental  in getting the dam constructed.

 Looking toward Yellowstone and all the smoke  that was still visible. 

Downtown Cody, Joe had to take a look at something.

Buffalo Bill Cody statue in the evening looking toward the sun

There are many things to see and do in Cody, when spending only 3 days you have to pick and choose the best you can.

Safe travels to all, have a blessed day

Nancy