Back in the Springs! (Elks Lodge 309, Colorado Springs CO)

2015/08/08 davidhobden@mac.com

We took our time Thursday getting packed up. I wouldn’t have minded staying at the Westminster Elks Lodge for another day or two, but Kaan’s mother (our oldest daughter) was expecting him back. It’s been fun having the grandson for the summer and I think we were able to give him memories to last a lifetime, but it’s almost time for him to start another school year.

We walked over to Jim & Sally’s Coach to say our “see-ya-later’s!” We didn’t get a chance to see our neighbor Ray again, but we’d said our goodbye’s the evening prior.

Jim & Sally’s Coach at the Westminster Elks Lodge.

So eventually, we pulled in the slides, raised the jacks and moved over to the dump station to lighten our load. After taking care of the dirty deed, we hit I-25 south and braced ourselves for Denver traffic.

We rolled into Colorado Springs 75 miles later and unhooked the Silverado in the newly-resurfaced Elks Lodge parking lot. Did I mention how much we hate going through major cities with the Coach? “It’s called ‘merging’ for a reason people… you’re not supposed to just drive onto the highway and force people over… arrgh!”

Then we took the Urban Escape Vehicle over to the nearest gas station to fill up the 115 gallon fuel tank with 75 gallons of diesel. Ouch! Since we’re going to be parked for a while, it’s important to completely fill up the tank in order to minimize condensation. I also put in a fuel additive called Biobar JF that prevents microbial growth. Condensation and algae are among the two biggest killers of fuel filters, injectors, etc., Our friends Mike & Donna Kuper @ FlyingtheKoop.com turned us on to this product a while back.

Stilla already decided for us that we’d stay for the month of August here at the COS Elks Lodge. This is fine with me. At least we can save a little money on fuel and campground fees. We only have to pay $350 for a month here. We pulled into our 30 Amp spot facing the pool and I downloaded the bikes and the motorcycle.

And here we are again in our old spot. We look forward to spending time with our two daughters, our relatives and friends here in Colorado Springs.

I can use the time to get a little maintenance done on the Urban Escape Vehicle. Yesterday (Friday), I already broke out the sealant to touch up some roof seams where I noticed the old sealant was starting to crack… there’s supposed to be some rain in the forecast over the next week. I’ve got a lot of washing and waxing I’d like to get done as well.

Little “Coach” walking his squeaky toy around the Coach.

Friday evening we enjoyed dinner in the lodge. But this time we were alone since the usual cast of characters that have joined us in the past here at the lodge are all otherwise occupied. My Dad is recuperating from his surgery, Biff & Linda are at a weekend campout with the FCRV Rolling Springs group, the kids are at work, etc, etc…

I’ll try to find interesting things to post about while we’re here, so stay tuned…

Colorado

Another Alpine Coach Mini-Rally! (Elks Lodge 2227, Westminster CO)

2015/08/06 davidhobden@mac.com

We enjoyed a quiet evening at our free boondocking spot in the Cavalryman Steakhouse Restaurant parking lot in Laramie WY. Thanks to the Escapees Day’s End Directory for turning us on to this spot! In the morning (Wednesday), we woke up to a herd of pronghorn antelope in the open field next to us.

The Cavalryman is located alongside US-287 just south of I-80 in Laramie. We did a GPS check and saw that we could just continue south on US-287 to Fort Collins and then get on I-25 in order to reach Colorado Springs. We’ve been to Fort Collins before, but had never been on this stretch of road… it was a good choice. It’s a much more relaxed and scenic route to get between Laramie and Fort Collins as opposed to going east on I-80 to Cheyenne and then south on I-25. And it’s 20 miles shorter.

There was a little traffic and road construction with detours to negotiate once we reached Fort Collins, but I’d take this route again.

We set our sights on the Elks Lodge in Westminster CO and plugged in the address on our GPS. We’ve heard about this lodge a few times from other Elks members and Alpiner’s. The Gidden’s and the Foster’s recently stayed here. We got on I-25 at Fort Collins and headed south into the dreaded Denver traffic.

So, 125 miles later – we pulled into the parking lot and the first thing we see is another Alpine!

We went into the lodge and asked about parking. Wow! What a nice facility with huge, beautifully-decorated dining room(s). The nice bartender called the camp host, who came down from her site in the RV park to greet us in her golf cart. Julie gave us a ride back to our Coach and set us up in site H for the night. Only $12 for 30 Amp power.

We got set up in our site right next to the other Alpine. The owner wasn’t in, so I left a card in his door handle.

The Urban Escape Vehicle at Elks Lodge 2227 in Westminster, CO.

We went back into the lodge for a nice lunch. Again, nice! What a difference this lodge is over our not not-so-good experience in Cody WY that I wrote about HERE.

After lunch, we took a walk through the RV Park and guess what we see?!? Another Alpine! And we know these guys… Jim & Sally Beswick.

We know Jim & Sally from the Quartzsite ‘Desert Rat Rally‘ we’ve attended over the past 2-3 years. As a matter-of-fact, we even linked up with them again earlier this year at Fortuna de Oro RV Resort in Yuma and again at the Cocopah Casino. (click on the links above in green-font to see those postings)

At first, they weren’t in their Coach – but we saw them come in a little later, and after hugs and greetings… we agreed to get-together for “Happy Hour” at 5 O’Clock…

(L to R) David, Daniel, Jim & Sally at Westminster Elks Lodge 2227.

We forgot to go back to the lodge for dinner we were having so much fun catching up.

We hung out at Jim & Sally’s Coach and enjoyed adult beverages along with good conversation late into the night. We even met their neighbor Daniel, who owns the Class-C next door. Again – we get to meet the nicest people in the RV community… we might have talked Daniel into trading up to an Alpine Coach in the future. Ya’ never know…

A little later into the evening, the owner of the Alpine Coach that we were parked next to, showed up. He saw the card I left in his door and Stilla brought him up to Jim & Sally’s site when she went back to our Coach briefly to check on the grandson who was playing video games. Meet Ray, (sorry, I never caught his last name), but he was a really nice guy that spent the rest of the evening with us.

And so, another Alpine Coach mini-rally comes to a close… I think as a general rule – that if there are more than two Alpine Coaches in one spot, we can call it a mini-rally. What do you think? If memory serves; I remember reading that Western RV only built around 1,700 of these fine Coaches between 1999 and 2009, so there aren’t a whole lot out here on the road.

See you next time Jim & Sally! And hopefully, we get to see Ray again down the road sometime. Nice to meet you Ray!

We’ll head on down to Colorado Springs today (Thursday) and get the grandson back to his mom, who’s looking forward to seeing him again. I called ahead to the Elks Lodge in Colorado Springs to make sure they have a spot for us. We’ll decide how long to stay once we get there. My Dad recently had some surgery to remove some skin cancer on his nose, so I’m sure he could use some help around the house.

Wyoming

A looong travel day and a free boondocking spot (Cavalryman Restaurant Parking Lot, Laramie WY)

2015/08/04 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

We left the Wyoming Gardens RV Park in Thermopolis by 11:30 (Tuesday) and headed south on WY789/US20 towards Shoshoni. Our initial goal for the day was the town of Riverton. We knew that the local Elks Lodge there had RV parking, but once we were in town, it was still pretty early in the day so we decided to keep going.

We followed our GPS directions for the best route back to Colorado Springs. We need to get our grandson back in time for the start of the school year. The Rand McNally RVND 7720 led us through Sweetwater Station, Jeffrey City, Muddy Gap, and then Rawlins. When we didn’t find any decent campgrounds or boondocking spots, we continued east on I-80 after Rawlins. We consulted the Escapees Day’s End Directory which turned us on to the Cavalryman Restaurant in Laramie, where we are now. Over 275 miles driven today… whew!

The drive through Wind River Canyon between Thermopolis and Shoshoni was beautiful and when we passed Boysen State Park and the Boysen Reservoir, we made a note to come back and check this place out when we have more time in the future.

We stopped briefly at the top of one of the steep grades to take in the wide open view.

After 275+ miles for the day, we rolled into the parking lot of the Cavalryman Restaurant around 5 PM. The Days End Directory said this is a free overnight stop as long as you talk to the management. And of course, since we’re here, we might as well eat, right?

The Cavalryman Steakhouse is located on the parade grounds of historic Fort Sanders, established in July of 1866. Originally named Fort Buford, for Major General John Buford, the post was designated Fort Sanders on September 5, 1866, in honor of Brigadier General William P. Sanders. The building was built in 1925 to serve as the clubhouse for the local country club. Just to the east, remnants of the nine-hole golf course can still be found. (ref. this website)

We parked along the edge of the big parking lot and went inside the restaurant to make sure we were OK to park here overnight. The hostess introduced us to someone who we think was the manager, although he never introduced himself as such. He looked out the window to see where we were parked, and said, “sure, no problem”. We thanked him, gave him one of our cards, and promised to come back in for dinner.

We hit the automatic leveling system to drop the jacks and put out the slides. After running up the satellite dish and taking little “Coach” for a walk, we went on into the restaurant for a pretty nice dinner, albeit a somewhat expensive one… but that’s alright since we don’t have to pay for an overnight stay 🙂

Here’s a couple pics I snapped while we waited for our meal… it started filling up with more customers as we ate our fine meal.

We’re still not sure if we’ll drive straight-on through to Colorado Springs. The earliest we really need to be back is the 10th of August. That gives our grandson a little time before school starts around the 13th, and I made a commitment to help out for the Pikes Peak Marathon on the 15th. I’ve volunteered in years’ past to drive one of the vans to bring the runners back down after their ascent and have been getting multiple requests to help out once again. I’m supposed to attend a drivers meeting (and a free meal) on the 11th. So, check back to see what we decide and where we end up…

In other news: Little dog “Coach” had another small ‘episode’ today. He was acting antsy and kept pacing back and forth at the doorstep while we were driving. So we pulled over to let him out at a pullout. He threw up a little (more spittle and foam than anything else) and then he flopped over on his side with his little legs flapping in the air… we think he has trouble getting air when he throws up. He’s always had a weird cough, kind of like a cat spitting up a hairball. He recovered quickly and seems alright again, but we’re going to have to take him to the vet pretty soon.

Wyoming

Wyoming Dinousaur Museum & Hot Springs State Park (Wyoming Gardens RV Park, Thermopolis WY)

2015/08/04 davidhobden@mac.com

On Monday we left little “Coach” in the Coach and went to the other side of town to visit The Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

We paid the museum entrance fee and signed up for the Dig-Site Tour. Cost was $42 for the two of us and our 9yr-old grandson after a veterans discount.

We arrived just in time to go on the next Dig-Site Tour. The wait time was only 10 minutes before we had to get on the little bus. So we spent the 10 minutes browsing the museum…

This is “Jimbo” the Supersaurus.

We cut our museum tour short when they announced that the bus was boarding for the Dig-Site Tour. We would finish checking out the museum once we got back.

Our bus driver/tour guide took us on a 2 mile bumpy and dusty ride to the dig site.

Then he have us a detailed briefing of the site in front of this placard under a small wooden shade structure with a picnic table.

Then he escorted us into the Special Interest (SI) site located under this protective enclosure.

He showed us the footprints and fossils that are at this site. This is supposed to be one of the only places where footprints and bones are found together in one place.

The red painted spots on the ground are dinosaur tracks.

Typical protective cast used before transporting a fossil to the lab.

The tour guide interacted with the kids in the group. He gave dinosaur toys (temporarily) to Kaan and another little girl, to demonstrate the type of tracks found here at the site.

Here he uses a cow bone to demonstrate how bones look before fossilization.

View of other dig-sites in the area.

It was an interesting and informative tour. I recommend it if you’re in the area.

We all got back on the bus for the drive back to the museum.

The nice tour guide gave Kaan his pick of some dinosaur bone fragments from a box as a souvenir.

When we returned to the museum, we finished touring the displays:

After our informative tour of the dinosaur museum, we headed over to the nearby Hot Springs State Park.

We drove around a few of the loops in the park on the east side of town.

We even saw a herd of buffalo, although, no pics this time.

We stopped to examine a few holes in the ground.

And we stopped at an old, dried-up mineral springs.

One of the geysers.

A chainsaw artist demonstrated his work in the Hot Springs Park area parking lot near the mineral bath house.

We stopped at this Bath House for a free soak in the outside pool. They have you sign in and limit your stay to 20 minutes. It was pretty cool but a little smelly. The best part is – that it was free.

There are two other mineral springs next to the free Wyoming State Bath House; the Star Plunge and the TeePee Pools & Spa. Click on the links to learn more and see prices.

We walked around the park.

This is the back-side view of the Bath House that we were in earlier.

Then we walked along the long boardwalk to view the mineral springs and pools around the park:

The Swinging Bridge. And it really did swing.

Here you can see many years of mineral springs flow into the river below.

We walked back to the Silverado through the nice grassy park area…

and stopped at the playground, of course…

On our drive through the old part of town we noticed the “Needful Things” shop of Stephen King fame.

And the town statue of a typical Wyoming cowboy.

And that’s all for now folks… we’ll head on south towards Colorado Springs in order to get our grandson Kaan back to his mom and school which starts in another week or two.

Stay tuned…

Wyoming

Travel Day & Buffalo Bill Dam (Wyoming Gardens RV Park, Thermopolis WY)

2015/08/04 davidhobden@mac.com

We said goodbye to the Shoshone National Forest- Rex Hale Campground around noon and headed back towards Cody.

We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam located 6 miles west of Cody. The Dam has ample parking for big rigs alongside the highway. Volunteers were standing by to shuttle visitors to the Dam Visitor Center in golf carts. The tour is free but the golf cart drivers appreciate tips.

According to wikipedia™: The 325 feet (99 m) high structure was built between 1905 and 1910. At the time of its completion it was the tallest dam in the world. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and named a National Civil Engineering Landmark in 1973. Known at the time of its construction as Shoshone Dam, it was renamed in 1946 to honor William “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

I read that these log jams are cleaned out on an annual basis.

View from the top of the dam looking down on the old power plant. A new power plant was built a little further downstream.

Looking back towards the visitor center from the other side of the dam.

Inside the visitors center, an informational video played every 15 minutes inside this mini-theater.

After our tour of the Buffalo Bill Dam, we headed on into Cody through the Shoshone Canyon Tunnels. Known as the longest tunnel in Wyoming.

We then dumped our tanks at the Cody Municipal Public RV Dump Station we passed just before heading south on WY-120. We traveled through the little town of Meeteetse and then into Thermopolis, the “Gateway to Yellowstone Country” and home of the world’s largest mineral springs. A 130 mile travel day.

We checked our iPhone apps and other resources to locate a campground and the Rand McNally RVND 7720 turned us on to the Eagle RV Park that offered discounts for Good Sam (10%), Escapees (15%) & Military (15%) but when we pulled in, they didn’t have a site large enough for the Urban Escape Vehicle.

Our next choice was Wyoming Gardens RV Park which we passed on the way through town. The sites didn’t look large enough initially but we pulled in and found a site we could fit into. We paid $58.86 for two nights after a 10% veterans discount. Only 30 Amp power but we’re right in the middle of town and our satellite dish cleared the trees.

We put a couple steaks on the grill for dinner and I worked on the blog to get caught up after being off the grid for the last several days. The campground wifi is excellent here.

Check back tomorrow for a recap of our Monday tour of the Wyoming Dinosaur Museum and our visit to the Hot Springs State Park here in Thermopolis.

Wyoming

Touring is hard work… time to take a day off! [1 Aug] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

2015/08/03 davidhobden@mac.com

Since we’ve been on the road touring Yellowstone for the last three days, we decided to pay for another day here at Rex Hale Campground, and just relax for the day and maybe plan our next move.

So we got up late and just hung out in the campground. I used some of the time to wash a few sections of the Coach and then the Harley.

I also downloaded all the Road Mate DVR clips onto the laptop. I’ve been using it in the Silverado on our trips through Yellowstone but I don’t think the 2-minute video clips are conducive to using on the blog since most of the files are between 200 and 300 MB in size. I wrote about purchasing this while we were at the FCRV Campvention Rally in Gillette. As I mentioned in that post: “These devices normally mount on your dashboard or windshield to record your trip. The advertisement claims that they are designed for your security, protection, and save the best memories of your trip.” This is all good, but I don’t think I can use any of it in the blog unless I can get the sizing down. More on this in the future maybe…

We also took a long walk and checked out the North Fork Shoshone river that runs next to the campground…

Our grandson Kaan played a lot of MineCraft on his X-Box during the day.

Here he took a break from his video games and played with little Coach…

Little Coach has Kaan down for the count.

And later we burned, I mean toasted, a few marshmallows to make some S’mores.

Kaan toasting some marshmallows (again).

Life is good…

This is how little Coach enjoys a campfire.

And that was our day. Hope yours was good too 🙂

Authors Note: Almost caught up now… check back for an update on our moving day (2 Aug) to Thermopolis, WY where we are now…

Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park [31 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

2015/08/03 davidhobden@mac.com 3 Comments

On Friday the 31st of July, we got another early start so we could tour the northern loop of Yellowstone NP.

We drove into the park one final time, through the east entrance and over Sylvan Pass.

And then we turned right at Fishing Bridge to do a counter-clockwise loop around the northern or ‘ Upper Grand Loop‘ of the park.

But first, we stopped at the Fishing Bridge General Store to get a fishing license. Kaan wanted to try his luck, and well – so did I 🙂 The license was $18 and is valid for 3 days. Kaan didn’t need a license as long as he’s with me, however, the nice clerk gave him a souvenir license anyway.

We stopped at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River once again because we missed the Inspiration Point drive when we were here before. Now, I think we’ve seen it all.

After turning north at Canyon Village, we passed by some more falls; Tower Falls. It required a little hike, but it was worth it.

And after a very scenic drive in a counter-clockwise direction along the northern grand loop, we made it to Mammoth Hot Springs.

Of course, we stopped at the visitors center and toured the wildlife displays but a large section was closed due to an unexpected power outage. Oh well, off to the Upper Terrace Drive we went…

We took some of the boardwalks to see the magnificent area.

This little geyser popped up through the asphalt in one of the parking areas. They blocked it off with the concrete barriers. The scenery here is always changing due to the geo-thermal conditions.

View of the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District and Fort Yellowstone in the distance from the Upper Terraces area. Interesting history here from my friend wikipedia™.

A small deer was hanging out near the hot springs.

Kaan just had to touch the water to see how hot it was… don’t worry, no damage was done to either himself or the environment.

After spending time at Mammoth Hot Springs, we continued on our counter-clockwise loop until we found a picnic area. Stilla packed us some lunch as she had each day prior, but this time we needed a picnic table to make our sandwiches and cut up our vegetables. Sheepeater Cliff was a really unique and picturesque area and we had it all to ourselves for quite a while.

We continued on past Norris and then back to Canyon Village where we had started our northern loop. We did it! We finished the whole park… it took us 4 trips, but it was worth it 🙂

By now, Kaan was getting pretty antsy about putting a pole in the water since we got our license earlier at the Fishing Bridge General Store. So we stopped along the Yellowstone River between Canyon Village and Fishing Bridge.

We followed the rule book that we got along with the license and pinched down the barb on our artificial fly. Kaan had fun but quickly got bored when we didn’t catch anything. We had to use a clear bobber so the line had some weight in order to throw it out in the current from the shoreline. Probably not the best method of fly-fishing but Kaan had fun.

Coyote across the river. Little “Coach” didn’t like him and barked out the window. But, he does that for the buffalo too. As a matter-of-fact, he does that for all wildlife 🙂

We made it back to our campground (almost 200 miles driven today) and had another enjoyable quiet evening without internet or cell phones. Although, Kaan always has the X-Box hooked up the back TV so he can entertain himself for hours with MineCraft.

Authors Note: We’re currently in Thermopolis, WY and I’m trying to get the blog up to date… check back soon for an update on our day of rest at the campground (1 Aug) and our drive here to Thermopolis (2 Aug). Today (3 Aug) we plan on visiting the hot springs here and maybe the dinosaur museum.

Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park [30 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

2015/08/03 davidhobden@mac.com

On Thursday the 30th we got an earlier start to the day and decided we were finally going to finish the lower loop by turning left at Fishing Bridge and go past Old Faithful, which we saw on our first day.

We drove the 16 miles from our campground to the East Entrance again.

By the way – Here’s a sign listing all the campgrounds within the park. Most are managed by a subcontractor called Xanterra Parks & Resorts Inc. It would be nice to stay at one of the campgrounds within the park and cut down the travel time. We have to travel about 27 miles from the East Entrance to Fishing Bridge over Sylvan Pass each day. But that’s OK 🙂

Campground sign at the East Entrance to Yellowstone NP.

This time we took the 1 mile turnoff up Late Butte Overlook when we got close to Yellowstone Lake. We’d passed this Overlook on our other trips into the park.

As I mentioned before, the east side still shows heavy fire damage from the 1988 ‘Summer of Fire‘.

Kaan, Stilla, and little Coach at Lake Butte Overlook, Yellowstone NP.

David, Stilla, and little Coach at Lake Butte Overlook, Yellowstone NP.

Odd looking burnt tree at Lake Butte Overlook, Yellowstone NP.

This time we also stopped at the Fishing Bridge Visitors Center.

The visitors center had a pretty cool raised-relief map laid out on a table.

And this visitors center’s theme was on the fires in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Lake behind the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center.

After crossing Fishing Bridge, we turned west to do our clockwise lower loop tour.

By the way – I think they need to rename Fishing Bridge to “No-Fishing Bridge” since it is permanently closed to fishing. That’s just false advertising, don’t you think?

We stopped along the lake a couple more times since the route skirts the northwest edge of the lake until you get to West Thumb.

Here’s another picture of one of the cool old buses that still take people on tours. We saw these many times during our visit to the park. A 1936 National Park Bus.

We passed by Old Faithful since we saw it on Monday and stopped at Black Sand Basin… one of the many geyser stops along the route.

And we stopped at more geysers…

And waterfalls…

And more geysers…

Here’s an Elk trying to hide during the day from the masses of people trying to take pictures (us included).

During one of our stops, Kaan was startled by this female Elk hanging out in a heavily wooded pull-off.

And here’s some more pictures of geysers and stuff we took during our tour of the lower loop around Yellowstone… because you just can’t get enough, right?

We drove up a side road called the Firehole Canyon Drive near Madison and the West Entrance.

We wanted to stop and go swimming but didn’t have the foresight to bring any swim gear 🙁

And we made it! We finally completed the entire lower loop. I think we put about 150 miles on the truck today. Tomorrow, our goal will be the upper loop. We relaxed for the evening with a campfire back at Rex Hale National Forest Campgound.

Authors Note: It is now Monday morning on the 3rd of August and we are in Thermopolis, WY. I’ll try to catch you up with our Yellowstone trip as soon as possible… we didn’t have internet or cell phone coverage the entire time we were at our campground, and only very limited phone connectivity while touring the park.

Check back in for our 31 July northern loop tour which includes Mammoth Hot Springs.

Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park [29 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

2015/08/03 davidhobden@mac.com 4 Comments

It’s been quite awhile since my last post. We’ve been off the grid without internet or cell phone service since Wednesday the 29th. We left the Ponderosa RV Park in Cody on Wednesday to find one of the campgrounds we scoped out on our first trip into Yellowstone NP that I wrote about HERE. We wanted to be closer to the park so we could take day trips in the Silverado without having to drive over 50 miles just to get to the East Entrance. We did three more trips into Yellowstone on the 29th, 30th, and 31st of July.

But first, I’d like to say – Although this blog is read by family, friends, acquaintances, and even some folks I haven’t yet met; one of the main reasons I do this blog is to provide for a personal record of our adventures and to save these memories for future posterity. In many ways, I think this blog is better than a photo album. Therefore, I’d like to catch you up on our three days in Yellowstone and post some of the many pictures that we took, which constitute our most precious memories into separate posts… one for each day we toured Yellowstone with our grandson. Hopefully, we (and our grandson) can look back on these memories in the years to come in order to relive our travels and adventures.

With that said, let me begin on July 29th (Wednesday) by sharing the nice campground we found just 16 miles from the East Entrance. The Rex Hale Campground is in the Shoshone National Forest.

We scored a 50 Amp site with water. Yes, I said a 50 Amp site… something that’s almost unheard of in national forest campgrounds We took site 11.

The nightly fee was only $10 since I have a disabled veterans golden access pass.

The camp hosts were the nicest couple. Gene and Kay Onstine. Gene told us they’ve been hosting here for years. He took the time to point out some of the rock formations and the ‘faces’ you could see with a little imagination.

Here’s our site… We left the slides in and the satellite dish down while we were away because the camp host warned us about hefty gusts of wind that come through the canyon without warning.

And our view…

Our closest neighbor was this deer in our ‘backyard’…

After we got set up in our site we decided to drive on into Yellowstone even though we knew it was a late start. This time we took our little dog “Coach” along.

Today, we wanted to turn right at Fishing Bridge and see how much of the lower loop we could do in a counter-clockwise fashion. You may recall that we tried the clockwise direction on our Monday trip, but we only made it as far as Old Faithful before the rain and lateness of the day forced us to turn back. Well, today wasn’t much different (except the weather was nice) because we only made it as far as Canyon Village before it got too late to continue on.

But before we even got very far out of the campground… I ran out of gas in the Silverado!

We were only a mile (or less) from the gas station at Pahaska Tepee which is only a couple miles from the East Entrance.

We forgot to fuel up before we hooked up the truck behind the Coach to tow it to the campground. We thought about it when we unhooked the truck but figured we could make it to the nearest gas station. Luckily, I had a gallon can (empty of course) and I was able to flag down the first car that came by. The nice couple took my gas can, filled it up, and brought it back to us in a matter of 10 minutes. I was tempted to download the Harley to go get gas, but didn’t have to, thanks to the nice couple in their Porsche Cayenne that stopped to help us.

Once again, I was able to use my disabled veterans golden access pass to get in the park for free.

We drove over Sylvan Pass which we’ve became quite familiar with over the course of our 4 trips into the park.

After Fishing Bridge, we turned right towards Canyon Village.

Our first stop was the Mud Volcano Area.

And then we toured around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River area. There were several different pullouts, loops, and scenic drives in and around this beautiful ‘grand’ area of Yellowstone Park.

At the Canyon Village area, we toured the gift shop, general store, and visitors center.

We saw buffalo, antelope, elk, and even bears throughout the day. The bears were too far off to get a good picture.

And here’s some more pictures back at our campground in the evening.

Another great evening with a full moon.

Author’s note: It’s late Sunday night as I finish up this post and we are in Thermopolis, WY. I’ll try to get caught up as soon as possible with Yellowstone posts about the 30th, 31st, and then our day of ‘just hanging around’ the campground on the 1st of August. Then I have to catch you up on our trip here to Thermopolis on the 2nd.

Wyoming

Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Ponderosa RV Park, Cody WY)

2015/07/29 davidhobden@mac.com 1 Comment

We spent our Tuesday in the town of Cody checking out the sites. It was windy again all day, so we left all the awnings in this time – even the pull-down’s over the rear windows. The weather-guessers say it will be nice and sunny again Wednesday. We’re looking forward to hot weather again. We had to leave little “Coach” in the Coach again all day – at least it wasn’t for too long, like on Monday.

Here’s a summary of our visit to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West:

I queried my friend wikipedia® for the best description of this place; “The Buffalo Bill Historical Center, is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the American West. Founded in 1917 to preserve the legacy and vision of Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is the oldest and most comprehensive museum of the West.” We spent most of the day here.

The Buffalo Bill section was really interesting and we were able to join a free guided-tour for some extra education.

Kaan standing on the huge tile-floor ‘map’ in the Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody WY.

View of the huge tile-floor ‘map’ on the floor of the Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody WY. (As viewed from the upper balcony)

They had really nice life-size dioramas throughout the museum. Here’s some from the Plains Indian exhibit(s):

The Natural History portion of this place was really awesome.

Kaan really enjoyed the Natural History section of the museum because they even had some fossils and dinosaur exhibits mixed in with the full-size dioramas.

Here’s a few more pics of our grandson Kaan in front of some animal exhibits: His mom really enjoys these pics – Kaan not so much 🙂

The Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West houses the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world according to their literature and website. And man, was it ever huge… our grandson Kaan got bored though, so we didn’t stay in that section as long as I would have liked.

This was a really nice museum, er, I mean center. Or is it collection of museums? It was worth the $47 entrance fee for 2 adults and 1 child after a small veteran discount ($2). Another “must-see” to put on your list if you’re in the area.

After our tour of the museum we stopped back at the campground to check on little “Coach”. We found a note on the door. Remember the other Alpine that was in this park? Well, the other Alpine driver (David) left a note on our door telling us they had stopped by while we were out. So after walking the dog, we drove over to their Coach and talked for a couple minutes… they (David and Janet?) had already been to the downtown attractions we were going to next, so we told them we’d try to be back by 8 PM, maybe we could get together then. Alas, we didn’t get to see them again, maybe next time.

We left the campground again and found a parking spot (5 minutes away) downtown and noticed we were near the local Elks Lodge. We already knew that this lodge didn’t have RV parking because we had checked online several days ago. We went inside to check it out and see if they had any menu items. The bartender opened the door for us, checked my card, and asked me to sign the guest register. There was a large crowd in one of the side rooms, I believe it was a party or service of some sort. We hung out behind the crowded bar (none of the seats were open) and waited to order a couple drinks and ask about food. There were lots of empty tables, but we figured like most lodges, that we had to order at the bar. A couple people sitting at the bar at least talked to us, exchanged pleasantries, and asked where we were from, etc., but the bartender seemed to ignore us. So we finally turned around and left after 10 minutes or so. Not our finest experience at an Elks Lodge. We would have thought the bartender could at least acknowledge our existence and say something to the effect that she’d be right with us, or we’re really busy – have a seat, or something at least… Oh well, maybe it was just bad timing on our part. Hmmm… so much for Lodge #1611. I don’t think we’ll go back, even though it seemed like a pretty nice facility.

We walked on up the street to the Irma Hotel which was our next intended destination anyway. Buffalo Bill’s Irma Hotel / Restaurant & Saloon was packed with tourists but we found a nice booth and had a good dinner, albeit an expensive one.

Buffalo Bill helped found Cody, Wyoming, in 1895. He also established his TE Ranch in the area. In 1902, he built an establishment which he called “just the sweetest hotel that ever was” and named it for his youngest daughter, Irma. It was built to appeal to visitors from around the world — as a staging point for sightseers headed for Yellowstone, big game hunters, summers tourists, and businessmen investigating the ranching, mining, and other business opportunities. Buffalo Bill maintained two suites and an office at the hotel for his personal use. (ref. this website)

We even got to watch a gunfight show on the street outside after dinner.

After another quick stop at the local WalMart on the way back to the campground, we relaxed for the rest of the evening and watched some TV while Kaan played MineCraft on the X-Box, and I worked on this blog.

Since Tuesday was our last night at the Ponderosa Campground, we’ll move on over this morning (Wednesday) to one of the state parks that we checked-out on our Monday trip to Yellowstone. Wish us luck…

If we can get settled at one of those state campgrounds, then we can go explore more of Yellowstone NP!

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Back in the Springs! (Elks Lodge 309, Colorado Springs CO)

Another Alpine Coach Mini-Rally! (Elks Lodge 2227, Westminster CO)

A looong travel day and a free boondocking spot (Cavalryman Restaurant Parking Lot, Laramie WY)

Wyoming Dinousaur Museum & Hot Springs State Park (Wyoming Gardens RV Park, Thermopolis WY)

Travel Day & Buffalo Bill Dam (Wyoming Gardens RV Park, Thermopolis WY)

Touring is hard work… time to take a day off! [1 Aug] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

Yellowstone National Park [31 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

Yellowstone National Park [30 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

Yellowstone National Park [29 July] (Shoshone National Forest, Rex Hale Campground)

Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Ponderosa RV Park, Cody WY)

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