STURGIS SOUTH DAKOTA TO RAWLINS WYOMING…HEALTH IS PRIORITY SO WE ARE HEADED FOR CONGRESS AZ.

Kelly’s cold has worsened with a lot of coughing in the night & she is feeling like a train wreck this morning.  We made the decision to head for Congress Arizona.  Kelly’s primary biliary cirrhosis of the liver drains her energy levels quickly & her auto immune system has trouble with that.  We have to think a little differently about how we do things now as opposed to a few years ago & that is taking a little getting used to for us.  Our plans are to return to South Dakota again on our way West next Fall via the Chicago route.  Much shorter  (& less expensive) than the Lake Superior way for sure & we can catch the Badlands on the way to Custer State Park, Crazy Horse, & the Devil’s Tower..   Priority now is to get into warmer air & back to our South-Western home.  The dropping temperature & 80% chance of rain for the Custer area Sunday was also a deciding factor in moving on. 

IT WAS A NICE PULL THROUGH CAMPSITE WE HAD FOR A FEW DAYS AT ‘DAYS END’ RV PARK
A warm sunny morning in Sturgis as we dumped tanks & packed up.  We climbed aboard I-90 right by the RV Park entrance about 9 a.m. & headed out.  One of the many great things I like about the West is way less traffic on the roads & today was a fine example of that.  Heading West on I-90 there were long stretches of road with no vehicles visible ahead or behind especially in Wyoming.  That is really something for an Interstate & I-90 was like that all the way most of the day.  Even I-25 south from Buffalo had very little traffic on it.  The Big EEE seemed energized so we gave our Steed the lead & she ran like the wind.  It was just a great driving day all round.  Our second best day since leaving Bayfield around the end of September.  We had the tunes just a poppin & all that sunshine for sure picked up our Spirits.

 
THIS LITTLE CABOOSE OUT HERE IN THE WYOMING GRASSLANDS LOST HER ENGINE

 
EASIEST McDONALD’S WE EVER GOT INTO
There was one other thing that had us down a few days ago which I didn’t blog about.  On our way to Rouleau Saskatchewan (Corner Gas) a few days ago we came upon a couple trucks kinda blocking the road.  A driver waved us down a gravel road.  Figured maybe an accident had just occurred ahead & had the highway blocked or something.  The 2 truckers may have picked that up on their CB’s.  Without thinking I turned the rig onto the gravel road figuring we could just go around the concession & return to the highway further up.  Took our time & worked our way around getting back to the highway again.  It wasn’t until later when we stopped in to a Rouleau Convenience Store to check for any Corner Gas souvenirs that we shockingly saw the front end of our Jeep.  Both headlights smashed, both fog lights smashed & the windshield was cracked & pitted.  All that from the gravel stones kicked up from the rigs tires.  We can still drive the Jeep OK but not at night until we get new headlights installed. 

Called our insurance company & it will be covered.  You can imagine how bad we both felt & especially me.  I spend enough time on gravel roads at home to know about flying stones.  Then later that night we discovered the electrical problem with our coach.  Add to that being tired from fighting weather conditions previously & the fact neither one of us hardly got any sleep in Williston North Dakota & maybe you can understand how dejected & depressed we felt.  That’s when the thought of just heading back home to Bayfield came up so you can see how one should never make important decisions in times of duress & stress. 
PHEEBS SPRAWLED OUT ON THE FLOOR AS WE MAKE OUR WAY SOUTH
 
All that took until today to finally ease up enough for us to get ourselves back on track, crank up the tunes & begin to feel like happy traveling campers again.  No more talk about selling the RV, our house in Congress, & giving up the RV life & resigning ourselves to our recliners in front of the TV forever.   Kelly just relaxing in her comfy leather navigator’s seat enjoying the rolling & gently sweeping grassy hills of scenic southern Wyoming going by.  No walking, hiking, trouble shooting or stressful worrying, just soaking up some nice warm healing sunshine knowing we will soon be in our beloved South-West once more.  

It was somewhere East of Buffalo Wyoming about 11:20 this morning when I spotted something familiar on the far Western horizon.  It stretched clear across & appeared to be a bit pointy.  Clouds perhaps?  No sireeeee, I recognize mountains when I sees em.  Oh what a great feeling that was to once again see my beloved mountains.  Last time I saw mountains was in our former Winnie Wagon’s rear view mirror late last March as Colorado slowly drifted off behind us.  Today was the first day I had that good South-West feeling back again.  And it will stay with me all winter until I once again reluctantly watch those fading mountains disappear in my rear view mirror once again.

A WYOMING PIT STOP
Again, thanks to readers for there suggestion & thoughts on trying to help with our electrical problem.  What complicates the trouble shooting is the fact our rig has been starting fine with the ignition key the last 3 days & we have not had to use the power boost feature.  Also our water pump is working again because we had water today.  Side steps are working as well but no power to our coach plugs or  microwave.  A perplexing problem which I’m sure will take some expertise to solve.  First thing we’ll do when we reach Congress is have the garage check our engine battery & alternator.   If that checks out OK we will go from there.

MY FIRST VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS

Tonight we are in Rawlins Wyoming.  Gassed up & pulled into a large gravel parking lot area.  Looks like a trucking company lot.  Pheebs took Kelly out for a walk & they met the owner of the parking area we were in.  He said sure you can park here.  In fact if you pull over there onto that concrete you will be a little more level & out of the wind & enjoy your stay.  A little Wyoming hospitality methinks:))

TIS OUR HOME FOR THE NIGHT
GROANER’S CORNER:(( "I'm sorry," said the clerk in flower shop, "we don't have potted geraniums. Could you use African violets instead?"  Replied the customer sadly, "No, it was geraniums my wife told me to water while she was gone."