Wednesday 10/1/25 Happy October, Driving Day

 

Riverside Park in Douglas Wyoming

 

The Federal Government did shut down. They left the roads open in the National Park for people to drive through them and see the sites. There was no one manning the visitor centers, the campgrounds and other buildings. We decided to head towards home because even if we drove through Yellowstone we wouldn't have anywhere to camp.

We woke up to the temperature in the 40's. By the end of the day we were in Douglas, Wy. where it was 73

I got up at 7:00. This surprised Larry but he was happy because we could get an early start. We had a quick breakfast of Hostess Coffee Cakes. After breakfast we put everything away and secured. We were on the road by 7:45.

We were planning drive 250 miles but ended up driving 295 miles. Our drive took us through a mountain pass, on two and four lane highways, through road construction and few cities. We started from the Wapiti Campground and went back to Cody Wyoming, which was 30 miles. When we got to the Buffalo Bill Dam we had to wait for the construction traffic light to turn green and the pilot truck. It wasn't long. Then we drove through the three tunnels going the opposite way then we did a couple of days ago. A few miles from Cody we saw a huge herd of elk. Larry pulled over and we watched one bull heard up his harem. We heard him bugling to get their attention. Some of the elk jumped over the fence and some just ignored him. But he ran to the ones who were ignoring him and chased them to the rest of the harem. It was very exciting to watch.

 

Enjoying the meadow

 

A bull herding his harem
 

After watching the elk we continued down the highway. We drove through Cody, Meeteetse and Thermopolis. We drove down the highway through the Wind River Indian Reservation. This was a beautiful curvy highway through a mountain pass where the Wind River flows along side the highway. While we were driving we saw people working on the railroad tracks. We saw a couple of railroad tunnels and we drove through three tunnels just before Boysen State Park. This was a gorgeous drive and the reservoir was very beautiful and huge. After this area we were back in rolling hills and plains. We saw a lot of Pronghorns, cattle, sheep, horses and ranch land. There were a lot of signs advertising the 307 cattle ranch, they were of bucking broncos, cowboys sitting in front of a campfire with his horse, bison, elk, cowboys, etc. These signs went for miles and miles. When we got to Shoshoni we stopped and put 5 gallons of gas in the Minnie, Larry wasn't sure if we could make it to Casper, which was 101 miles farther down the road. In Shoshoni gas was $.70 more a gallon then in Casper. The Exxon in Shoshoni had very nice updated pumps, Larry had not seen these before. It had a big touch screen. You chose what grade of gas you wanted via the touch screen. Then we went across the street to a very nice park and had lunch in the Minnie.

 

Gas pump at the Exxon

 

Wind River mountain pass

 

Tunnels at Wind River

 

After lunch we drove to Casper. Larry had the GPS programmed to Discount Tires to get the tires rotated. He noticed that the front passenger tire was wearing on the outside and he wanted to move it to the back. We got to Discount Tires about 1:30 and the gentleman who took care of us said it would be an hour and a half. So we went to the Minnie and read. We were pleasantly surprised when they came within 45 minutes. We were in and out within a half hour. 

We were going to stay outside Casper at Glenrock South Recreation Complex for the night. but decided since it was only 44 miles to Douglas we would go there. 

We arrived at Douglas at 4:00 and stopped at Taco John's for dinner. We both had a crunchy beef burrito. We were very surprised it was so small. Later we had a Ding Dong for dessert. We were here 11 days ago. We didn't have any problems finding a place to park for the night. 

Once we were setup for the night we went over and took a shower. It's a free city park to stay over night for three nights. I didn't feel like walking around so i only did 1100 steps. We spent the evening ready.

 

Riverside Park