Leaving Casper

We departed Casper on August 16 and headed out for a little Randy and Colleen time. Now, I must say we don’t work on traveling very far in one day; after all we are retired. So, the first day we made it 150 miles to Sheridan, WY. What a beautiful place to be. Both Randy and I commented on how we were really impressed with the area and could settle down there. When we checked into the campground, the owner shared lots of ideas about what to do and see while there. Well, we chose a couple of the items and headed out once camp was set up. The historic area of Sheridan was fun to explore.

The next morning we hooked back up and headed over the Bighorn Mountains to Cody, WY another 150 miles. The drive was beautiful to the top of the mountain with a slow gradual climb but once we reached the top we discovered an entirely different story. We were at over 8,000 ft in altitude and going to descend to the bottom at a 10% grade within just 13 miles. Now remember we are towing over 15,000 lbs behind us. A challenge conquered with ease and grace by my highly skilled husband. We pulled over a couple times to let the brakes cool down which gave me great picture opportunities. Once at the bottom, we checked the camper out and the only thing we discovered was a pretty strong stench of brakes inside but all was safe and sound. We then continued on towards Cody. Again, upon arrival, Randy and I commented on how we could settle down there. In fact, Cody was so intriguing that we decided to spend an extra day there exploring. The Buffalo Bill Museum itself could take two full days to see it all – we barely touched the surface of all it had to share.

The Bighorn in the Bighorn Mountains

The warning sign!

First stop to rest brakes. See how far we have come?

More to go!

Can you see why we fell in love with this area?

We even found a house we really liked, but I guess you can’t buy one without selling the one you already own, uh? Since we can’t have the house, we found a couple choices for upgrading our home on wheels in a couple years…which way should we go?



(Written while traveling I-80 from Salt Lake City to Laramie—not the most scenic stretch of America)
After Cody, we spent two days in Yellowstone National Park. The drive between Cody and Yellowstone was very, very scenic. We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam which was the prototype for the Hoover Dam. It was absolutely amazing as all of it was built by hand with very limited equipment while the Hoover Dam was built with more mechanical equipment available. The endurance and strength of our ancestors is impressive and should always be remembered and appreciated as I doubt very few of us would want to take on these type of undertakings today. During our travels, we have been given information on several job opportunities while full time RVing by either fellow RVers, reservation clerks, or just passer-bys. Well, such an occasion happened while making a lunch break stop in Shoshone Canyon right before Yellowstone. A gentlemen noticed we were from Texas (I know big laugh as we really aren’t from anywhere right now) and started visiting. He is a National Park Service volunteer that has free camping all summer while caretaking this viewing area in the canyon. He also gets a stipend for monthly expenses. After visiting for awhile, I put this one down in our book of possibilities as it was absolutely gorgeous and sounded so interesting. When making the reservations for Yellowstone, we were also told how to get a job working at Yellowstone for the summer. Sometimes I ponder on the thought that there is more work for retired people than for career hunters.

Trip to Newcastle

I wasn’t going to leave Casper without spending an entire day with my cousin, Carey. We had a great day traveling to Newcastle to do family history research. Her father and my grandfather were cousins and they both spent the majority of their lives in the Newcastle vicinity. So, our day began with lots of visiting as we drove for three hours. Once we arrived at Newcastle, we made a business stop for Carey and then made our way to city hall to start gathering burial information. Then we went to lunch at the infamous Old Mill restaurant. After lunch, we went to the Senior Center as they have all the past class pictures of the senior classes. It was fun to search for our family members in the various classes and then we would take the big picture off the wall, lay it on the floor and then take a snapshot of it for our records. Several older residents of the home were quite curious about our doings. Then we headed for the city museum and were able to get some stories that had been written by various family members about our ancestors from the Bits and Pieces magazine. What a great amount of information we were able to gather in such a short amount of time. Our last stop in Newcastle was the cemetery to take pictures of headstones – which I will place on Find A Grave for others possibly researching our family line. Thanks to Carey, we were able to find them all and I was able to honor several relatives I barely knew. On our way home, we stopped by Upton cemetery to find my Great Aunt and Uncle’s graves. She was my favorite great aunt and I wasn’t able to go to her funeral so it did my heart good to go visit her burial site. I tried to serve her by cleaning the area up a little. Anyway, after gathering records of close to 30 relatives and over 55 pictures, I felt we had a very successful day. What a great way to spend time with family members whom share the same interest.

Weekend Fun

After attending the graduation in Laramie, Patty and Grace followed us back to Casper to spend the weekend with us. It was filled with memory making times. We had several get-togethers (of course, with food) with Cousin Carey and family at the picnic grounds near the campground. It was so fun reminiscing about the past and thinking about where our lives have taken us. We also attended the Bear Mountain Blue Grass Festival during a very hot day. They had a great kid’s section to keep the younger ones busy and then a few vendors for us adults to do our best at spending money.

Cousin Carey and I enjoying the Bluegrass Festival.

Yummmm....another good food, good time for all.

Addy chasing bubbles in the air.

Sylvia's Graduation

Sylvia was blessed to have several family members attend her graduation -- my sister, Patty; our niece, Grace; Sylvia’s great grandma; Randy and I; and then her family. We were so proud to see her walk forward and receive her diploma and know that all her hard work has paid off. She even has a job at the hospital where she did most of her clinical once she has passed the boards. Another happy mom and dad moment!!

Sylvia showing off her diploma!

Sylvia's support group to help her earn her diploma.

My granddaughter, Addy, me and my grandmother, Dorothy. Not enough opportunities to get such a great picture.

Much Too Long

Written in Highland, Utah while sitting at the kitchen table watching the children do their school work.

Wow, there is so much to share! This will either end up a very large post or several posts to keep it controllable. We kept busy the last month at Casper by attending museums in the area, going to Laramie for a couple visits (one very special one to attend Sylvia’s graduation from nursing school), taking a trip to Newcastle to do family research, and spending lots of precious moments with Sylvia and family. We hope our grandchildren miss us as much as we miss them. Each one of them had a little thing they would do or some special phrase to say which just captured our hearts.

Addy and Papa doing dishes. This glass was rinsed at least 20 times. Much more fun to rinse then dry, I guess.

Patrick and Papa having a bubble war. I guess hot air pays off!

Real cool trick by Kathryn and Patrick.