From Wendover, Nevada, past the Bonneville Salt Flats, (yum yum, salt! ), through Salt Lake City. Bing had to "cowboy up" and get us through some mighty windy weather along Highway 8o. John Sery taught us that Montana term for "toughen up and quit your whining." It was several pretty tense hours on the road after seeing a semi tipped on its side by the wind gusts. We landed in Rawlins, Wyoming, a nice campground at 7000 feet altitude and very near the Continental Divide.
June 17th Update - This would have been my dad's 108th birthday and I think he was watching over us. The wind blew all night long nonstop at 50 to 60 miles per hour and the forecast for this day was windier winds. So, Bing made the wise and brave decision to alter our route to go with the wind. We set out with the wnd behind us and the temperature at 35 degrees. There were big neon signs on the highway with wind advisories against travel for light trailers and the buffeting of the camper only occurred on the curves but I, as the designated pray-er, rattled through the rosary and some frantic oh God, please God, please God's and the hymn, "Be Not Afraid" was whirring through my head. Needless to say, since I'm writing this in Nebraska, we made it. It probably will be the best mpg of the trip. I was thinking Wyoming was a dusty, ugly state back at Rock Springs and Rawlins, but when we neared Cheyenne it was rolling and green
with snow capped mountains in the distance. We saw a lot more of Nebraska today. It is a big big state and I feel a kinship to it because my brother and his wife, all his children and grandchildren live there and they are all such kind and welcoming people. It is a state with vast
natural resources and lots of pretty small towns.
Friday, June 18th update - We left a very nice campsite between Chapman and Central City, Nebraska, continued through South Dakota, hoping to make it to Minneapolis on Saturday. Bing's artist Uncle Ray had died last Saturday and the funeral was Wednesday and some of his west coast cousins were waiting around to see us. We camped in Flandreau, South Dakota at the very site where we started the trip on June 1st..............The end of the trip is drawing near and our supplies are being used up. This is such a dependable little moving house. We've only had to stop once for bread and milk and otherwise we've thrived very nicely with breakfasts, lunches and dinners easily prepared. We brought some frozen walleyes along and Bing made a great Friday night fish fry.
Saturday, June 19th update - we headed through a pretty flooded South Dakota and I finally saw some wild horses. I really wanted to see a herd of wild mustangs thundering through Wyoming or Montana, but no such luck. But there in South Dakota were several horses on an island along the highway, no visible fences. In reality however, we were pretty sure that the horses were on the high ground of a flooded field, busily munching the available grass. It looked like the Big Sioux River had flooded the area.............We visited Bing's mom, Milli, for a while and then headed to his sister Sue and her husband, Dan's house where they hosted a nice gathering of cousins from far and near. We camped in their driveway that night, went over to cousin John's house in the morning and picked out some of Uncle Ray's paintings for our sons.
Next began our drive home. And home sweet home it is. We love this place and it felt so good to be back after 5280 miles on the road. But memories of the last three weeks will forever be a part of our lives and especially the memory of sweet little Ben resting so quietly in my arms. Thanks for traveling along with us. Right now, we're catching up on all the mail and newspapers from the 3 weeks and soon we'll be in the garden tending our emerging crops. Summer's going fast and we've more memories to make...............The pictures are from miscellaneous sites and days.
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