FYI Laramie is the 4th most populated city in Wyoming with 31,000 inhabitants, behind Cheyenne, Casper and Gillette. The entire state has less than 600,000 people. Also, Laramie is home to Wyoming’s only university, the University of Wyoming.
Weather was perfect last night and we all slept pretty well. Josie and I were up in the truck rent and Ed was in his ground tent.
We hiked a bit around Bear Lake and Nymph lake but we’re all a bit tired still from our various travels out here so we wimped out a bit. We also did the big Trail Ridge Road drive.
Josie hasn’t flown since we went to Maui when she wasn’t even two years-old so flying with her was exciting. We had fun in the airport, as we were in an exclusive shopping mall for travelers only (and we hit up Dunkin, Auntie Anne’s and then Hudson News.)
The flight to Denver was rerouted twice while inflight, to avoid some serious storm activity in Denver. But the plane wasn’t fueled for such a roundabout route so we were diverted to Colorado Springs to refuel before heading to Denver. So Josie did get to experience two takeoffs and landings on that direct flight. The route got us into Denver several hours late and poor Ed had been in a cell phone lot watching the plane fly designs for hours. It was around 10pm Denver time when he got us (I think we were supposed to land around 6pm).
Ed left in the Raptor Friday evening and made it to Rocky Mountain NP by Saturday night. I haven’t enjoyed those long hauls as much as he has so we tweaked the plan a bit and Josie and I are flying to Denver Tuesday evening. Stay tuned. This is my warm-up post. We have the new mobile Starlink so we should pretty much have internet covered.
And that’s that. Should be home just after midnight.
Got to hotel in Lincoln between 10-11pm last night. 10am and the girls are still sleeping. Got to drive about halfway home today, wherever that takes us.
Iowa. We are stopping for the night in Davenport, Iowa.
There are Buck-ees. There is Wall Drug. And then there is this place… 😬. I’ve been here twice and I’m good for the rest of my life.
Well, Josie and I woke up at 3:30am to the sound of someone or something walking around outside our truck. We were too scared to even look out the tent flaps. At one point we thought maybe we was putting the rain fly in his tent and I yelled out to him. The crunching stopped but did not quietly retreat, which was confusing. I tried calling Ed’s phone no less than ten times; we could hear it ringing in his tent, but he didn’t hear it. One of the only times ever I did not have my purse and keys up there, or I would have double locked the car for the horn beep and lights flash and scared away anything out there. Lucy woke up around 4:30am and was freaked out that we were awake freaked out. She listened with us for a while. At around 5:15am the sun was rising and we bravely looked out the back of the tent and saw nothing around us. Bear spray in hand, I jumped out the back of the truck and got my purse, scanned for any footprints animal or human (nothing obvious) and climbed back up and locked it. I fell back asleep for a couple hours.
More pics from this campsite:
Josie and I climbed around on the rocks.
And then a last drive around
Camping in the National Forests usually consists of driving along rough, unpaved roads looking for fire circles and clearings that indicate an available site, almost always free. We spent over an hour driving this road looking for a good spot. It was after 6pm and we were still planning to head into Red Lodge for dinner so we settled on this site and quickly set up our tent to stake claim. We went back to the same pizza place as last week and then headed back to the campsite. We saw a black bear foraging around very near our site so Ed elected to pass on the tent and sleep in the truck cab while the girls and I were up in the truck tent. Here were our morning views. We got some drone footage, too, will add that later.
Passed through Laramie and now on the way to Medicine Bow National Forest where we have no idea at all if we will find a camp site. And it’s about 9pm here and getting pretty dark.
We found a campsite. Totally in the dark so tomorrow I think we wake up to a big surprise.
Woke up in Cody, drive back through Yellowstone, and the super scenic drive on the Beartooth Highway, which is similar to the gaping to the Sun Road, with crazy hairpin turns and switchbacks up over 10,000 feet in high Wyoming winds. At one point we were met nearly head on by some brave (read:idiot) who probably messed his pants 💩 while driving a full size touring bus (because he must have either missed or disregarded the 40ft length recommendation). I was dining with the 360 camera 10 feet over our car and sure hope we got that!) Then we drove around for over an hour in the Custer National Forest looking for a campsite. We quickly set up our tent to claim the spot and drive back into Red Lodge, MT and back to Red Lodge Pizza Company again for dinner before we head back to that spot to finish setting up camp.
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