Travels with Twinkles

Monday, September 19, 2016

Vedauwoo Recreation Area and Laramie, Wyoming

September 11 - 13, 2016:

A very short but extremely windy trip of 40 miles on interstate 80 west from Cheyenne to Buford, Wyoming. The Venauwoo Recreation Area, part of the Medicine Bow National Forest, is about 2 miles off the highway and is a rock climbers mecca. It is an area of immense boulders rising out of the surrounding prairie. We are somewhat frustrated here as there is incredible hiking and bouldering here but our knees are not up to the task. There are a lot of climbers here mostly technical climbing on established routes. This type of climbing takes divine faith in your gear, anchors and other mechanical locking devices, or a disregard for your life, I just don’t have that faith ! It is possible to wander around in this maze of boulders and find routes between the rocks that lead up to great heights, but they involve some slippery slopes and my knee although improved is not up to that today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedauwoo

The campsite

Rocks of all sizes and shapes

A climbers paradise

Strange Toadstool rocks

iphone photo

Ancient tree in the rocks

Huge balanced boulders

You can scramble up high in places

A storm approaching

There are several weird attractions nearby which we take a look at. The first is the Ames Monument built by the Union Pacific railroad dedicated to the Ames Brothers. The Ames Brothers were instrumental in the construction of the railroad in this area. As we arrived there, there was a family group, kids climbing up the side of the monument, very dangerous looking with their mom sitting in the car completely disregarding the danger. Twinkles told them it was illegal to do that, but there was no sign, so I guess if you fall and kill yourself you can sue the State of Wyoming. One of the kids about 10 years old was scared to come down, needed help, big brother to the rescue, coming down is much scarier. This monument is huge, very costly to build and was quite an attraction in the years before Interstate 80. It now sits off the beaten track with Route 80 travelers whizzing by unknowingly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_Monument

Ames Monument

Sculpture of one of the Ames Brothers done by noted
sculpter Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Another attraction is a Tree growing out of a rock in a center median of Interstate 80. The Union Pacific Railroad originally ran right next to it and the train crews stopped and watered the tree. The railroad has moved away and Interstate 80 now runs around it.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11660

This explains it all

The lonesome tree

The next attraction is a huge monument with a bust of Abraham Lincoln at an Interstate 80 rest area. This is located at the highest point on the Interstate 80 highway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Memorial_Monument

Monument to Henry B Joy at the original Lincoln Highway,
Interstate 80. He was the president of the Lincoln Highway
Association

Lincoln Statue on Interstate 80 rest area

The last is the town of Buford, population 1, owned by a Vietnamese man who runs a nice convenience store that sells Vietnamese coffee and Buford souvenirs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhinDeli_Town_Buford,_Wyoming

Buford exit on Interstate 80

We are not having the best weather here, first extreme wind on Sunday night, but luckily our campsite is somewhat protected from the wind. It then rained and turned cold on Tuesday afternoon and night with the temperature dropping to 39 degrees by morning. The worst however was that it was 39 degrees with 100% humidity and a 20 MPH wind and encased in a solid fog bank. We are at the high point of Interstate 80 right here at 8,200 foot elevation. As the fog didn’t appear to be lifting anytime soon we went back downhill 15 miles to the city of Laramie. It was sunny there and we hung out at the Coal Creek Coffee Shop, had lunch and visited the Wyoming Territorial Prison. At 4 PM, we start heading back up Interstate 80 and sadly see the fog bank still up ahead in the distance. Arriving at the campground, yup it’s still foggy, the wind is still blowing and it’s 43 degrees, 2 degrees higher than when we left at 10 AM.

Laramie Wyoming is one of my favorite western towns as it has many great old buildings, a great mural project, a massive rail yard, the Old Buckhorn Bar, several good restaurants and a vibrant college scene. I didn't take many photos as my September 10-13, 2015 blog covered it well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laramie,_Wyoming

Laramie street view

The Old Buckhorn Bar and Parlor

A favorite Aspen mural

A favorite old mural exposed when the adjacent
building was torn down

The backside of the Territorial Prison

Butch Cassidy was a professional

Butch spent some time here

Broom making became a prison industry, they make
brooms today for sale in the gift shop

Surprisingly we awaken to clear skies, the fog blew out overnight and the sun is shinning. I take this opportunity to go out for a few photos on the opposite side of the campground. The views are great, I could just wander in this area all day.

Amazing rock formations

I manage to climb up

Heavily fractured rocks

This is an incredibly scenic area and campground, I would definitely return, but hopefully under more favorable weather conditions.

Next stop is Hermit Hollow Campground near Estes Park, Colorado,

Twinkles and Slick

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Cheyenne, Wyoming

September 8 - 10, 2016:

Another very windy drive today from Scottsbluff, Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Our route was route 71 south to route 88 west, a very lonely road, passing through no towns and no services until arriving in Cheyenne. There were beautiful areas but few places to stop and admire them.

We arrived at the Restway Travel Park in early afternoon and are set up in a full hookup site for the next three days. It has several full time residents and seems a bit quirky, but everything works and it is convenient to everything.

We were in Cheyenne during our first year RV’ing back in 2012, we were new to the west then, it will be interesting to see what we think of Cheyenne now. Cheyenne started as a Union Pacific rail division shop area. The town quickly formed next the the railroad as happened over and over again all along the route of the railroad. It became a very prosperous town with several wealthy Cattle Barons building elaborate mansions in town. The Union Pacific Depot as a result is larger and more lavish than most others.

The classic Cheyenne Train Depot

Iron Horse sculpture in front of the Depot

Cowboy Boots are big in Cheyenne

Union Pacific route map in floor of depot

We take a ride to the historic district of Cheyenne and tour a few blocks and as usual end up in a quilt shop. Cheyenne has many historic and interesting buildings and the incredible Union Pacific Train Depot. This town reminds me of Pueblo Colorado in many ways, there are many similarities. I pick up a historic walking tour map at the visitors center which I find to be loaded with good stuff, the history of the buildings and the people who built them. The Plains Hotel is a remaining treasure in the downtown, I highly recommend visiting it. The State of Wyoming Capital building is also a beauty, but we couldn’t see it on this visit as it is undergoing a massive three year restoration and upgrade.

Love this mural

A very cute downtown children art project

Many nice storefronts

Chief blowing smoke ?

Classic architecture and tour bus

Better view

The Wrangler Store which Twinkles reminds me is where
I bought my Cowboy Boots in 2012 that I rarely wear

The corner of the Wrangler Store

Old Railroad warehouse

The Lincoln Theater

The Plains Hotel built in 1911

Totally awesome inside

There really isn’t much of a downtown shopping district left, it’s all moved out to the newer Dell Range Blvd. area that is lined with strip malls, restaurant chains, fast food chains and retail shops of all kinds.

We stopped at the Holiday Park to take a look at the Big Boy Locomotive, No. 4004, built in 1941 for the Union Pacific Railroad. There were 25 of these Locomotives built, they were the largest and most powerful Steam Locomotives ever built. This Locomotive was retired ion 1958 and put on display here. Another Big Boy Locomotive, no 4014 is currently undergoing total restoration back to running condition in Cheyenne. When completed, it will be the largest, heaviest and powerful operational Steam Locomotive in the world.

It's really huge !

We happened to go by the Egg and I restaurant that I had seen good reviews for, so we stopped for lunch. The food was good, but the decor, the hostess and the bus person having a loud personal conversation in the dining room were annoying. Oh, and the door handle in the Mens room was disgustingly filthy looking. Afraid it’s just an average dining experience, at best.

I go to downtown Cheyenne in the evening to check out a jam session at the Paramount coffee shop. It’s a nice shop, but I was there for about an hour and only one person played and they were about 17 years old and I think they better stay in school, study for a different career path. I left and went to the Crown Bar about a block away where a Bobby Phillips was playing mostly classic rock who was quite good. There was a "Big Buck" shooting gallery electronic game that a couple of guys were playing that caught my attention, this is not something you see in other areas of the country, but it seems to be way more common here. The weird thing about it, seemed to me, was that it played background music as you shot and it just did’t seem right to hear Jefferson Airplane and Tom Petty songs as you blasted away at deer, elk and bears.

I believe this

We checked out the Cheyenne Saturday Farmers Market which was a good one, many fruit and vegetable vendors. Twinkles was thrilled with a vendor with large plastic bags that you could fill to the brim with anything on the table for $10. People were buying like crazy !

A beautiful Farmers Market, next week the Zombie Fest
will be here, kind of sorry to miss that

Healthy produce for us

Next stop is the Venauwow Recreation Area in Buford, Wyoming,

Twinkles and Slick

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Scottsbluff, Nebraska

September 5 - 7, 2016:

It was a late start for us today as we were in no hurry to travel the 85 miles to our next campground. We knew that most of the weekend campers leave on Sunday, there would be plenty of open sites, but not so many early in the morning. It was an easy drive on route 71 south across endless miles of Nebraska prairie, wheat and hay fields. As we approached the Scottsbluff, Nebraska area we started to see something new, cornfields.

The Lake Minatare Recreation Area is 2, 970 acres with a 2,158 acre reservoir with four campgrounds around it. We settled for one close to the main entrance with a view of the reservoir through the Cottonwood trees. It has electric, is level, has partial sun, with a water spigot and shower house nearby. They do have primitive areas, no hookups, where you can park practically on the beach. It looks pretty sandy and tight to maneuver into between the trees, but is doable. We decided to take an easy, quiet site, although those Cottonwood trees overhead do scare me. Twinkles claims the chances of another tree limb falling on us are ultra slim ? I kind of accepted that until I did a search for information on the Minatare Recreation Area and a story popped up about a camper killed and two others injured by a falling tree a few months ago.

The drive was mostly like this

More cows than people

The fake lighthouse at the Park built by the VCC, the Veterans
Conservation Corps between 1937 and 1939

The view from the top

View along the beach area

We take a ride to downtown Scottsbluff to pick up throat lozenges, ginger ale and ice cream, for my cold and/or allergy symptoms. Downtown Scottsbluff does not look terribly exciting, but there are several interesting old buildings for my photo collection. We are here mainly to visit the Scottsbluff National Monument and Chimney Rock National Historic Site.

The Midwest Theater is classic

Appears to be used for senior or low income housing today

Very nice Bingo Parlor, but whose idea was it to put that stone work
under those beautiful tiles

This building was full of unrestored 1950-1960's cars

Ghostly view through a dirty window into building

Tuesday was a cloudy day with a few showers in the evening, I’m taking a sick day while Twinkles goes grocery shopping. It’s a rare day when I stay in the RV all day, it's killing me !

Campground etiquette is an issue at times, we don’t understand some campers, in fact we think they are a little rude. There are several wide open campsites around us and these guys had to park right next to us. So, when we look out our windows about all we see is their RV or them sitting outside.

While on this topic, Twinkles says I’m also very rude because I don’t wave to people while driving. I just don’t get it, why should I be waving to complete strangers as I drive around. I kind of get the Jeep facet of this, as when driving a Jeep everyone waves to one another, like members of a secret society.

Scottsbluff and Chimney Rock have always been notable area landmarks, first for the native indians, then the fur traders and then for the pioneers traveling by wagon train on the Oregon and Mormon Trails during western expansion in the mid 1800’s. This area was a real crossroads with the North Platte River, a major water route into the west and the transcontinental railroad all coming together here.

Scottsbluff National Monument is composed of six rock formations with Scotts Bluff the most prominent rising 800 feet above the plains. There is also a road, built by the CCC in the 1930’s, to the top of the bluff with a couple of short hiking trails.