Now that the forest fires have burned out and everyone seems to be on the mend (including the cat) things have quieted down quite a bit – Thank Goodness!!!
Finally, I have gotten back to working on my girls – Nadine and Ruby. Ruby has only gotten a quick once over with soap and water but Nadine is the one who has made real progress.
Yikes! OK – she still needs some major work on the outside and definitely a new paint job but she’s almost livable on the inside. And would you look at that – I never even noticed that the wheels were two different colors – don’t worry – I can fix that… What do you think – chrome rims with spinners? Oh, Baby!!! Call in the Slurry Bombers – she’ll be smoking!!!
But back to my story… Even though Nadine isn’t finished we have been on a couple of adventures this summer. She followed me to the County Fair where we had a ball and several girl friends even stopped by to check out my little piece of ‘Heaven on Wheels’! You guessed it – they all want one too.
Then since Hubby was feeling left out because he couldn’t come to the fair we hitched her up and headed West to the Big Horn Mountains for the long Labor Day weekend. We actually had running water on this trip even though the water heater wasn’t working yet and neither was the refrigerator, shower or furnace which turned out to be something we could have really used as the temperatures outside were very close to freezing at night. I told Hubby it was just a good excuse to snuggle.
Vacation wasn’t the only excuse to get out of town. We also had to make a small delivery. Our first stop was Gillette, WY at my brother and sister-in-laws house. Scott needed a welder so we hauled one of the big ones to his house. Actually, I think the welder weights as much as his little loader – notice the back wheels off the ground? And goodness gracious – his wheels are two different colors too. It must run in the family.
But Scott has nerves of steel and a steel roll cage so no one seemed to be too worried. After we unloaded the welder we hitched Nadine back up and headed west and wouldn’t you know it – we ran into mountains.
Big mountains…
The Big Horns are beautiful!!! And obviously, everyone else thought so too as there were people everywhere but luck was on our side and we missed all the really busy campgrounds and ended up driving completely across the Big Horns and down the other side. We then had the option of either climbing back up the way we had come or to push onward and see new territory.
Hubby and I talked it over – while eating lunch beside Dirty Annie’s Trading Post (Hey – you just can’t make this stuff up). After studying the situation we came up with a new rule for traveling with Nadine – ‘Never go back’ (unless, of course, parts fall off and we have to go back and get them). So… since nothing had fallen off the old girl we continued on into Greybull and then turned north to the town of Lovell. It was a wonderful drive but we decided we should really head back to the mountains and find a campground before it got dark. So we turned east toward the mountains and drove until we found this sign:
Looks like my kind of road. I mean really, what good is having a pickup if you don’t take roads like this? And Nadine is only 20 feet long so we had 10 feet to spare. There was another small sign that promised the Five Springs Campground was at the end of this road so we headed up the side of the mountain. I have to admit, the sign was right – the road was everything it had promised but when we reached the top there was the prettiest little campground you ever saw.
Nadine fit right in.
We were parked right next to a beautiful (but icy cold) creek.
Nadine was a vision and totally at home in the great outdoors.
Of course, any time you travel with Nadine, adventure is not far behind…
I didn’t get any photos of the stuff that went on that night but I’m seriously thinking I need to invest in night vision goggles. Sometime, in the middle of the night I began to hear weird noises. At first I thought something was outside – maybe a bear! I lifted the curtain to peek outside – nothing – but then I realized the noises were coming from inside Nadine’s cupboards! Somewhere along the way my dear little camper had become the new playground for a rowdy pack of ferel campground mice!!! Hubby swears they came in by crawling up the electrical plug-in cord. He said he heard the little flap door bouncing as they snuck into our humble abode. We heard a few squeaks then the pitter-patter of tiny furry feet. This went on for some time – I would switch on my little reading light – the kind that hooks onto your book but as soon as the light came on all would be quiet. Then, when the light went out – the party would start up again. Nadine’s floor space isn’t that big but Boy Howdy did those mice enjoy it! They ran, they squeaked, I swear they were doing gymnastic routines. I took it for a while then crawled over the top of Hubby and got out the big guns – peanut butter and mouse traps. I set the traps and crawled back in bed to wait. It wasn’t long before we heard the deafening snap of a mouse trap followed by the scuffle of a struggling rodent. It was over quickly but it didn’t seem to faze the rest of the pack. At least 8 more furry little feet went running in wild abandon across the floor.
It was all very exciting.
We got one mouse the first night and another one the next. Technically, the 2nd mouse probably doesn’t count as it barely caught him and I turned the little bugger loose outside – still very much alive. The third mouse traveled home with us where it too met its demise in the wicked trap. Sorry, little mice but I can’t run the risk of having you chew through all that new plumbing.
But back to the Big Horns – Sunday morning we hiked up behind the campground to the Five Springs Falls.
If you look real close you can see the top of the falls right above the trees in the center of the photo. But the bottom of the waterfall looks like this.
And this:
Stunning!!!
One of our camping neighbors, Bill from St. Paul, who had been coming to this same campground since the 70’s said he had actually showered in the waterfall a couple of times. I tried to soak my feet in the stream but nearly lost toes to instantaneous frost bite. I don’t think I’m as tough as Bill.
We spent two nights in our new favorite campground – sitting in the sun, snoozing in the lawn chairs and generally doing nothing at all. It was great!!!
There was beautiful views no matter which way you looked. Check it out – just like home – black cows everywhere.
When we left Monday morning I had Hubby pull off so I could get a picture of Nadine hanging onto the edge of the mountain. The photos just don’t do it justice – it was damn steep!
We crept down the hillside then climbed back to the top on the main road, stopping long enough to hike out to the Medicine Wheel and then on into Sheridan, WY to something everyone should see at least once in their lives – Don King Days.
No – not the guy with the hair!
But that’s another story…
Nadine was up for your travel challenge! It is nice to get away and see something different once in a while. Your trip looks relaxing and you saw some beautiful country! Thanks for sharing your trip and neat pictures.
You might be interested in this site/organization. Women from around the country who rv together. It sounds like it would be right up your alley!
http://www.sistersonthefly.com/