May 21.....Good Morning Gillette, Wyoming!

a view of the town of Gillette.......

I woke up this morning at 6:24 a.m.....that hasn't happened in awhile.  Of course, I did fall back to sleep which has happened frequently.  When my eyes finally opened for the day, it was to a warm sunshine streaming in the window.  This morning I awaken in Gillette, WY....the Energy Capital of the USA the largest producer of Coal in the world...kind of fun to be in town that is the same as our last name.  The kids think is the niftiest thing!  We ran into Walmart to grab a couple of things and ended up finding tshirts with Gillette, WY on them so we had to have these!!

heading into Gillette.....

We headed out to the Rock Pile Museum.  Expecting to see a modest display, we were really impressed with the contents of the museum and the presentation.  The kids favorite thing was the dress up area, even the teens...In the 3 rooms, there were 1800's buggies, a large assortment of animals native to Gillette and Wyoming, the dress up area, a large gun collection and great exhibits on medicine, daily life and the local police.  In addition, there was a great video on the coal mining process and the mines in the area.  We learned a lot.   The coal mining information was very interesting.....


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a sheepherders prairie wagon...

native animals of Wyoming

The one thing that I really wanted to see was a herd of buffalo. I was very sad that we did not see any when we drove through Custer State Park.  We headed out of Gillette and onto the straight stretch between our two destinations.  Lo and behold, about 15 minutes out of Gillette, what should appear before my wandering eyes?  A herd of buffalo!!!  Yes, they were in the far distance but they were in our visonary path!!!  YEAH, now my trip has been made.  The kids were excited to see live ones, as we have seen buffalo hides and stuffed buffalo at numerous places.  We took a couple of pics and hurried on our way.  Around the bend on the other side of the road, there appeared another even bigger herd and these were right on the fence line adjacent to the road.  There were all sizes in this herd.  Gracie quickly spotted a few baby buffalo and they were so cute (they look like a cow, actually).  We had to stop here to get better pics.  I'm sure that they few trucks that passed us thought we were strange but hey, we live in California where you don't see a herd of buffalo grazing in the field everyday!!!

Buffalo ranch in Wyoming

Standing near the fence line, we glanced down and Madison spotted a prickly cactus hidden in the grass...good eye, Mad!









Drove to Douglas from there and, well, truthfully we were not too impressed....the old cemetary was not bad, it had a really pretty wrought iron sign.  Well, not every town has fascinating things to see.  We drove through the town and saw a Jackalope, hahaha, just a statue as this is where the Jackalope was first seen (or made up if you want to know the truth).  This gave us the opportunitiy to learn about this famed creature.  Pam read the story of the Jackalope to the kids and we all got a laugh.....The Douglas girls really wanted tshirts with Douglas on them so we stopped at a few places in the quest for the tshirts and finally found a small drugstore with a couple to choose from. 

Animals seen today:

Buffalo
red fox
skunk
cows
horses
sheep

The next stop of the day was at Fort Laramie.....this famous fort was a fur trading post and became a stop on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails.  Many emigrants passed this way and restocked for the rest of their journeys west.  It became a military post in 1849 and eventually was closed.  We toured the soldiers barracks and the grounds.  The barracks looked like the soldiers had just left for the day on their patrols....uniforms hung on the pegs, checkers (made out of corn cobs sat in position to play, the dining room was set for the next meal).  On our way to the visitor center to see a short film on the history of the fort, we saw a 5 foot long bull snake.....it was slithering its way over to the sprinklers to get water.  We inched our way to the safety of the building where the ranger told us some info on the snake.....ICK!!! Of course, the kids were greatly intrigued by it, not Pam and I. 

Bull snake

Pony Express marker at Fort Laramie

Finally, we started for the final leg of our drive today.  Destination:  Ft. Collins.  The day had gotten quite warm so I sweated it out in the drivers seat next to the hot engine......reaching Ft. Collins around 7:30 pm.....Our hosts for tonight, Al and Shirley, were waiting with open arms to greet us.  Shirley grew up with Pam's mom and knew Pam when she was growing up and as a young woman.  They both were so gracious, offering us a needed reprieve from the RV.  They had dinner waiting for us....delicious bbq hamburgers, potato salad, beans, chips, corn on the cob and margaritas for the moms!  Al had his bible out on the kitchen table and we were awed to see how lovingly used it was....the pages were worn thin and holey from his fingers moving over them.....what a testimony to the kids and us of the love he has for the word of God!!!  My bible is all marked up like his is, but the pages are intact, I've got some reading to do!!!  We all got to sleep in beds for the night and sleep we did!!!


















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