West By God Wyoming!

Friday 7/21/17 (still)  Interstate highways are a relatively new development in how people get from one place to another in this great, vast country of ours.  Before I90, I80 or any of the other east-west highways, people drove their automobiles on roads like US 40 or US2. You only have to look as far as the legendary Route 66 to see now nostalgic Americans are about early car travel.  Of course, before that, there was the horse drawn wagon that took the early pioneers west to settle in Wyoming.

As I deferred to TOOTS (my Garmin GPS) to route me home from Grand Teton National Park, I was totally unfamiliar with the roads and towns I would be going through.  OK then!  An adventure!!  My hope would be that I would make it to Rapid City, SD by nightfall and get a KOA campsite there.  (I had a $15 off coupon from the Cody KOA.)  Looking back on it . . . I can only laugh out loud . . . literally.  I had NO CHANCE of making the 8+ hour drive, especially leaving Grand Teton at 10:30am!  But you know what . . . everything happens for a reason . . . and today's adventure was no different.

I knew when I reviewed my 525 mile routing from Moose, WY to Rapid City, SD I would be in for a long slog through a lot of flat prairie land through sparsely populated areas. In fact, as best I could tell, I might not see a town for hundreds and hundreds of miles.  The most concerning thing for me as I left the park was how I was going to contact David to let him know of my change in plans and that I was working my way back home a day early.

Fortunately, there was a roadside filling station and convenience store literally in the middle of nowhere . . . Hwy 26 in Crowheart, WY.  Needing to use the bathroom, I stopped to size up the place.  I was sorta feeling badly that I was not looking to buy anything, so I bought a bottle of cranberry juice and package of chocolate chip cookies.  After being rung up I told the woman about my cell phone nightmare and asked if she might be able to let me use her phone.

She was most gracious saying something along the lines of "Oh honey, of course you may use our phone!  It must have been horrible not being able to talk with your family to assure them you are OK.  They must be worried sick about you." I told her I appreciated it, but that it wasn't really that bad; that I had been able to call home most days so folks knew I was OK.

With all of my biological needs taken care of, I headed on down Hwy 26 . .  unsure what what I might see next.  Interestingly enough, I found myself in what looked to be a bit of a ghost town . . . Shoshoni, Wyoming. 

 

While the town may have had a population of 635 back at the 2000 census, my guess is that they've lost more citizens over the past couple of decades as the town looked to have been largely abandoned.  Here's what their Main Street by the rail yard looked like.  The photo at the top of this day's blog entry is also from this town.

My drive through Shoshoni reminded me of an article I read a couple of years ago.  An entire Wyoming town, complete with its own post office and other buildings, was up for sale for something like $10,000.  I remember telling David at the time that I could see us buying such a place . . . and being the mayor of our own little burgh.

With my drive-through of Shoshoni complete, I continued on into the afternoon sun.  Now out on the plains, it was hot.  The thermometer in the van was reading 98f and it felt every bit of 100!  Driving through this area of Wyoming I found radio stations to be few and far between. Not to worry, as I was traveling with a large collection of CD's . . . but even I can only listen to so much Springsteen.

When I turned on the radio to find something to listen to, I stumbled upon KWRR 89.5 on my dial.  It was the most beautiful Native American music . . . I enjoyed the hour or so that I was within range.  Researching the station, I learned that it is the station belonging to Business Council of the Northern Arapaho Tribe.  Sometimes you just never know what cultural experience you may have while on a road trip!

With a few more miles covered, I was growing restless and in need of a distraction . . . something to do . . . something to see.  I needed to stretch my legs and engage my brain.  Using TOOTS, I resorted to what I know best most days . . . bowling!  I can use her navigation to find interesting places to stop . . . museums, parks, stores and yes of course . . . bowling centers.  Unfortunately, there wasn't anything remotely close!  So I settled in on the Stagecoach Museum in Lusk, WY.  Even better . . . my route to Rapid City had me going right through Lusk on Hwy 18/20/85.

What I wasn't sure of, was how late they would be open given I had an ETA of 4:15pm and it was a Friday afternoon.