We didn’t do too much today. We went shopping at Trader Joe’s and bought some batteries for our tire gauge and a funnel at O’Reilly’s.
Provo’s downtown, at least the section we saw, is quite pretty. On the west side of us is Utah Lake and east of us is a gorgeous range of rocky mountains. I suppose they are part of the Wasatch Range but I’m not sure and I am too lazy to check it out.
By the way, Lakeside RV’s wifi is shit.
See a couple of Provo pix by clicking the asterisk *

Today was a travel day. We left the Fort Bridger RV Park and jumped back onto I-80 westbound. Peggy had noted one of our trailer tires looked funny to her a couple days ago but I checked it out and thought it was okay. After all, we had driven across quite a bit of Wyoming with the allegedly funny-looking tire without problems.
We passed through quite a bit of pretty Wyoming territory on our way into Utah although we didn’t seem to be descending out of elevations up around 7000 feet. Soon, we passed into Utah and the terrain slowly changed into red rock canyons and hoodoos and plain evidence that erosion is a powerful geological force. Right as we were getting ready to make the long descent into Salt Lake City we passed a massive low-boy tractor-trailer rig hauling a gigantic Kohler generator about the size of an ordinary bedroom. The incline became steeper and I looked in the mirror and saw the low-boy, now in the fast lane, accelerating downhill and blasting his air horns. I thought perhaps he had lost his brakes but I was wrong. As the truck came alongside our slower truck, we noted the driver was gesticulating wildly and also continuing to blast the horn.
It was then that I realized his truck and oversize load were just fine and that he was trying to signal us that something was awry with our truck or fifth wheel. All at the same time, I looked in the mirrors, applied the brakes and Peggy stated “We have a blowout!” My assessment of tire soundness I had made just a few days before was now in tatters. I wrestled the now misbehaving trailer over the texture strip next to the fog line that goes dut-dut-dut-dut-dut when you run over it and eventually to a stop. Our left trailer wheels were about 4 inches inside the fog line and our right wheels were at the very edge of the paving, in the marbles. What was formerly the tread part of the tire was tightly wrapped around the axle and brake assembly and portions of the sidewall dangled from the trailer rim like dreadlocks. There was no visible place where we could get off the road further and recently passed territory indicated there were no such locations for fraidy-cat drivers to get out of the speeding, downhill traffic. Cell phone service was zilch.
Like frightened deer, we started getting out lug wrenches and car jacks and levers and blocks to begin the tire change. Each time a truck went by at about 80, the trailer would sway in the draft. Our first task was to get the steel-belted carcass out from around the axle. The shredded tire parts were tenacious adversaries because the steel belting was now sticking out of the destroyed carcass and the ends were as pointy as cactus. Both Peggy and I donned gloves and after about 15 minutes of painful yelps and fervent cursing, we got the carcass loose and tossed the formerly difficult and prickly enemy into the ditch. Then, convinced I had loosened all six lug nuts, I climbed under the trailer and started jacking the trailer up. After about 5 minutes of labored breathing and discomfort, Peggy began to remove the loosened lugnuts. Unfortunately, in my senility I had only loosened five of the six nuts and the last one wasn’t coming loose until we put the wheel back on the ground to crack the last nut loose. I was gasping for air in the 7000 foot altitude and, since I am an old porker, jacking the trailer up again resulted in me making old steam engine noises.
I finally got our 12-ton hydraulic jack pumped all the way up and found that it was only about a quarter inch from lifting the trailer high enough to get the spare tire onto the hub. Peggy started hauling wood blocks from the truck and I blocked up the axle, pulled the jack, put blocks under the jack and pumped it up for the third time. Then we started making efforts to get the spare onto the lug studs and, considering it is a ten-ply tire and only weighs about 80 pounds with its steel wheel, we were able to get the cursed bastard with the help of some interesting applications of leverage. We were doing all this while skating about on the gravel marbles on the roadside which made application of force sometimes difficult. More cursing was involved.
After many senior moments and considerable heavy breathing, we finally were able to get all six lugnuts on and fairly tight. I then dropped the jack supporting the trailer and removed the wood block supporting the jack before re-inserting the jack and pumping it up for the fourth time to remove the wood support blocks Peggy had hauled over to make up for our jack with a penis that is about a quarter inch too short. It was then that we noted the spare looked a bit limp and could benefit from some inflation. We then broke out the air hoses and the air compressor and a portable generator to power up the compressor. After some more wheezing and bewildered looks, we got everything running and put some air in the spare. Two days ago we noted our electronic tire pressure gauge now was merely a container for storing a dead battery so we eyeballed the inflation.
After even more heavy breathing and completely covered in road edge grit, we put back all the tools, brushed ourselves off to the greatest extent possible and resumed our trip. I’m glad my trailer brake wiring was still intact despite being intimately entombed in a tire carcass because as soon as we got rolling, we dove down a long 6% downgrade for many miles as we drove into Salt Lake City. Once in Salt Lake, we turned south on I-15 and drove another 30 miles into Provo. We soon pulled into the Lakeside RV Park where the wifi is great and there are full hookups but the spaces are razor thin and, if the glass wasn’t in the way, I would be able to hold conversations with my neighbor without leaving the trailer or raising my voice. It looks like we will be making a visit to Les Schwab Tires, where I purchased the tires on our trailer that, so far, have a 50% blowout rate. Fortunately, there is one of Les’s stores just a couple miles from our RV park.
The miserable state of our tires can be seen, along with a beautiful roadside bluff, can be seen by clicking the asterisk *

Today we spent most of the day in a hellish pursuit of reservations at RV parks for the near future. It is always a pain in the neck but we are reluctant to travel without them because it is disappointing to arrive at some RV park after a long drive only to find the park has no room and the driving is not over. For instance, we wanted to visit Capitol Reef National Park in Utah but a call to the three RV parks in Torrey indicated some group of upscale motor home campers had bought out every space available. There are no other parks in the park’s vicinity within 50 miles or more. Maybe we will visit Capitol Reef on some other trip through this area.
Our other task for the day was to fuel up the truck. Although we have been in Fort Bridger before, we have never driven east from our park and, fortunately, we had to go that way to get diesel. East of our park is a section of stunning badlands called the Uintas that we had clumsily never noticed before. We also spotted an abundance of wildlife on our 4 mile trip to the gas station. There were some bison, a deer, two sandhill cranes and a bunny. I guess we will have to return here on our next journey because we are scheduled to depart Wyoming and head into Utah tomorrow.

We split from the Sleeping Bear RV Park in Lander and continued our westward trek. The Sleeping Bear turned out to be nicer than we thought it would be. The spaces were skinny but everything worked. There were no train nor highway noises to fill our evenings. They even filled our propane bottle right on site. Lander also turned out to be a hidden gem – the downtown was nice, Sinks Canyon State Park is right at the city’s edge and the Ford dealer had the windshield jets I suddenly needed because the factory jets are cheesy and fail if you look at them funny.
Right in front of the Sleeping Bear runs WY-28 which is the very road we needed to continue west. We skirted the big mountains right next to Lander but started to climb nevertheless. On our road atlas, it shows the pass we would have to cross as being South Pass, located right on the continental divide, and the elevation at the pass being 7550 feet. Something is a little fishy because we ended up climbing up to 8500 feet a long time before crossing the much lower pass. Like a dope, I thought the pass was the minimum elevation required to go from one side of the mountains to the other.
Fortunately, WY-28 passes through expansive mountain prairies and small sections of badlands where there are rock and soil formations as pretty as Bryce, but much smaller and a different color. The crags of the Wind River Range became visible once over the divide. We crossed the Green River which was actually green. We could look through the water and see the rocks on the stream bed. There were a couple tiny communities where some people could be spotted but mostly the road was lonely with nothing but nature in sight. And some pronghorn.
After about 180 miles above 6000 feet of elevation, we pulled into the Jim Bridger RV Park in Fort Bridger. We have been here before. It looks about the same but different folks are on the desk. They have full hookups, pretty big spaces and wifi but they ain’t cheap.
Peggy got some pictures as we sped across this landscape. Check them out by clicking the asterisk *

We had a day to explore but we had no idea where to go around Lander, WY. Fortunately, very close to town is Sinks Canyon State Park which is located in a canyon running into the Wind River Range of the Rockies. Most of the terrain west of Lander appears to be a gentle climb up some enormous hills stretching from Lander at about 5500 feet of elevation up to around 9000 feet.
Sinks Canyon is a jagged gash in this otherwise smooth terrain and the Popo Agie River runs down the middle of it. Popo Agie’s pronunciation seems to be a local problem. Some around here pronounce it Popo Aggie or Popo Agee but the Shoshone called it Poopoo Assey. I like their version the best. It sounds as if one had shit his/her trousers. The canyon has massive rock bluffs on each side of the river which has a very unique characteristic; the whole volume of the river tumbles over boulders, takes a big U-turn and disappears into a cavern under the south bluffs. The river re-emerges a little over a quarter mile down the canyon in a big blue and green lagoon. There is uncertainty about the path the river takes to go from where it sinks into the cavern to where it erupts again a bit further down the valley. Although the distance between these points is only about a quarter mile, it takes the water two hours to make the underground passage. There are gigantic rainbow trout visible in the lagoon. Fishing here is prohibited, maybe because the huge fish look like they could kick your ass. Many are over two feet long.
After checking out the river’s disappearing and reappearing act, we continued up the canyon on a long series of switchbacks up to about 8500 feet where we found a big reservoir called Frye Lake and a bald eagle gorging himself on a trout he has snagged out of the reservoir. We turned around and crept back down the switchbacks toward Lander where we took a spin through town to a Ford dealer where we purchased new windshield jets that spontaneously failed earlier today. Lander has a nice downtown section with lots of bronze statues created by a local firm with the ability to make giant castings. I understand they have a 40 foot tall bronze horse at the factory.
We got some Sinks Canyon photos. To see them, click the asterisk *

Today we continued our westward or mostly westward progress across the U.S. We left what may be one of the noisiest nighttime RV parks in the western hemisphere, Casper East RV Park, and headed a very short distance west on I-25 before turning west on US-26 when I-25 turned north. As we got further and further from Casper, the buildings dwindled away and we then headed into the high prairie of central Wyoming. There were some ranches that looked like going concerns but they were mixed in with abandoned sites with old decrepit buildings fading into the hard soil. Whether there were ranchers around or not, there were hundreds of pronghorn antelope happily grazing on the abundant scrubby vegetation. They are magnificent creatures.
About halfway to Lander, we crossed the high point of today’s trip at around 6000 feet of elevation and started both downhill and into more interesting terrain with roadside hoodoos, canyons and rim rocks. We soon entered the Wind River Indian Reservation, crossed sparkling Boysen Reservoir and not too much further drove into the town of Lander. We found our way into the Sleeping Bear RV Park & Campground. It has full hookups and wifi although it took Mr. Luddite quite a while to get connected. The sites themselves are slim parking spaces in a full parking lot of RV’s from around the country. This place will do for our purposes. We will be gone the day after tomorrow.
We got some pix of the ranches and flats during today’s drive. Click the asterisk *

We awoke in the Casper East RV Park after an interesting night of sleeping in increments. Due to the park’s unique location, sleeping for periods longer than about 90 minutes at a time is problematic. To the south of us, Interstate 25 is conveniently situated across about 3 lanes of frontage road from the park. I-25 starts down in Las Cruces, NM, and wanders along the east side of the Rockies for about 750 miles, ultimately crapping out into a state highway north of Casper, WY. Many truckers utilize this freeway and their trucks are registered in states where mufflers are optional equipment so they make plenty of noise. Many of those truckers passed by the Casper East RV Park last night.
On the north side of the park are some railroad tracks and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad utilizes these tracks regularly. In order to comply with Federal laws, the dutiful engineers operating the multiple snorting locomotives in each train sound two long blasts, a short blast and another long blast at each grade crossing and our park is situated between two such crossings. There are many other roads that cross the tracks here in Casper, all within earshot. BNSF does not recognize night from day so the trains pass by the park very regularly, around the clock.
After a fitful slumber last night, Peggy and I got up and decided to take a look around Casper. First we elected to head up to Casper Mountain south of the city. The road was paved but steep and quite quickly we had moved from around 5000 foot elevation to 8000 feet. Up on top there were dirt roads that seem to lead nowhere but partway up is a pullout alongside the cliffside road that offers a spectacular view of the Casper area and the Platte River a couple thousand feet below along with an almost endless view of Wyoming prairie beyond.
We drove around a bit before descending back into the city where we took a short tour through Casper’s mostly uninteresting metro area. We noted they have many buildings shaped like wedges, a product of having many streets that intersect at angles other than 90 degrees. They also have a traffic engineering department that has installed many traffic lights at all kinds of intersections regardless of configuration, primarily at places where there is no traffic. We hit a grocery, a liquor store and a fuel station before returning to our sound-enhanced RV park. We are out of here tomorrow on our mostly westward trek.
See Casper. Click the asterisk *

Today was the second travel day in a row. We generally do not make overnight stops but, since there is nothing in Lusk and we knew it, we jumped back on US-18 which turns due west from Lusk. After about 50 miles through some quite pretty Wyoming landscape full of pronghorn antelope, we hit I-25 and continued mostly west toward Casper. We must have spotted hundreds of pronghorn along the way. They are strikingly beautiful animals.
About another 50 miles down the road, we pulled into the Casper East RV Park in, not surprisingly, in Casper. When we pulled into the park it looked okay with nice landscaping and plentiful trees offering shade. Unfortunately, we were assigned a site in a treeless gravel parking lot sandwiched between I-25 and Burlington Northern railroad tracks. Many trains use the tracks and a nearby grade crossing makes train horn blasts a regular occurrence. I-25 is heavily utilized by semi trucks but there are no steep downhill grades so we have been spared the deafening racket from Jake brakes. In order to sleep here, it seems pretty plain drunkenness will be required in the evening.
See some of the eastern Wyoming flatness. Click the asterisk *

Today was a travel day. Unfortunately, our time in Rapid City had come to an end for this year. We broke down our stuff, crammed it in the trailer and departed from the Happy Holidays RV Park. It was a very nice park – quiet, full hookups, good wifi and spacious sites. We headed back to US-79 and turned south. We arrived in South Dakota from Nebraska a week ago on this same road. We continued south for about 50 miles until we got to Hot Springs where we turned west on US-18 through the southern flank of the Black Hills. We climbed up to around 4000 feet a couple times before starting a long descent into Wyoming.
The terrain flattened out a bit as we left the Hills but didn’t really get Kansas-flat. At a place called Mule Creek Junction, US-18 turns abruptly south and we followed it to a tiny town called Lusk. There, we pulled into BJ’s RV Park which is located in a nice middle-class neighborhood. As far as we can tell, there is not much going on in Lusk. We tried to get a pizza delivered from the only pizza joint in town but we were unable to get the operators to answer the phone. We cooked in instead. Fortunately, Lusk is very quiet and about the only thing we could hear was a distant train passing every so often.

Today was our last full day in the Rapid City area and we chose to head up the Iron Mountain Road into Custer State Park. We took the same course we did a couple days ago but we liked it so much we figured we were not obliged to follow a new route. Iron Mountain Road is quite circuitous with pigtail curves, narrow tunnels and many switchbacks. We love it.
Along the way up Iron Mountain there are superb views of Mount Rushmore and the weather cooperated so we got several eyesfull of nifty carving. Soon we were in Custer State Park and ran across some solitary male bison, one of them rubbing his face on a pine. He must be a regular because he has worn off all the bark. Not too much further down the road we spotted some pronghorn males and females chasing each other around. It is rutting season and that has brought out all the critters and some randy behavior.
We wandered off on a few dirt roads but the first two resulted in solely prairie dog sightings. The third one, however, took us up a road around Mount Coolidge. At the top is the Mount Coolidge Observation Tower, an ancient ashlar masonry three-story structure that is still open to visitors. It was built by the CCC back in the Depression as part of the make-work projects that benefited state and national facilities nationwide. Mount Coolidge must be one of the highest points in the Black Hills and the views are stunning.
On our way back to our RV park in Rapid City, we passed by the park administrative office housed in a log building. There we saw a lone smart deer doe taking advantage of the government’s apple tree in the yard. Although we were only about 25 feet away in our big noisy diesel pickup, it seemed that nothing was going to spook the deer off the apples.
See the critters and rocks. Click the asterisk *