Sunday, August 20, 2023

The Stuck Neighbors


We met this young couple with a really beautiful infant, beatific smile blonde curly hair such that even I could say nothing negative. And two really nice dogs and even Rusty the curmudgeon was okay with them. They live two hours away in Colorado and came up for a weekend away. Then they had to leave Saturday afternoon to go home.

“We figured we’d worry about how we’d get out when it was time to leave and here we are. Stuck.” Mommy stood by the side of the trail and watched the back of the rig dig into the dirt as the truck went uphill.

The end of the puddle comes out into a steep climb and as the truck went up at the front the back of the trailer got dug in. 

And there it went. Bam. Crunch. 

He looked at the puddle and clearly we needed to stick something in to fill the water hole. 

Ooh look! There’s orange things under the trailer tires. How did they get there? 

I put my Go Treads there that’s how. They fold up like chocks so you can level the van and they unroll like sand planks to get you out of soft ground. They gave the tires just enough lift along with the tree trunk that kept the tires up and the back of the trailer from digging in. 



Some mud, some twigs and off they went. We never got their names but we laughed a lot together. Nice folks and it was fun to be able to help out. 
Now we go east. 

Good bye Wyoming. 











Back to the road but east this time. A few photos from our time out in Wyoming. 





















Wonderful Wyoming

Wild camping in Medicine Bow National Forest at 10,400 feet (3170 meters). I must be acclimating as I’m not as headachy as usual at these altitudes. 







The track in was a mess made worse by a rain storm the Friday afternoon  when we arrived and it rained   each day like a bad habit. Lots of cars and motorcycles stopped,   looked   and turned back. 

Luckily we found a spot before we were turned back by puddles ruts and mud. 

Our route from Laramie to the  Medicine Bow National Forest included an unnecessary section of washboard dirt road that must have looked like a shortcut to the artificial intelligence operating Google Maps. 

Most of the road up the mountain was decent pavement through the pine forest. 

Bars restaurants and groceries are available  in the town of Centennial just below the national forest. 

We found our spot about two hundred yards down bumpy Forest Road 318  away from the busy main road. 

We are a long way from a cell signal so this post comes to you thanks to Starlink which I stuck out beyond the trees with a nice clear north sky. Those 75 feet of cable come in useful. 

We had a rip snorting thunderstorm come through dropping lightning and rain all over the place. Still some all wheel drive SUVs pushed on through the mud for a weekend camping trip at all costs. I was glad not to be in a tent. 

Overnight lows around 50 degrees are forecast with no need for heat in our well insulated van. It’s so quiet at night here that your ears ring. 

Daytime highs don’t quite reach 80 degrees but the sun is bright enough to push our solar panels to produce lots of juice such is the power of the sun at high altitude. 



We have budgeted two nights here with a drive through back roads Nebraska planned by the time these pictures post. 

In a week we expect to be in Chicago. Van life: a study in contrasts.