Sleep Inn And Suites Douglas

... It serves as a symbol of democracy. Borglum carefully picked each president for his monument. Washington is considered our nation’s father. Although he was a military man for much of his life, Washington was a man who loved peace. He was unanimously voted to be our nation’s first president. Although Washington could have easily served a third term due to his popularity, he firmly believed that a president should not have so much power…..

Lusk, Wyoming, United States flyingfonteins

We were beyond hungry when we finally got to I-25 in Southern Wyoming. We stopped at the first town and the first eatery, Clementines Cattle Company. We chowed on burgers and fries, chatted with the waitress and got some info from the locals. Then it was back to driving. Our goal was to get as close as we could to Yellowstone so we could spend the most time there.

We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove some more. This ...

We hit the road with no set agenda. Our destination was Yellowstone but we knew it was a really long drive. When planning the trip we hadn't been able to find a suitable stopover point so we were playing it by ear. It was quite a nice feeling just to be driving and see where we turned up.

Wyoming was wide open plains with ...

We began our 4th of July by driving down the main street of Guernsey, WY just before they began their parade. It was pretty funny - we waved and the people waved. Our destination was a wonderfully maintained section of the Oregon Trail, in which the wheel ruts had worn down the soft rock.

We continued on to Fort Laramie, on of the longer-standing forts along the emigrant trails (in some form it lasted 20+ years in the late 1800s), and enjoyed NPS Frontier 4th of July - kind ...

I write 24 hours after a van in front of us on the road was hit by lightning. I am not exaggerating – it was directly in front of us. Now we are surrounded by flying rain, lightning and thunder and hail. The hail is attacking the windows of the hotel lobby here while I write. The weather today was a series of running among and between storms, punctuated by brilliant blue Wyoming ...

... through the RV pantry to see what we had tucked away for such an event. I did manage to stock up on drinks 15 minutes before Target closed the night before, and Bret and I were looking forward to a cold beer with our surprise dinner and the kids had plenty of juice boxes. "How about Indian?" I said. "Hmmm. Actually sounds pretty good!" Bret replied. The ready-to-eat boxes of chickpeas and spinach with a starch of couscous (didn't have rice ...

... found the huckleberry obsession in MT and WY a bit much] and headed east across Wyoming. We left the Park on a smaller state highway and in the distance we could see a large fire burning in the direction we were headed. We asked a ranger and she casually said she hadn't heard of any road closures so she guessed it was ok. We headed off in the direction of the fire with some trepidation -- Ann was ready to turn back a few times, but it kept looking ok ...

... dear... oh dear... Luckily Lee knew to phone Hertz and luckily the lovely people at the Village Inn let us use there phone as there wasn't a payphone around at all. Hertz were very helpful and got the AAA guy out to us but all they'd do was put the spare tyre on. Which, if you didn't know, is smaller than the real tyres and you can only drive at 50mph on it. (I didn't know any of this!. We camped out in ...

... benefits of being the only one in the campground was being able to scavenge firewood from all the other camping spots. 6.8 miles for the day, days expense $ .51 Personal art website http://home.earthlink.net/~greenvanartu sa/index.html ; artwanted site with photos available and many more pictures and paintings http://artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=4 2727

... and the Laramie Mountains. I parked along the road and climpbed up on a rocky outcrop for a beautiful view looking east. I talked with a ranger who said that lightning had started a forest fire earlier but it had been put out, although I could see some smoldering hummocks of grass growing among the rocks. I parked in Esterbrook campground for the night. Days were getting shorter and nights a little chillier but I loved it.