Day 40 - Back On The Road Again!

We woke at 5:30 or 8:30 depending on who you were. Dale and the teens went down to Papa’s Breakfast Tent where they serve breakfast every morning - “All you can eat Pancakes for $2.75”! Not being much of a breakfast eater I chose to stay behind and have peace and quiet - I’m starting to feel the 40 days on the road! When they returned I had a cup of tea and we all started on a quick clean-up/pack-up and get everything ready to travel. When we were all done we headed for one last shower and then hit the road about 10:00 AM.

Wyoming!

At the Wyoming Visitors Centre

That's not a sourpuss face - it's a lollipop!

We headed down the road towards the Crazy Horse Monument and Devils Tower, Wyoming. As we were driving, I’m not sure how it came about but I was out-voted on the Crazy Horse Monument - I think everyone is out-touristed and ready to head home. I did however put my foot down (even with my still sore ankle lol!) about Devils Tower! We once again saw some fantastic scenery on our drive - I wish we could have stopped every few minutes - there were beautiful landscape “Kodak Moments” around every bend in the road! I had to settle for once or twice.

Beautiful Scenery - Wyoming

We got to Devils Tower about lunch time (we just snacked), took some photos, added Wyoming to the map and headed off again. Funnily enough the sticker for Wyoming is a picture of Devil’s Tower so we had to add it there!

Adding Wyoming to the map.

Guess where this was taken?

Devils Tower is now on the map!

Buffalo grazing by the road outside of Devils Tower, WY.

Not far down the road we saw some Buffalo grazing on the side of the road - of course this was a photo stop! I shot some great photo’s of them as well as some longhorn cattle not far from them.

This is definitely cattle country - we saw hundreds of them but I’m not sure Wyoming should still be called “Cowboy Country” - the only two I saw were herding cows on ATV’S - I’m sure that’s against the rules of real cowboying!

Longhorn Cattle

About 4:30 PM (or 5:30 - we’re never sure of the time because some of our electronics keep showing one time and others another - where exactly the time changes are we don’t know!) we stopped for dinner at a rest stop near Sheridan,Wy. I stir fried the leftover Pork Tenderloin with some Onions, Mushrooms, and Garlic and made a gravy with it, and served it with Idaho Red Skinned Mashed Potatoes (Packaged) and Blue-Cheese Broccoli Slaw (no coleslaw dressing!). Some of you may be wondering why I always mention what we ate. That’s because it’s become a family thing about how we usually eat better while “Camping” than we do at home. Some  of our Best, some of our most Memorable, and sometimes the strangest meals have been while on the road or camping! Ask me and one day I’ll tell you about the “Peanut Butter Fiasco” - it’s still talked about! I’ve decided to log them for eternity and you never know - I may even write a recipe book of “On the Road Again Cooking” - it could fund my retirement or at least the “manner I’m quickly becoming accustomed too”!!!

We had to wait our turn in a lineup
for this one - Tourists!

We set off once more towards the Montana border, not too far up the road, with Dale wanting to put some real miles on towards home. We had stopped for diesel already but coming close to Billings, MT. we were only at 260 miles on the odometer but on our last “bar” on the gas gauge. I should explain that we’re not to sure about the gas gauge because I once ran out of diesel with 3 bars showing (in the border lineup no less - ask me - I’ll tell you about it someday!) so we now reset the trip-tik thingy every time we fill up because we average about 300 miles per tank of diesel. The running out in the border lineup did happen right after the Gas/Diesel Fiasco - (ask Dale about that one someday!) so it may have been just a one time thing but we never like to go below 3 bars/300 miles to be safe. It seems the gauge must be working again because 8 miles from Billings all the bars had disappeared and the gas light came on - we were now worried! Then we started to PANIC because at 5 miles from Billings there was now a steep hill to climb!!!! Halfway to the top it started flashing red - I can’t tell you how I was feeling - there are no words to describe it. It was dusk, very hot (we’d turned the AC off miles back) and we we’re on an uphill of a major highway and no idea how far the nearest gas station was - at least we had “Coachnet” but what good would that do with no cell phone reception - believe me I was trying it! You can’t believe how relieved we were to crest the hill and see the lights of Billings - not too far if one of us had to walk!!!! Lets hope there was gas (with diesel) at the first exit. We managed to get down the hill and off the first exit and there were TWO gas stations! WWWHHHEEEWWW!!! So much for 16MPG and 300 miles per fill-up - we only got 267 and probably 13-14 MPG with the heat, AC and strong winds on that trek! One good thing is we now know the gas gauge is working fine again!

Henry adding Montana to the map!

We headed up the road another 40 miles to a rest area - it was now 10:00PM (or 11) and time for a good nights rest!