Different direction

Douglas, WY

So I got fed up with being always dehydrated and hot and such, and decided to go east instead of south. So Nell got me up at 6:30 (who needs a clock?) and I left around 8am and headed to Ft. Washakie, on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Some say that Sacajawea is buried there, having lived to a very old age. That is, if she didn't die young in South Dakota, as others believe. I did find her headstone, and there's also a statue of her (well-decorated by admirers, as were many of the graves in this dry hilly cemetery).

I then got back on the road and headed to South Pass. Unlike most of the continental divide passes, this one is in a wide valley. You go up and up and up the valley, with no snow-capped mountains in site, and then all of a sudden you're across. It's not a low pass (7600 feet or so), but it is easily approached with wagons. I went up to the top and turned around and headed east.

Highway 287 (and later 220) follows the Oregon trail. There are signs indicating where the Trail crosses the highway, and in many places you can see a depression where all the wagons and people travelled. I stopped at a few landmarks for the travellers, most notably Independence Rock, which may have been covered with the carved signatures of migrants but looked to me more like it was covered by lichen. Because it was hot I didn't stay too long (the rig is pretty well insulated and I had had the air conditioning on, but there are limits to everything) and headed to Casper, and then to Douglas. Still sunny, still dry, although there were a few showers here and there (with most of the rain not reaching the ground), still very barren.

I'm tired of barren. So I've decided to go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the last week or so before I have to be back in Florida. It will indeed be cool and green and shady there, and maybe I won't have to drink a gallon of water a day to avoid dehydration. And they have mountains, of a sort anyway.

I'm in the KOA. Nice, even if the spot isn't quite level or shady. There sure seem to be a lot of long-term people here; lots have built foundations of a sort around the bottoms of their rigs, for storage and whatnot, or actual stairs to get in, or have dog pens and whatnot. I will say, it's interesting how these rural Wyoming campgrounds all have horse corrals for travellers. I know with horses you have to let them out a certain number of hours a day, and I always wondered where they did so. Apparently, in campgrounds! The pool was nice, if covered with wayward grasshoppers (the cemetery was FULL of them!).

Tomorrow it's off to Oregon Trail wagon ruts, the Black Hills, and maybe Wall Drug! I've already seen two Wall Drug signs, and expect to see many more.