Sunday - Day 4

Some photos from past days. 

Friday morning when I opened the little door to the area where the electrical umbilical is stored I found a greeter perched just inside the door. It must have crawled up the electrical cable during the night.

I read online that one of things people have to try while in Wyoming is a Runza. (Runza is a chain here). While we were getting fuel Saturday morning Kathy spotted a Runza restaurant. She walked over and bought one while I was fueling the truck. It is seasoned loose hamburger with peppers and onions cooked in it. The bread was better than the meat. She ate a couple of bites and I finished it. I wouldn't go out of my way to find another one.

The campground where we stayed last night had a small BBQ restaurant. We tried it out. Kathy ordered the slab of ribs, I talked her into ordering a half slab rather than a third of a slab because I wanted to try them. I ordered the beef brisket. Mine was good, hers not so much.

In yesterdays post I mentioned that we passed cattle feed lots and acres of sunflowers. The photos below are of one of the feedlots. Kathy took all these photos while we were doing 60-65 mph.

We were surprised at how many of the corn and alfalfa fields are still being irrigated.

Today we drove to Laramie. We crossed the highest point along the 2,900 mile length of I80, elevation 8,640 feet. In the 22 miles from Cheyenne to where this point is located, we climbed 2,600 ft. In the next 5 miles we dropped almost 1,500 ft. I think we will pretty much stay at 7,000-7,500 ft the rest of the way across Wyoming.

Our plan was to tour the Ivinson Mansion in the afternoon and the Wyoming Territorial Prison tomorrow morning. We found that the only parking around the mansion was on street parking. Fortunately is was Sunday afternoon and we were able to park our truck and travel trailer on the street in front of a county building only 1 block away. I thought I had read that the mansion was open from 1-4 on Sunday. It was about 11:30 when we parked. We walked 15 blocks around Laramie looking for a place to have lunch. Not much was open. We finally found a place and had a decent lunch. By the time we walked back to the museum it was just after 1PM. We went through the wrought iron fence, walked over to the gift shop to buy tickets and found it closed. Apparently I misread the open times on their web site. A young man was setting up chairs and tables for some type of event that was going to occur in the yard. He graciously offered to give us a personal tour if we wanted to come back by late in the afternoon. We declined and went to the prison.

The Wyoming Territorial Prison was opened around 1872, it was funded by the federal government (taxpayers), only 1 of 3 in the nation. It closed around 1902 and was given to the University of Wyoming to be used as an agricultural research center. Restoration was started in 1990 and now the facility is controlled by Wyoming Dept of State Parks & Cultural Resources. It was an interesting tour.

It was a beautiful day.

 The prison was surrounded by a wooden stockade.

Each of the two “wings” held 42 cells for men, 14 per level, 3 levels. The wing on the left also had 2 cells for women. The 6’x8’x8’ cells were supposed to “designed” to hold 1 prisoner. Soon they put 2 prisoners in each cell. They actually had 204 prisoners incarcerated at one time. Even with 2 per cell in all 86 cells they could only put 172 prisoners in cells. I don’t know what they did with the other 32 prisoners.

The prison was run as a private enterprise. The Territory gave the Lease Holder 40 cents a week for prisoner support. It cost the Lease Holder about a dollar a week for food, clothing, guards, etc., but he had the labor of the prisoners available to him. The largest money maker was a broom factory. When it was running two 12 hours shifts it could produce over 700 brooms a day.  Each broom made a profit of 5 cents. There were a lot of other crafts that produced salable products. Only today’s government could come up with a system so stupid that taxpayers have to pay to incarcerate criminals. Government has the free labor of tens of thousands available to them and yet we taxpayers are forced to support them.

There was a free RV dump station in the parking lot. We were amazed at the number of people using it. When we arrived there were 14 RV’s lined up waiting to dump their wastewater tanks. That had to be close to a 2 hour wait. When we left a couple of hours later there were 5 in line. I don’t know if any of them were in the line when we arrived.

The Albany County Fairgrounds, in Laramie, has 26 places for RV’s to park. We drove into the fairgrounds, wandered around a little until Kathy spotted the RV parking area, and we backed into a spot with electricity, water & sewer hookups. We haven’t seen another person while we have been here. The cost is $30/night. You pay on the “honor system” there is supposed to be a secure box at the end of the “red building” where you put your payment when you leave.

Parked at the fairgrounds.

 We did have neighbor down the way, but we didn't see them Sunday evening.

 Tomorrow it is on westward.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.