The Fort Bridger campground was nice but Monday evening, as the campground filled up, the yapping
dogs started barking. Almost all of the dogs shut up around dark, however, a
big dog, in the RV next to us, barked and whined until its owner finally came
home at 11PM.The weather was beautiful and it would have been great to have the windows open. Instead, because of the noise, we shut the windows and turned on the AC.
Tuesday morning I helped Kathy load dirty clothes into the
truck and we drove to the campground Laundromat. While she was there I walked
over to Fort Bridger and spent a couple of hours touring the facility and
reading about how incredibly tough Americans used to be. I had a nice visit
with several of the young folks who worked at the Fort. One young lady was from
Minnesota. I asked her how the climates compared she said Wyoming winters were
warmer but in Wyoming they got more snow. She also mentioned that she was
limited in what she would plant in her garden because the growing season is so
short. She made me curious so I looked up some weather statistics. Fort
Bridger, WY (note that Fort Bridger is tucked down in a valley that is miles
wide. – typical last frost June 7th, typical first frost Sept 14th,
growing season 98 days, average snowfall 55”. Centertown, MO – last frost Apr
12th, first frost Oct 22nd, growing season 192 days,
average snowfall 12”. Coldwater, MI – last frost Apr 29th, first
frost Oct 12th, growing season 165 days, average snowfall 51”.
In the afternoon we drove to Mountain View, WY and bought
some groceries. It was a nice grocery store with a well-stocked hardware store
in one end. It isn’t often that you can buy your groceries and pick up a few
rolls of twine for your baler at the same place. (I don’t know who buys the
rolls of twine. We saw a lot of baled hay but it was all either big square or
big round bales.
We saw a few operating windmills near Laramie. In western
Wyoming we saw hundreds of them but most were either not turning at all or they
were turning so slow (3 rpm) they couldn’t be generating much, if any,
electricity. This morning it there was more wind and we saw several places
where they are turning about 10 rpm. I was curious, based on this site
http://www.aweo.org/windmodels.html it appears that windmills typically turn 10-20
rpm when they are generating.
No big dog barking half the night Tuesday night. It was great to have the windows open and enjoy the beautiful weather.
Today we traveled from Fort Bridger to Salt Lake City, Utah,
a little less than 200 miles. Our plan is to stay here 3 nights, visit
relatives & do some sightseeing before heading south to Utah’s Canyon
Country. It was 200 miles of uphill and then downhill without much level in
between. One of today’s grades was steep enough that for the first time my
truck downshifted. On some of the grades over the past several days it has
shifted out of overdrive occasionally but this is the first time it actually
downshifted. It was also the first grade where no semi’s passed us, but we sure
passed them.
Utah’s Interstate speed limit is 80 in rural areas. One
surprise was the number of curves and how sharp they were, for maybe a 7 mile
stretch. Curve after curve after curve with 50 mph signs on them. Crosswinds
were also a little of a challenge. We had headwinds most of the day but they
weren’t much of a bother. The crosswinds would come down a gorge and smack you
with no warning. No significant danger but it sure made me tighten my grip on
the wheel a few times.
The Utah Welcome Center.
Standing at the Welcome Center looking at the view. The scenery is spectacular. The sky was actually even prettier than it looks in the bottom photo.
1,242 miles traveled this past week to get from Centertown, Missouri to Salt Lake City, Utah. Seems like times just flies by. Better get this posted and get to bed.
God is good, may He bless you and yours.
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