MORE BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND.
Day 11 – Rob got up at 6:30 and I got up at 7 a.m. It got down in the 40’s last night, the girls didn’t have their heated pads because we had no electricity, so we had many visits during the night, with Luna eventually joining us under the covers. When we got up, it was 52 degrees with some mild wind gusts and sunny outside. Pixie helped with breakfast this morning by sitting in the sink while Rob cooked his eggs, observing his every move.
Pixie helping to make breakfast
124 miles. Dang wind!
We looked online to decide where to travel to today. A good stopping point would’ve been Green River, WY & we found a campground for the night, but we did not make reservations since it’s not the weekend yet & we’ve had no trouble getting sites during the week. Rob checked the weather for our journey & it indicated that the wind would be picking up again around 2 p.m., therefore we decided to pack up quickly & get ready to leave, take a final walk around the campground, and head out.
On our walk, we could see snow-capped mountains south of us; Colorado isn’t far from here since we’re pretty close to its border with WY. We enjoyed the walk around, beautiful day, and camping amongst the rock formations was such a treat. There are more pine trees here, rather than the hardwoods we’d been seeing, and many quaking Aspens like they have in the Rockies. No bugs except butterflies & grasshoppers. Lots of birds; we saw many robins – probably migrating.
BETH: On our walk we checked out a Walk-in Tent campsite that Rob had discovered yesterday. In case you ever come here, it’s site #16, away from all other sites, hidden, really nice! See pictures below (which really don’t do it justice).
Before leaving, Rob put the Wyoming sticker on the USA map – it’s starting to fill in better now. We departed Vedauwoo at 9:15 a.m., 58 degrees, sunny. Got back on I-80W.
Added WY
Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Forest Road 720, Buford, WY 82052, (307) 745-2300, https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/mbr/recreation/recarea/?recid=22872&actid=31. Wonderful place to camp, unique, very scenic. Vedauwoo Campground is located in the Medicine Bow National Forest, not far from I-80. We spent the night right in the middle of amazing rock formations. The road from I-80 is a narrow road which leads into the middle of this grouping of rocks, amazing scenery all around us up in the hills at 8,295 feet. Very small campground, about ½ tent sites & the other ½ for smallish RV’s (except for probably 2 sites that can fit larger ones, but possibly no room for the tow car which can be parked elsewhere). $10 fee. The roads driving through the campground are narrow and wind around the rocks. We saw snow-capped mountains to the south. There are pine trees here, and many quaking Aspens like they have in the Rockies. No bugs except butterflies & grasshoppers. Lots of birds; we saw many robins. Very quiet at the campground. The sites are primitive with no hook-ups but who cares with this to look at. You do need to bring in your own water, no water at the campground. We had site #26; they do not take reservations, first come-first served, take your chances. Totally worth every minute there!
The early part of today’s trip, there were some incredible rocky hills with red rock on both sides of the road. Also, several snow-capped mountains. Then it changed to lower, rolling hills with long grasses and lots of horses & cows grazing. The wind started to pick up. Later the terrain changed again as we went further west & the hills were covered with sagebrush. We started seeing more & more antelope. This was high plains desert country. The wind gusts were getting stronger. We passed by a big overturned truck; first responders were just arriving. It was getting scary & worrisome on the road.
We stopped for gas & I picked up Subway for us for lunch later. (Every place we go, we try to find a Jersey Mike’s, but so far no luck.) We were still 2 hours from Green River where we’d planned to stay for the night. When I got back to the RV, Rob had checked the wind conditions – not good & forecasted to get worse until late this evening – and had discussed the wind with a fellow RVer at the gas station who was concerned about the wind as well. Vick also talked to a woman at the rest stop (Bernie supporter from KS) and a woman at Subway who said that this wind was abnormal and only happened when either coast was affected by a hurricane. We decided that for safety, we shouldn’t travel further and we proceeded to look for some place to stay near where we were stopped, Rawlins, WY. The closest place was a KOA campground. We drove to it but their office was closed from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., which was check-in time. So no KOA. The next closest location was a Walmart. (Some Walmarts allow campers to stay in their parking lots for a night. You have to ask permission at each individual Walmart. There are no hook-ups and you are not supposed to bring out your slides. Walmart Etiquette 101.) We drove to the Walmart & got permission to stay, let the girls out, & then changed our minds & decided to go a bit further to an Independent campground. Put the girls back in the bedroom & went to our next choice about 10 minutes away, Red Desert Rose Campground. Needless to say, after registration & getting to our campsite, the girls who are creatures of habit, were quite confused when we let them out yet again. The looks we got from them appeared to say, “do you know what you’re doing?” and “do you really mean it this time?”
We were assigned site #072, water & electric hook-ups. There were 117 sites, pretty much side by side, gravel pads & roads, a fairly quaint & wild west influenced office, lots of big rigs escaping from the winds, also. We arrived at 12:30 p.m., 70 degrees, sunny, & very windy. Nothing to write home about, but just fine under the circumstances. The change in plans will put more driving time on us for tomorrow when we go to a campsite we’ve reserved in Utah for the next two nights. When we arrived, we were the only RV in this row of sites. As the day went on, more RV’s arrived. The winds did not decrease.
The gusts were strong enough to shake the RV. We continued to watch the weather radar. When it appeared that the wind would decrease to around 10 MPH by early morning, we decided to go to bed early & get up early (now the cats would really be thrown off schedule), in order to be travelling during the low-wind times. The campground was almost full of RV’s when we went to bed.