BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND.
Day 10 – It was still windy at 2 a.m. when I got up to check on the girls. They were sleeping on their heating pads, oblivious to the pandemonium outside. Still clear out; I could see plenty of stars in the sky. Gracie came in later & joined us in bed, the three of us cuddling in the blankets where it felt safe.
218 miles
When we got up this morning, it was completely still out, a gorgeous day and 43 degrees. Large drop in temperature. Rob added the Nebraska sticker to the USA map. We departed Ogalla Lake SRA at 10:25 a.m. By then it was 62 degrees, sunny & clear.
Added NE
Ogalla Lake State Recreation Area, 1475 hwy 61 N, Ogallala, NE 69153, (308) 284-8800, http://outdoornebraska.gov/lakeogallala/. Small campground by lovely Lake Ogallala which is located in the valley below the dam for huge Lake Mcconaughy, across the dam/highway. Both Lakes have campgrounds, one is large scope; the other is small. We had site #46 at Lake Ogallala State Recreation Area; there were plenty of sites on the Lake, all with electric hook-ups. There were also some sites with no hook-ups. All sites were nicely placed apart from each other & had large trees between them. Water was available at Ogallala but dumping had to be done at the other campground (not far away). We’d love to spend more time here and will come back for sure.
We left from the campground on Highway 61 (anyone remember the great record album by Bob Dylan, “Highway 61 Revisited”?) – this made us think about checking the map & looking up Hwy. 61. This road travels north/south through NE. Hmmm, was this the highway he wrote songs about?
Route 61. Not that one!
So then we pulled out this book we have, “Road Trip USA”, & there’s a famous Highway 61 that runs along the Mississippi River, and it’s called the Great River Road (aka the “Blues Highway”) and it runs from New Orleans, Louisiana to Wyoming, Minnesota (there’s a Wyoming in Minnesota?) – but it’s definitely not in Nebraska.
“Highway 61 has a long musical history being the supposed location where blues singer-songwriter Robert Johnson made a deal with the devil for his successes. The Road later gave its name to Minnesota native Bob Dylan’s album, Highway 61 Revisited.” (from Wikipedia) Ah Ha Moment: it’s NE Hwy 61 in Nebraska which runs from the Kansas border thru Nebraska to the South Dakota border. It’s U.S. Hwy 61 that’s the famous route, which we’ve now decided to make into a future RV trip.
Oops, got sidetracked! (This can drive Rob crazy [in a good way], when he’s aiming to go somewhere & I am be-bopping around here & there, LOL); anyway, we took the Nebraska Highway 61 south to NE-24 through the city of Ogallala to I-80W, straight through to exit 329 in Wyoming.
After we crossed the border from Nebraska to Wyoming, things remained the same but it got windy, and road construction made us drive close to trucks coming from the other direction, which was not fun in the RV with the high winds. Was this the High Plains Winds we’ve heard about? I was scared and cringing in my seat as the high-profile trucks passed & the RV swayed back & forth, but Rob assured me that it was “okay, trust me, don’t worry”, (does this ring a bell, Mark & Donna?).
The stop for lunch at the rest stop just over the border in WY was still windy. The cats were happy to be released and ate well. We didn’t have that much farther to drive from here to our campground. We’re beginning to see more interesting rock formations at this point. As we travelled further, the terrain changed. From mostly flatlands to rolling hills, we started seeing rock formations. OMG, are we out of the Plains? Starting to steadily climb, we went from 3700 feet in Ogallala to 8500 feet at our camping destination in Buford, WY.
As we approached the exit for our campground, we saw some amazing rock formations in the distance. Got off the 80 and started driving up into the hills. When we saw the sign for Vedauwoo Campground, located in the Medicine Bow National Forest, we were excited to find we’d be spending the night right in the middle of the rock formations we’d seen from I-80. It was a narrow road which led us into the middle of this grouping of rocks, amazing scenery all around us up in the hills. Wow!
We arrived at 3 p.m., partly cloudy & windy. Earlier the high was 70 degrees, but as we began climbing & the elevation increased, the temperature dropped into the lower 60’s. We were at 8,295 feet. We drove through the very small campground & picked our site, registered (it only cost $10 to stay in this incredible place), and unpacked. The roads driving through the campground are narrow and wind around the rocks. There are as many tent sites as RV sites, if not more. The campground was about 2/3 full but there were less than 30 sites total. Some of the tent sites were wonderfully located next to huge mounds of these rocks & hidden completely until you hike around. Such a great place. As soon as we were settled in, Rob went to take some pictures of the area.
The girls were happy to have a shorter drive than yesterday.
Four babies relaxing in the sun. Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY
Verdauwoo is a rock climbers paradise. (BETH, are you seeing this? So cool. They claim “it’s a geological wonderland & includes world-renowned crack climbs, also known as off widths”. As we speak, we are camping near a group of climbers from a college in Wyoming. I don’t know if this is your kind of rock climbing though; it’s much different from the Gunks. Really quite interesting!) This is amazing terrain, and I cannot imagine what’s coming tomorrow!
Rob came back and made dinner, while I continued to type the blog. He makes THE BEST garlic bread w/mozzarella cheese. He used the incredible loaf of bread that we got at Amana.
Garlic bread fixins!
After dinner, Rob took some evening pictures. This is a majestic place & we’ve enjoyed the scenery. 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. The temperature at 7:25 p.m. was 50 degrees. We had site #26. It’s a small campground, they do not take reservations, first come-first served, take your chances. We say it’s worth it.
Sunset at site 26, Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY