09/06/21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 6 Evansville, WY

09/06/21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 6

River's Edge RV Park

Evansville, WY (next to Casper, WY)

Site #54

This is our second day in Evansville, WY. Last night we walked the park and counted 12 jeeps. This RV park is close to train tracks so we hear the train whistles a few times a day. It is also next to a work yard, and “I” heard tractors beeping all through the night. When I got up Barry asked me if I heard the train whistles at 6AM. Nope, I slept through them. How could that be when the darn tractors beeping woke me up at least 6 times? I do love train whistles so maybe that’s why.

We visited Fort Caspar & Museum this morning and spent a few hours there. The fort is a reconstructed 1865 military post located at a major river crossing on the Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, California, Pony Express, and transcontinental telegraph trail corridor. We walked through the fort and enjoyed all the displays and information plaques. 

The museum gives you information on central Wyoming’s regional history, and features exhibits on prehistoric peoples, Plains Indians, ranching, the energy industry, and the City of Casper. Very informative of the area. 

 

 

                    

On our way out I wanted a photo of this metal sign that was at the entrance of the fort. Barry stopped, I got out and ran to the sign hoping to get my photo before someone came up behind him. Well, that didn’t work. The light changed so he had to move. He ended up going down the street to an industrial park to turn around to pick me up. I was able to get some other photos and as he drove up, he is shaking his head and laughing at me. 

The Photo I had to have

From Fort Caspar it was off to Casper’s National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. It sits on top of a hill and looks over Casper. The view was great even though it was a little hazy from smoke. I loved this place. The focus is the migration trials just like at Martin’s Cove. There are so many interactive displays, a great movie, and timeline displays. But my favorite was the covered wagon experience. I posted a video below because trying to explain it is difficult. 

We were starving after the Interpretive Center and found Wyoming Ale Works on yelp and headed over there. Food and beer were great. When we returned to our RV we decided to walk to the river and sit on the grass for a bit and just enjoy the river flowing. We talked about how we both are amazed at the rich history Casper has and we enjoyed learning about it. 

That's me 

09/05/21 Sunday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 5 Evansville, WY

River’s Edge RV Park

Evansville, WY (next to Casper, WY)

Site #54

Before we left Rawlins for Evansville, we meet one of our neighbors and found out they are from Sonoma and heading to Mt. Rushmore. Their names are Harry and Jeannie. Wonderful people. They will be staying in the same RV park as us and we agreed to hook up with them and have a glass of a Sonoma wine. Hopefully this happens. 

We finely got off I-80 and headed northwest on state route 220. Our drive from Rawlins to Evansville/Casper was a pleasant drive due to the terrain turning a little greener. Mainly it was the meadows that where green. 

The drive to Evansville was only 2-3 hours. We saw a sign for a historical place called Martin’s Cove and I convinced Barry to stop, a worthwhile decision. There is quite a bit of history at this place. This area is part of the California Trail, Oregon Trail, Pony Express.This was also an area that was part of the Mormon trail migrations from Iowa City to Salt Lake City. Five companies of Mormons made this trek at different times but the last two left too late and hit major snowstorms in this area. There were many deaths in Martin’s Cove and the exact number has never been determined. The visitor center is full of history and a great explanation of what happened. This site is part of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and partnered with the Mormon Church. 

Legend for map below

Great info if you zoom in

From this area you can see Devil’s Gate. It’s a cut in the mountain that the Sweetwater River passes through. The Mormons passed south of Devil’s Gate to Martin’s Cove. Devil’s Gate is also a part of the Oregon – California Trail and a historic landmark. It’s an impressive mountain. 

Devil's Gate

At both sites you can still see deep wagon trail ruts. I found this whole area very fascinating and would love to return and walk the trail from Devil’s Gate to Martin’s Pass. We decided to make lunch here and found a bench under a few trees. It was a great spot to look out over the meadow and the surrounding mountains. Very tranquil. 

After lunch we packed up and headed toward Evansville/Casper to River’s Edge RV Park. We drove by a few reservoirs with lots of water.  On the way here we noticed about 3 State Prison Signs. The signs state “Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers.” We found this kind of amusing even though it’s not.  All these prisons are literally in the desolate parts of the state. 

Alcova Reservoir

We are staying here for two nights which will be nice.  

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09/04/21 Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 4 SLC, UT to Rawlins, WY

We got up early for Starbuck's run and hit the Apple Store at City Creek Mall. We decided to buy a new iPad. The one we have is old and sloooooow. Since I'm the trip navigator I was getting frustrated with it.

As we drove downtown I noticed huge cranes and new buildings in construction. There is a huge one going next to the Salt Palace Convention Center. We found out it's a new hotel. According to Google, the 26-story hotel is to be a Hyatt Regency, it will have 700 rooms and 60,000 square feet of meeting space and will be built into the existing Salt Palace for “seamless access.”

                    
             New Hyatt Regency                                                  In front of the Salt Palace


I showed Barry where Temple Square, Plaza Hotel and FamilySearch Library are. We purchased our new iPad, and headed back to the RV Park. Finished a few things and took off. As we were leaving the park I had Barry stop by a fence so I could take the photo below. It just cracked us up.

The drive from SLC to Rawlins, Wyoming was a brutal one for the motorhome. She DOES NOT like hills. Roadwork...Roadwork...again...and again. One stretch was 22 miles long and another 6 miles. We did notice the smoke was clearing and enjoyed seeing blue skies.

As we crossed the border into Wyoming we noticed all the billboards advertising where to purchase fireworks. I was so busy looking at the fireworks bill boards I missed the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign! Evanston, just across the Wyoming border, had a huge warehouse building called Pyro City. It was open to the public to shop for fireworks. As we drove I-80 toward Rawlins, we saw more billboards advertising fireworks. Such an odd thing to see since we have not bought fireworks for 20 years BUT if we could we would have stopped.

I downloaded a find your state license plate app which was a good thing. Even though the scenery opens up and the geography changes this gave Barry something to look for as he drives.


              
    Looking for state license plates

After about 4.5 hours on the road we made it to Rawlins, Wyoming. Western Hills Campground was our home for the night. Hooked up, heated leftovers from last night (SLC) and walked the campground to count jeeps. We counted eight tonight, six where in our row.

This is such a small funky campground. They had a little miniature golf course and the movie Overboard came to mind. As you walk around you see wood and metal cutouts of bears eating honey, moose, deer, Indian figures, long horn cattle and even Bigfoot...makes you wonder.

         

Tomorrow we're off to Casper and a two night stay to explore.


Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09/03/21 Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 3 Winnemucca to Salt Lake City (SLC)

Our drive today should have been about 5 hours, one of our longest. We should have arrived around 3PM but we had two mishaps and didn't arrive until around 7:45PM. Right after we left New Frontier RV Park in Winnemucca and got down the freeway about 3 miles Barry said something felt wrong with towing the jeep. We pulled over on the freeway (not fun) and he went to check the Brake Buddy in the jeep. Everytime a big mac truck went by, the RV shook like crazy. Barry messed with the Brake Buddy for about 30 minutes trying to get it to work. The problem was the jeep was braking on her own so causing drag on the RV. Not something you want while towing a vehicle….imagine that!

He ended up removing the brake buddy and decided to put a call into Uncle Richard and see if he had similar trouble in the past. No answer so Barry left a message. We purchased our RV and jeep from Uncle Richard which has been great because we have been able to consult with him many times. We ended up stopping at a rest stop not too far down the freeway. Barry messed with the brake buddy for about another 30 minutes and we tried all kinds of things but no luck. He ended up calling Brake Buddy’s tech support and after about 30 minutes the result was, wait for it - GET A NEW BRAKE BUDDY. After all, the one we have is 20 years old and the parts are becoming obsolete. OK so much for the first mishap. 

We got back on the road and headed for SLC. We hit numerous construction zone areas again like our drive to Winnemucca. Thank goodness these orange cones were not 2 feet into our lane. We had a lot more room but it still stressed Barry out and me too. This road from Winnemucca to SLC is all semi trucks. There are about 10 semis to every car. It’s crazy and these trucks can haul 3 trailers, not like California where only 2 trailers are allowed. 

It’s crazy to think all this work is going on to improve the I-80 across the country and we can’t even get I-580 repaved in California. I think I’m going to contact one of our Senators about this. Wish me luck.  

The I-80 goes along the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and you could see cars out there messing around and people standing about. It is totally white. The salt flats go on for miles. I think that was the highlight of this drive. It really is a site to see. 

I bet by now you're wondering what happened to the second mishap? Well...we ended up getting lost when we took the off ramp to head to the KOA campground in Salt Lake City. We ended up by the airport. We pulled off the side of a road and remapped our GPS. We needed to go down the road about a half mile so we could turn around and head back the opposite direction. Instead of doing that, Barry decided to do a MAJOR ILLEGAL U TURN! I was totally shocked. If you know my husband this is not like him. I think my jaw dropped to the floor. Anyway it worked and we finally made it to the KOA. 

Barry took our bikes off the bike rack and we put them in the motor home. We headed to Wasatch Brewery in the Sugar House area of Salt Lake City. Apparently it’s a new up and coming trendy area. A recommendation by one of the KOA attendants. We were seated and I ordered a pilsner but of course they were out. We ordered food a little later and I asked if the flautas I ordered had iceberg lettuce. If you know me well you know I’m allergic to it. The waiter said he wasn’t sure and I asked him to make sure there was not any on it. I also let him know I was allergic to it. You know what’s coming next right…..my flautas were covered in iceberg lettuce. The waiter was very apologetic and took it away and said he would remove it from our bill. No hesitation at all. That was nice but when he finally brought it back it wasn’t even warm but I was so hungry I ate some of it. We took the rest home. 

On the way back we both agreed that we would MAKE the next day a better one. Due to us getting into SLC really late and not eating until after 9PM we didn’t get to walk the camp ground and count jeeps. I do know there were 4 in our street. Kinda missed doing that. 

Our next leg is from SLC to Rawlins, Wyoming. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Look! We finely see green again!

Green and blue skies! No Smoke!

     Leaving Nevada

    Bonneville Salt Flats

     More Bonneville Salt Flats

    They go on for miles

     Zoom into this. Craziest cell tower I have ever seen!

     Utah Mountains

     Look Californians - This is what water looks like!

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09/02/21 Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 2

In my post yesterday I forgot to mention we decided we would walk each campground we stayed in and during our walk we would count how many jeeps (any kind of jeep) we saw. I know, a little crazy but fun. Yesterday we counted 8 and tonight we counted 12 including ours. We saw a lime green one and a bright royal blue. Not sure they are original jeep colors but they looked awesome. 

 

This trip started out as just a jaunt to Mt. Rushmore but as we got into the planning aspect, we found so much we wanted to see, especially on the way back. Soooo, this trip will almost be a month long. We have never done anything like this and look forward to the experience. 

This morning before we left Barry spoke to a neighbor. He and his wife travel 6 months out of the year, stay at their RV resort in Naples, Florida (they own the pad they park at) 3 months of the year, then return home for 3 months. And I thought we were nuts being gone for a month.  On our way out we spoke to another South Tahoe evacuee. They have been traveling off and on and have been across the states since the pandemic but recently at home. They are now considering going to Main where they have family, to get away from the California fires. As of today their home in South Lake Tahoe is OK.

 

As we left Verdi this morning, I took a photo of the Truckee River and a rail bridge next to the RV park. The photo below has a truck on the rail tracks. It looks so bizarre. As we got on the freeway, we could see the smoke starting to come in again from the fires. It's just awful to see. You can actually watch it move from high in the sky to ground level as the morning progresses.

 

Our next destination, Winnemucca. Going through Reno and Sparks we saw a lot of new homes and businesses being built. The overpasses had huge signs with the name of the streets.  I have no idea why I found this fascinating.

 

There is not much to see during the drive from Verdi to Winnemucca on I-80 but once in a while there is some cool looking mountains. I took a few photos, but you can see the smoke, so it makes the photos look hazy. So far, the roads in Nevada have been great, not like California’s horrible roads. At one point we were talking about the great road conditions when we hit an area where the freeway was being repaved. The orange cones used to block off the right lane were GINORMOUS! It was scary driving along side them. As I watched in the rear-view mirror, I swear we missed some by a few inches. The semi-trucks barely missed them too. I posted the video below I took and neither of us said a word until the end of the cones. That was the most exciting part of the drive!

 

We made it safely to Winnemucca. What a great RV park, New Frontier RV Park. It also has what looks like single wide mobile homes. They are rented out to seasonal workers, people in the mining business and others. The check-in attendant said they are all rented through next year. What a great idea and the price is very reasonable.

 

We walked to a restaurant close to the park and had a great meal. They had a table set with tequila shots for the last 13 soldiers killed in Afghanistan during the withdraw. What a great tribute. I think what I was most impressed with was the flower spray was real and not fake. It was from a local florists. Very humbling.

I ordered a margarita, and it was HUGE. Best part...it was only $8! At home it would have been $12 or $15. When we got back, we walked the park, and I was able to get my 8,000 steps in. Great day and it was nice to see Barry relax. He is still getting use to driving the RV and is stressed when we are on the road.

Tomorrow onto Salt Lake City. It will be a long day of driving, 5+ hours. This is one of our longest days on the road. Goodnight and thanks for reading!

Looks like the hills are painted with brush strokes

Such a wonderful tribute to our fallen soldiers

 

This was a crazy couple of miles.

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

09/01/2021 Mt. Rushmore Road Trip

Today we left home for our first long RV trip. We're headed to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. It's been on my bucket list. Our first stop was in Verdi, NV. It's at the bottom of the summit and before Reno. Pretty country driving over the summit. We stopped at the top and filled with gas and I made lunch. The GPS directions to the RV park were wrong and we ended up in a brand new subdivision. Some houses were already occupied and many still being built. Beautiful homes. I told Barry lets just look like we are checking out the new homes. We stopped on a side street and called the RV park and she gave us the correct address. This time we got it right and arrived at Reno KOA Journey at Boomtown around 3:00PM. It's right behind the Boomtown Casino. When we checked in the attendant told us a lot of people are coming in from South Lake Tahoe. They were evacuated yesterday and today due to the Caldor fire. Nice park and sites. We had dinner and walked the park so we could get our 8,000 steps in. It's funny how you can sit all day travelling and be tired at the end of the day. The smoke from the Caldor fire doesn't help and it's only 23% contained right now. 

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.

Grandma's Embroidered Kitchen Towels

 

I attended Thomas Jones' GRIP (Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh) class last week titled, "Mastering the Art of Genealogical Documentation." Normally the classes are held at La Roche University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but due to Covid the past 2 institutes have been virtual. The classes started at 9:30AM east coast time which meant 6:30AM west coast time. It was tough getting up each morning to be at my computer by 6:30AM.

The course was how to write citations and the logic behind the process. This is an area I have really struggled with and needed to take this course. The beginning of the week the classes kicked my butt. There were sections that I literally struggled with. The homework each night focused on the different parts of the citation we learned during the day. Getting through all of the examples was difficult by the time my brain turned to mush and was telling me I needed to sleep. I would at least get through three or four of the exercises. As much as I don't want to admit it, the exercises were necessary. The amount of information we covered was crazy but in the end a great learning experience. 

By know you're wondering about the title of this blog post and what does it have to do with attending GRIP. Well, let me explain. On Friday morning the V E R Y last exercise we did was to write a citation for "Grammaw's Kitchen Towel." We were to pretend we had a kitchen towel from our grandmother. Well I didn't need to pretend because I did have a towel. In fact I have five. The lightbulb went off in my head and I decided I needed to take my towels out of the kitchen, take photos of them, and pack them away for safe keeping. One of the towels I have used over the years and is a bit worn. 

Grandma use to belong to an organization that held a bazaar each year to raise money for a non-profit. She embroidered what is referred to as "flour sack towels or tea towels." I always made sure I bought at least one. I have used them over the years and some became rags as they became very worn. Below are photos of the 5 towels that I have. I don't have many items from my grandmother and I'm so glad I have these. Of course my favorite are the cocker spaniels since they remind me of my little girl, Alexandria. 

For a little history of four sack towels check out the wikipedia link below. In the middle of the 19th century women would save the bag that flour came in and embroider them and use as kitchen towels, or make clothing for their children. 1 

1. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour_sack), "Flour sack," accessed 08:15PM, 18 July 2021.

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.