We have been in lander since yesterday. It is a nice little area. We drove up to a lake in the mountains today. We had a picnic lunch.
I'll tell more when I can get on Internet. Very eventful day.
Leaving early in morning for yellowstone.
Ok today (looking back three weeks later) is probably my favorite day of the entire trip. We had no real plans and no agenda. The lady at the campground told us the little mining town called South Pass City was having its "Gold Rush Days" this weekend. So we thought we might drive over and check it out.
The drive was about 30 minutes. We turned off a little early and wound around through some back areas. We came across a couple of campgrounds very rustic and a couple of very rustic little towns. When we got to the mine we knew we were close. I thought this was pretty cool looking.
We headed into town and saw the sign that said population 17 with the 1 painted over. WOW! We had to pay to get into the little preserved area of town. We walked along and saw a demonstration of how they used to crush the rocks to get the gold out. 
There was an old time baseball game going on so we watched it for a while. 
The kids and Tim enjoyed that. We walked through the old buildings and then had fresh squeezed lemonade. We spent a couple of hours here and then headed back out to find a place to eat the picnic lunch I had packed.
We pulled back out on the highway and headed back to Lander. We saw a sign for a Lake Louis 10 miles. We pulled into this government land area and started driving on those dirt roads again. Now the sign said 10 miles. Little did we know it was on these bumpy dirt roads that wound up into the mountains. It took us about 45 minutes to get 10 miles. We came around a curve and there was the most beautiful lake I had ever seen. There was lots of places to picnic and camp. Although I can't imagine driving the coach up here. Others had! We chose a picnic table and had lunch. There was someone with a sail boat out on the lake which made a beautiful picture.
After lunch we walked around to the swimming beach. The kids didn't have their swimsuits but they enjoyed wading in and playing ball. It was really a nice little side trip.
On our way back to the car Tim had asked some folks where the road went if we followed it on. They said you ended up in Lander so we headed that way. We drove just a ways and there was a one lane bridge with a beautiful waterfall. We got out and took lots of pictures.
As we got back in the car Tim says "How do you see how many miles we have left in gas!!!!!!!" You know that horrible feeling you get in the pit of your stomach where you want to puke! We only had gas for 28 miles and we had no idea how far it was into Lander. Mind you we started out the day with 1/2 a tank. We didn't want to fill it up because of added weight behind the Motorhome. With all the steep inclines etc we had used the gas!
Let me tell you I have never seen my kids as quiet as they were this day. No one said a word. I was freaking out if we ran out what would we do. We have no idea where we are, no one knows we are here. Every so often there would be a campground but who knew if anyone had extra gas. We are watching the miles tick away on the range left gage and it got down to 8 miles left and we still aren't off the mountain. We hit the pavement through the valley that leads to Lander and I swear Tim NEVER touched the gas pedal. It was downhill the whole way and we coasted into town with 18 miles left on the range (I guess we gained some from the coasting). We made it. I was never so glad to see a gas station in my life! Tim was even a little worried but he held it together well.
So after getting gas we headed back the way we came to see the huge trout that congregate at a spot in the river where the river comes out of the mountain. It goes underground for a while. It was really cool. We had a great day even with the near out of gas drama. So this was my favorite day of the trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment