Day 6 –June 28–

We got up this morning with intentions of traveling to Cody, Wyoming.  Diane and the kids went for donuts and coffee at the camp store while I showered and starting picking up our site.  After a top off of propane and some searching for a safe route through the Big Horn Mountain Range, we were off.  Lunch was in the camper as we traveled and the kids watched TV and took naps.  Wyoming is a big place full of nothing.  Long stretches of nothing.

When we started heading int to the Big Horn area the scenery changed dramatically.  We went from prairies to the Rocky Mountains in what seemed like 30 minutes.

The Winnie did pretty well up the mountain pass.  At one point I had the pedal on the floor for 20 minutes or so and our top speed was 30 mph.  Approximately 8 miles of uphill.  Downhill is always another beast in itself.  No one was behind me so I took it very slowly, letting the engine do most the work.   Of course, after the mountains, we hit another open prairie storm which we have become pretty good at by this point.  The day to this point was pretty un-eventful.  About 70 miles from Cody that all changed.  Siri, who has been a wonderful guide so far instructed me to turn down County Road 5.5.  I slowed down to look at the turn and said “nope”.  It was a gravel road that just didn’t look like somewhere I needed to be.  We passed that “road” and allowed Siri to recalculate.  10 miles down the road was our new turn so I hammered down.  Well, it looked the same when I got there so I figured we should go for it.  Siri said it was only a mile until the next road so I figured we could just slow down and make our way.  This was a 1 lane gravel road to start.  The farther we went the skinnier it got and the less gravel it had.  It became to the point where it was just a farmer dirt trail with 3-foot holes.  I had no option to turn around.  The kids had to stand up and hold the doors of everything in the RV just to keep crap from shooting across and killing someone.  We were literally moving 2 ft, then waiting for everything to settle then move again.  We were having our first Griswald moment.  I knew it would come, but didn’t know when, it was here and man I was wishing for my Jeep!!  Finally, we came to a pull-off that a farmer had made and we were able to jockey the RV around.  Back through the Grand Canyon of a road, we went, laughing the entire time.  The photo is on the way out after the holes because we couldn’t take pics while holding on to everything.  

We stopped and did some mapping and voted not to take any county roads, at least in Wyoming.  We made it to Cody and got checked into our amazing hotel.  We had fancy suppers(not at camper), and the kids swam while Diane and I enjoyed some local beers.  Tomorrow’s schedule is hanging out in Cody doing the tourist thing, then the famous Cody rodeo tomorrow night.  Yellowstone in 2 days, so we will take in the luxuries here in town while we can.