On The Meandering Road: May 30, 2014 (39th Day)

Early risers we were as we were up at 5:50 am. The weather was alright, partly cloudy and it was not too hot at 64˚.

Early Morning Sunrise

Most of the trailers and motorhomes were already gone. After a quick breakfast and clean-up we left at 6:15 am.

In Fort Collins, CO we drove on US 287 to check out one Roadside Attraction (RA). It is a giant Campbell soup can that is on Colorado State University campus.

Andy Warhol's signature is on the can, right next to where Edith's head is

Not too far from the Campbell soup can is a statue of Annie, the railroad dog (RA) at Fort Collins Public Library. She was a stray dog, but always welcomed passengers at the railroad station, so she was adopted by railroad workers. She was around for 14 years, and her spirit still lives on in this town.

Annie, the railroad dog

Then on to downtown to look for another attraction (RA). It is a metal scrap metal robo-man (somewhat looks like Terminator) walking a dog. It is made from various car parts and is appropriately situated at Auto Tech Center.

After having seen attractions we were looking for in Fort Collins we got I-25 for Cheyenne, WY. We tried to avoid driving on interstates, but we wanted to reach a certain destination before nightfall, so we chose to use I-25. About eleven miles south of WY state line we saw lots of antelopes on the hill.

We were surprised to see how beautiful farmlands were in WY. There were not many windmills and we saw only two.

In the distance you could see that the cell tower is camouflaged with the shape of a bison that is on top of the bluff. After passing it we saw bisons out in the field.

We decided to take a rest break at WY visitor's center to walk around a bit and to collect information for sightseeing in WY. When we stepped out of the wind the wind was very strong and the temperature dropped making it very chilly. Inside the center there are various memborillas. and Mammoth skeleton is displayed. When we had enough of break we resumed our drive on I-25 to Cheyenne (WY's state capitol).

We went through Cheyenne downtown and drove past the capitol. Erwin dropped Edith off, so she can walk around the capitol to take pictures. Lovely statues and the capitol building was beautiful.

Now back to I-25 to go up to Casper, WY. It started to drizzle. Again, we saw more antelopes on ranch lands. Pulled off to a rest area in Chugwater because we were hungry and ready to eat breakfast. While there Erwin called Casper Chamber of Commerce to get phone number for Teton RV Factory, so we can call them to arrange factory tour. However, the chamber told us that Teton has been closed for a while, so we crossed it off on our list.

Back on I-25, and it started to rain heavily. There was this first Wall Drug billboard north of Wheatland, WY. For those not familiar with what Wall Drug is, it is a large tourist mall in Wall Drug, SD. We visited it last year during our 9 week trip.It is sort of like "South of the Border".

The weather started to clear up. There was a road construction north of Exit 92 from I-25. We turned to US 18/20, stopped at Little Springs, WY. Population in Little Springs is 4. There is not much to see/do in this very tiny town, but there was this old general store. We went inside to take a look and it had so many antiques. In front of the general store there is a box containing rocks collected from/around Little Springs, so we looked through rocks to see if there was anything interesting to get. Erwin found a rock with fossils, paid $2.

Little did we know that this fossil is worth something and is very very old!

After leaving Little Springs it started to rain again. We went to Douglas, WY to find an attraction (RA) - Former world's largest jackantelope.

Rain came down very hard, so we stayed in the van waiting for the rain to stop. There was a river flood warning sign up for this town, so we had to be extra careful about where we were going.

We had lunch at The Depot Restaurant in Douglas. Hand packed cheeseburgers with fries and onion rings. While waiting for the lunch to arrive we spent time working on the blog for the 18th day using free wifi.

After lunch, we got back on I-25, then exited to US 20/26/87 to get away from the interstate. Along that route we saw brown and cream llamas

Arrived Casper, WY. We wanted to check out this cool spunky restaurant called Sanford's Grub & Pub. If we knew about it ahead of time we would have come here for lunch. They have got lots of vintages inside the restaurant. We would probably never finish our meals because we would be spending time checking out everything. We do not know how good the foods are, but after checking out reviews it looked like it is a good place to go to for lunch or dinner.

We checked out Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park, but it did not have camping facilities, so we went to Fort Caspar Campground. After supper we went out for a hike by the lake and in the woods another hiker joined in with us and we completed the trail loop.