Who Is Helping Whom

Some of you already know some of the information that I am going to place here. If you do, please bare with me.

While traveling into Iowa on a hot July day, well into the 90's and with high humidity, we had a blow out on the trailer.

We were on a two lane highway. Now that may sound bad, but there was a policeman right behind us, so he deflected traffic to the other lane.

What goes around, comes around.

So a few days later, we had the chance to help a women and three kids who had a break down on the freeway. We were actually coming back from checking on another woman who we had checked with on our way back to the trailer after church. B was concerned that her help was coming as it was very hot out.

We have also had a few other experiences besides site seeing, blow outs and helping others.

We were camped across the Missouri River at a state park at Council Bluffs. We saw on TV that a real storm was coming. The park ranger was going around warning everyone. We had gone out to see if we could see it coming and had just gotten back to the trailer when the wind hit; they for casted 60mph plus winds. Some limbs came out of the trees. There was almost continuous lightening and thunder. It lasted for about half an hour then there was this.

As you can see, first the sky was yellow following the storm and then red. It made for a pretty sunset.

We also saw some pretty clouds. These were at Indianola, Iowa.

Not being a native of the area, I didn't really know what these meant, but soon found out. This was the start of another experience. Not long after I took this picture, those few dark streaks that you can see, became a huge dark cloud. About five minutes later we heard some sirens. We asked another neighbor what they were. His reply was tornado sirens. B saw it first, came back and got me as I was watching the report on it. It was about a mile to the north west of us heading north. I saw the top of it as there were trees blocking the bottom. It then started raining like crazy and it broke up. We could see the clouds still swirling some. It did touch down and damaged six houses. Fortunately, no one was injured. As I was going to the trailer, another fellow who was outside putting in his awning got tingled in his arm from some lightening that I think came through the power line above him. I was in the open and didn't feel anything.

Here are a few things I have learned about these areas.
When it rains it dumps it down.
Lightening doesn't just come at the start of the rain, but continues throughout the whole storm, in almost continuous strikes and rumblings.
When they say, seek shelter, they mean it.

And how often does it rain here and how much at a time? Well last night we got rain again lasting in a down pour for over two hours, with the above mentioned lights and sounds. Some areas had over 5 inches and there was flooding. It looks as if we may not have rain tonight, but I'm not holding my breath, as another camper said he has been here a week and it has down poured every night. Did I mention there is lots of standing water around the park and many flooded rivers in the state?

On The Move Part 2

You may have noticed that, unlike the pioneers, we are going west to east. So I will proceed from where I left off.

Our next stop was at Sixth Crossing, named for the sixth of nine times that the wagon trains crossed the Sweetwater River. About twelve miles east of here, at Ice Slough, the Willie Handcart Company, encountered snow along with meeting messengers from Salt Lake City. The same day, October 19. they went on to Sixth Crossing. They were caught in a snow storm here. This is where the rescue wagons from Salt Lake met them on the evening of the 21st. We weren't able to walk out to the site as there were trekkers on the trail.

Part of the rescue wagons continued east to find the Martin Handcart Company, which was 50 miles further east. They found them and helped them get to "Martins Cove."

The Martin Handcart Company ran into trouble at the last crossing of the North Platte on October 19. It was then that the big snow storm hit. They continued on and it was on the 28th that the first horseback riders found them. It wasn't until the 30th that they met the relief wagons and were helped to Independence rock. (Picture further below.) They reached the stockade at Devils rock on November 2 and then went to the cove two days later. The blizzard kept them there for three days.

Martin's Cove was our next stop. (On the way to here we also say what they called split rock.)

There are several buildings at the area of Martins Cove, along with with a "stockade." It was too small for all to obtain shelter, so that is why they went to the cove.

This is the path up to the cove, about 2.5 miles from the fort. They cove is located below the trees just to the right of B's head. This gets fairly steep at the last. Because of the hill to the west it gave them some protection from the wind. This is looking north.
I forgot to take a picture of the actual cove. Along with protection from the wind, there was also wood readily available for fires.

This is looking west as we went around the hill that broke the wind, on our way out.


This is a picture of Devils Gate, located about half a mile from the 'stockade.' The wagon trains had to detour around this as it is narrow with only the river going through.
We walked over to it. Here is what it looked like closer up.

The Sweetwater River flows gently through here. You can see where the ridge ends and the trails are located going around the hill. The Devils gate is just before the end, in the darker area.
There are lots of groups at these sites doing reenactments. This is one of the groups crossing the river.
It was hot out, so even though some were yelling when they went in, it probably felt pretty good.

Next was Independence rock, so named by fur trappers who reached here on July 4. Many inscriptions are on the rock.

Our next stop was Fort Laramie. The fort had been sold, buildings left to rot and fall down, but is now being restored. There never was a wall around this fort.

One of the barracks.
Some of the buildings and homes.Part of the parade ground in the above picture.

Our next stop was to get a picture of Chimney Rock, even though it was a ways off. We pulled over and found a marker there. It wasn't about Chimney Rock. I took a picture of it because we have friends with the name of this organization and I know that they have ancestors who were pioneers.We did get closer to Chimney rock and I took this one. It sits alone by itself.
As one goes along there are a few other formations like this one. (You can see another in the background.) Having traveled today across the flat, no landscapes Nebraska, I can understand why the pioneers were excited to see these and know that they were making progress. We also saw two formations close together that are called the Court House and Jail. One is rounded slopping up to a point and the other is cube shaped.

That ends our sites in Wyoming. So on to Nebraska.

On The Move

We spent some time in Montana seeing relatives and celebrating the fourth. Then we took off to take in some of the Wyoming Wild West.

While in Montana, we took a side trip out to Pompey's Pillar as we had never been there.

We arrived in Cody. In my opinion the name "Buffalo Bill Cody" is over used. The lake, where we stayed the first night is named that, the Museum (okay, I can see that), and about every other thing also uses the name.

We splurged and took the trolley to learn about some of the historical buildings in the area. Everyone told us to plan on two days at the museum and it took that. Fortunately, your pass is good for two days. Some of the things that I did see there were the pictures of Randals and a few of their items along with his silver saddle. I also saw this in the front lobby, just after coming into the building. You might remember this, Edith, as we always wanted to play on one like it at Randal's but Mom wouldn't let us.
In case you don't know, check out the next picture.
We also saw some, not so authentic, western action. This occurred at the Irma Hotel built by, your know who, and named for his youngest daughter.


The Dance


The bad guys.



Shoot out results.

We went south through the Wind River Canyon. It is a really pretty canyon. My picture doesn't do it justice.

We parked our trailer at Lander, then went looking for South Pass. On our way we came across this, not far out of town.

We ended up at a ghost town named South Pass City, an old gold mining area. There are a few living here and there is restoration work being done. However, best of all, at this location we found someone who knew the way to the pass.

After traveling down a dirt/gravel road we found a marker. We could also see the remains of trails. Looking west one could see the gentle pass between hills to the south and north.

There was a dirt road going west from here so we took it. We found this marker inscribed with Mormon, California, Oregon, and Pony Express Trail engraved on it's sides. We saw more of these markers as we traveled east.

We could see the trails as we went further west. Bob is also walking on one.


Finally we came to a large fenced in area. This was the top of the pass, just a gentle knoll. These were located there.

The first Mormons were in 1847, Brahman Young and those with him. So this was interesting.


This is looking east from the top of the pass and

this is looking west.
That is about enough for this one, so I will wait to fill you in on what we did next in another addition.

Happy Birthday Sis

After playing it was time to move on to our next destination.

We planned on stopping in, for a night or two, and see my sister. However, when we found out that her three boys and families were coming for her birthday and to put in a lawn sprinkler system for her, we asked if we could stay longer.

We promised to earn our keep by helping work up the back yard, which hadn't been planted yet. So Monday found us doing this.
and this is what the ground looked like when he was done.
So we had to do lots of this.
On Thursday, her oldest son and his family arrived.

Her daughter, who lives next door, brought over a cake and we celebrated my sister's birthday. These are her grand kids who were there at the time.
The next morning the other families arrived and the work began.

We had the planners.

The machine operator.

The hole testers.

After digging the trenches there were a lot more rocks exposed. With the promise of an ice cream bar, hands got busy.

Which resulted in more of this.
With trenches opened,

it was time to lay pipe and attach heads.

After testing for leaks it was time to fill the trenches. So the chain gang and Boss were brought in.

There was the pick man. (Check out those muscles.)

The scooper. (Those white pants didn't stop her from helping.)

The fillers. (Two hard workers.)

With all this work going on there had to be some supervisors.

There was time for some fun too.

After two days of hard work, all got cleaned up, and went out to dinner for the promised birthday celebration. There were only twenty of us.



I guess this is what happens when one turns seventy.