Our Trip to Wisconsin, 2004

We left Placerville, CA at 10:00 AM to see how far we could make it across Nevada.  The girls were very happy to go because they would get to eat some lollipops with bubble gum in the middle.  It took them all the way to the Nevada State Line to eat them!

We stopped in Carson City to eat lunch and grocery shop.

Before we left on this trip, Nancy and the girls had checked out some books from the library that covered a fair bit of information about each state we planned on visiting.

We learned about Nevada's state colors - blue for the sky and silver for mining.  We talked about the Piņon and Bristlecone trees, the state flower (sagebrush) and other interesting facts.  The girls think it should be called the Casino State.

Nevada isn't as flat as one would think.  It's a series of mountain passes, broken up by stretches of flat road between them.  Big Boy had no trouble whatsoever pulling the hills.  It was a pleasure to drive.  We took Hwy 50, the "Loneliest Road in America".  Once we got beyond Fallon, it did get pretty lonely.

We stopped in Eureka for dinner.  We found a school parking lot that gave the girls a place to ride their scooters while Nancy made dinner.

 

After dinner, the girls and I took a little hike up a hill to see what this little town looked like.  The wind was pretty impressive at the top of this little hill.

After a couple more hours driving we stopped at Humboldt-Toiyabe, a National Forrest to camp for the night.  There was only one other RV there, so it was very peaceful.  We went on a before-bed walk and saw a pretty large bat.  Very cool.

Day two was another long day in the truck.  Everyone stayed in pretty good spirits.  Rose worked on reading her Little House books and perfecting her bubble gum blowing skills while Anna Joy has been doing 1st grade question cards.  We got a nice early start, 7:00 am, but that was largely negated by the time zone change we went through an hour later.  We got into Utah fairly quickly.  It's hard to describe in words or pictures just how big our country really is, but a drive across this part of the country gives one a taste.

We learned that Utah's state bird is the Seagull.  The Mormon immigrants picked the Seagull following a situation where locusts were eating up the crops, and a flock of Seagulls came in and ate up the locusts.  I think that's a good enough reason.  It did seem odd to see Seagulls this far inland though.

We were fortunate to see a hawk snag a small mammal just as we passed by.

We took a lunch break at Bridalveil Falls just outside of Provo in the Wasatch Canyon.  We tried to get a really great picture of this spot, but it was impossible to capture how beautiful it was.  Rose enjoyed reading her book, Anna Joy and I rested and Nancy prepared us a great lunch.

We drove through some very pretty canyons and some dry arid areas as well.  The question of the day was "How far to Vernal"?  This was answered by "Look for the next sign" and then we'd get the map out and show the girls where we were and where we were going.  Vernal is right outside of Dinosaur National Monument in Eastern Utah.

 

 

 

 

You'll know you're in Vernal when you start seeing pink dinosaurs along the side of the road.

 

We made it to our Dinosaur National Monument around 5 pm and set up camp.  This stop was very welcome as we were planning on spending two nights in one spot!

 

It was pretty hot and we were tired.  The bikes came out of the back of the truck, and the girls met and rode bikes with Caroline, another little girl in the campground.  The loop we were on was very quiet, which made it perfect for the kids to ride on.  We barbequed hamburgers for dinner.

 

The girls were both very happy to have met Caroline, and have the chance to be out of the truck.

 

Here's Anna Joy riding around the campground.

 

On the way to Vernal to check out the dinosaur museum we stopped by a display of petroglyphs along the side of the road.

 

 

 

 

The museum had just opened up this year, and there was a lot of hands on displays for the kids.  If your kids are into dinosaurs, Vernal would make a great destination.

 

The kids got to "dig for bones".

Skeletal replicas were assembled for display.

 

 

 

 

Lots of real fossils too!

 

 

 

 

A wooly mammoth replica

 

 

 

 

 

The girls attended a ranger talk where they got to learn how scientists uncover fossilized dinosaur bones.

Here's a view of our campground, right along the Green River.  Our trailer is the small white rectangle near the bottom of the picture.

 

 

 

We got a fairly early start the next day, and drove through the Flaming Gorge Byway.  I never knew this place was here, but Nancy and I agreed that it would be a great place to come back to one day.  The gorge is simply gorgeous.

Finally we got to a state we have never been to, Wyoming.  Of course there was plenty of reading done about the state of Wyoming, it's flag, state flower, state bird, etc.

 

 

 

Our first stop in Wyoming was Independence Rock, a historical site.  Lewis and Clark arrived at this rock on July 4, and settlers following the Oregon Trail got to know this rock very well.  If they arrived here before July 4, they would make it over the mountain passes before the snow got too bad.  If not, they had to wait out winter East of the mountains.  The rock itself is several acres in size.  You can climb up to the top of this rock, and actually put your hands on signatures of real explorers who came through here on wagon trains.

 

 

Here's a signature of Milo J. Ayer, age 29.  He crossed here in 1849.

There was a pretty good thunder storm heading to the rock, and we decided the top of the rock would not be the best place to be when the storm arrived.  So, we headed down.  We barbequed a tri tip roast in one of the shelters and Anna Joy enjoyed singing in the rain as the storm moved in.

 

We continued on our way through Wyoming, making it to Douglas.  We found a FREE campground, right in town next to the North Platte River.  We enjoyed the hospitality of Douglas.  The local police came through the park on their patrol, and gave the girls hunting licenses for jackalope, the mythical creature first "sighted" in Douglas.  In the morning we had breakfast at the Coop, a greasy spoon recommended to us by the police officers.  Very good, by the way.

After breakfast we headed to the fairgrounds to see the museum which had quite a few interesting artifacts and displays, most related to early days of the pioneers coming through this region.  This would play very well into the rest of our day's adventures.

For page 2 go here:

 http://home.comcast.net/~joelcool/rv/2004/wisconsin2004b.htm