The Great Road Trip of 2017.....Part Twenty Three/Day Eighteen

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  

Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  

Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 

Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 

Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

We waved goodbye to the bison herd and the Hot Springs in Thermopolis, Wyoming, heading east on Route 16.

We went through Worland, WY, in Washakie County, where they had a Museum and this big Mastadon replica out front.  Now that's an attention getter. lol

Then it was further east to Ten Sleep.  This town got it's name from Native Americans as it denoted the time it would take you to get from here to other significant towns......10 sleeps or 10 days.

And no, I didn't venture into "Dirty Sally's General Store" either.  They also have a Facebook page HERE.

More sights in Ten Sleep along the highway.....

Then it was further east on Route 16 toward Buffalo, WY.

You will pass through three exposed geological periods of rock formations on this stretch of Route 16.  The first third you'll pass by forests, snowcapped peaks and tundra hills.

Patches of snow on the mountains in the distance........

A familiar sight in these parts....full logging trucks.

Then once you pass by Keyhole Reservoir the scenery changes dramatically.

The last two thirds of the roadway to where it joins I-90E, the topography changes to steep canyon walls with hair pin curves and steep inclines and descents.  I'm no geologist but this piece of the road is a rock lovers wet dream. ;-)

There were road signs every now and again letting you know what layers of the earth you were passing by that were exposed.  Here's Granite Gneiss which is the Pre-Cambrian era and these exposed rock formations are 3 Thousand Years old.

 

I'd hate to be pulling a huge ass RV on this roadway!  I'm sure many an RVer's brakes have  burnt out on this stretch of road.

                  

The roadway steepness leveled off eventually and then we hit Buffalo, Wyoming.

We stopped into Bozeman Trail Steakhouse for a late lunch/early dinner steak dinner.....

Some city slicker from out East probably gets a big surprise if they order the Rocky Mountain "Oysters". hehehe

Though a fitting name(shut up Kim!), I did NOT get the "Crazy Woman Prime Rib"......if I want Cajun anything I can get the authentic "blow the top of your head off" right here. hehe

I wondered if this place ever heard of a side that was NOT Potato!  Oh wait there is applesauce. lol

Lots of taxidermy to keep you entertained on the walls.....

We never made it to the Wyoming Whiskey Distillery but we found it on a liquor store's shelves and on a sign in the bar here.

More dead animal heads and a miniature Conestoga Wagon......

My steak dinner with a sad piece of greenery on the plate.  I did have a salad beforehand and the meat was quite good.

Hubs prime rib meal.  Of course there were potatoes of some ilk on another plate since the "Texas Toast" took up the leftover room on that plate.

Being watched by a bison as I ate.....

Me and the out of focus elk on the wall...

A map of Stagecoach routes across Wyoming from back in the day....

Look!  It's Pumba's relative......or is it a distant cousin, the Wild Boar?

And our first sighting of a Wall Drug sign........

Unfortunately it's never tomorrow.......

And this area is lousy with Rodeos in the Summer it seems.  Another one we missed seeing.....

Rustic Western swing outside the restaurant, complete with wagon wheels.....

A plaque about the Big Horn Mountains.......

A huge "Weather Rock".....lol

And then it was onto I-90 heading East(I think)but definitely out of Thermopolis and Buffalo, WY.

Sluggy

The Great Road Trip of 2017......Part Twenty Two/Day Seventeen & Eighteen

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  

Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  

Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 

Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 

Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Well we finished in the Buffalo Bill Museum and then hit the road through the town out of Cody Wyoming.

Love this street name......

Then we hit the interstate.  Look an oil well.....

Then the hills started appearing......

Pretty soon we were in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

The Thermopolis Cafe....

More things written on tall Hillsides.....this is the claim to fame of Thermopolis--they have the World's Largest Mineral Hot Spring.

We made it to our hotel for the evening.  Here's mural of the hot spring in the hotel lobby.....

After dropped our bags in the room, we wandered into "town"(a big word for not much there)to find an early dinner.  We ended up at a brand spanking new Pizza Hut.

You might be wondering what this photo of a floor is all about so let me explain.  After we were sitting at a table once our pizza was served I tried to get up to refill my drink.  My shoe caught on the leg of the table and I made an ungraceful splat falling face first on the floor.

Well that was special so I had to memorialize the moment. ;-)  The fall didn't injury me thank goodness and the woman at the next table came over to help me up while Hubs kept eating his pizza slice.

Here was our digs for the night.

And we had time to hit the hot tub and the indoor pool.  The hot tub wasn't working.

And notice that the pool water isn't level with the pool sides.....or rather the pool had settled and the water was level.  Crazy.

And the clock over the door in the pool room was stuck at 12:10(and it was right 2 x a day).

The next morning we drove back into "town", passing this huge solar farm.

And a hillside that had recently burned in a wildfire.

Into the town of Thermopolis, Wyoming.  There were maybe 3 traffic lights.

A little motel with a large statue of an elk and one of those archways made out of antlers again.

The Thermopolis Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center.

We turned down by the Visitors Center and saw this wigwam sign directly us to the free Hot Spring.  Here's Hubs sitting on a bench in the hot spring.

Here's me giving the "ok" sign in the spring.  It smelled of sulfur but man, did it feel good on your old creaky body!

A fellow bather offered to take our photo together and his buddy photo bombed us. lol

A mound of calcified minerals over where the spring formed.

Even though this was free to enter for anyone, they had a time limit you could stay in it of 15 minutes.  Some old guy(a local)stayed in for hours that day and kept talking to strangers(who didn't want to be bothered).  

This is the women's changing room with lockers to store your street clothes.  I guess crime is pretty low here as there were no locks on the doors.  And there was a shower room to rinse off in so you didn't stink of sulfur afterwards.

The outside of the bath house building entrance.

I noticed this car parked next to ours.  They had two cans of Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee sitting on the dashboard.  Heating up their lunch no doubt. lol

A neat buffalo carved statue by the bath house.  I highly recommend this free hot spring.  There was another fancy thing called The Star Plunge but it cost money.

There were also two hotels nearby that had free hot spring pools for their guests to use(no time limit)but they were out of our price range for this trip.  The public pool hot spring was fine.

We toured around the state park there afterwards.  Here's another formations of calcified minerals.

And yet another teepee.....

A warning sign, "Buffalo are dangerous".  Thermopolis also has a herd of buffalo there.

There was a small cemetery with some old headstones near the fenced off area where the buffalo roam.

Close up of an iron cross in the cemetery, "A tribute to the pioneers who came in 1893.  Trails end."

There had been a settlement, "Smoky Row", where that cemetery now stood.

Me being silly and doing my Carol Merrill, "Let's Make a Deal" impersonation.(You gotta be old and have seen the original Monty Hall version of "Let's Make a Deal" to get this. lol)

A Nerf Gun dart.  Now that's something strange to find here.....

A shot of some scenery in the buffalo area.

And there they were--buffaloes.

There were roads around this area and we'd drive over to where the "buffalo roamed" and as soon as we'd get near, they'd head off elsewhere.

Then the Alpha buffalo headed down to the watering hole.....

And the whole herd followed suit.......

Look at that cute "Ginger Dog" on the far right in this shot.  That's the term for a juvenile buffalo as they are ginger colored and resemble the size of a large dog rather than a bison.

There's the Alpha male with his female harem cooling off in the water.  He kept eyeing me.

You'll notice the small rickety wooden rustic fencing surrounding where the buffalo roam.  If that big male wanted to kill me, it wouldn't take much and I am sure he can run faster than I can.

There was a couple in another car who parked near us and were getting a little too close to the herd(I used a zoom to get my shots).  They were foreigners(from a Slavic country it sounded like from their accent).  They asked me to take their photo with the buffaloes in the background.  Then I had them take my photo.  And I quickly looked back to make sure no one was charging at me.

                                      

The mama buffalo kept close to her baby.

My little camera got some great zoomed in closes-ups.

A dinosaur replica 

Where the hot spring sprung up and the mineral/calcium deposits that make formations. 

This is where the hot springs meet a river too and the boiling water from the hot spring meets the cool river water making it not too warm to bath/swim/lounge in.

And then, just like that we waved farewell to Thermopolis, Wyoming, heading Eastward to the next adventure on the journey.

Sluggy