Long drive today, almost 5 hours. Hoped the kids wouldn’t
go too crazy. Bye bye Buffalo & hello Dubois.
Along the drive we came across the largest hot springs so
we stopped for lunch & to let the kids out to play. Annika set up a picnic
by putting down a table cloth then putting all the food out. She’s such a great
helper when she wants to be. We sat there & enjoyed the cool shade. It was
pretty hot in the sun so the shade was pleasant. After our picnic the kids
wanted to play games so we did a couple quick games of duck duck goose &
freeze tag then red light green light. We decided to go see the stinky sulpher
hot springs & it was stinky alright. Dalton did his gag & cough routine
which cracks me up. He waves his hand back & forth in front of his mouth as
he gags. Hubby stuck his toe in one small pool & said it was really hot.
When he read the info board, I believe it said the temp was 160 degrees.
Probably would not make a good hot tub. We walked across the street where they
had a board walk area & more hot springs on either side of us. We stuck our
toe in (yes just one toe) to test the water & it was pretty warm. Dalton
had taken both shoes off & was ready to jump in, but Kurt dipped his toes
in so he could see that it was hot & we weren’t just saying that to him.
There was this suspension bridge that went across a river way down below &
I was pretty freaked out because the bridge moved as we walked & the river
was waaaay down below. Ugh. Kurt kept making that bridge sway on purpose & I
could just picture my family falling to the bottom of that river & floating
away. Needless to say I walked off it quickly. By then we were ready to go, but
according to little miss our stay wasn’t long enough & it’s never fair when
we have to leave. Oh boy.
During this long drive I was surprised to see the scenery
change from lush green grass & trees to sand & rock that resembled the
desert, kind of like Arizona or Las Vegas. Wasn’t expecting that at all. We
could see snow capped mountains in the distance & Kurt said they were the
Rockies. Well he was pretty sure that’s what they were, but he was wrong.
Earlier he claimed other mountains were the Rockies, but was wrong then too. I
think he’s just anxious. We did see lots of wildlife to include: cows of every
color, sheep, horses, & a few pronghorn. We try to encourage the kids to
look out the window so they can see stuff, but sometimes all they want see is
their darn movies. I’m half tempted to put all their electronics away & say
they broke or got stolen, but that would make the traveling really rough on us.
Gotta keep them occupied so we can make our miles….even though we usually only
travel about 3 hours a day or less.
We finally made it to our campground & it was beautiful
(Longhorn Ranch in Dubois, WY). Picture perfect & an ideal camping spot
with lots of trees. This by far has been the best campground since we’ve been
on the road. There was a pond behind us with a couple horses on the other side
(kids loved that & were trying to talk to the horses by neighing), and a
fast flowing river that went around the campground. Loved it! While hubby was
setting up camp I took the kids on a nature hike to check the place out. We saw
lots of chipmunks & geese over by the river along with all their poop. The
river was beautiful & brrrr very cold. It was flowing fast & all I
could think of was “hope the kids don’t fall in”. They played at the park for a
bit & they had a set of horse shoes nearby. Annika tried playing &
every time it made that “claaang” noise from hitting metal on metal, Emry would
laugh. Not sure what was so funny but we laughed at her laughing at the noise.
I love that baby belly giggle. Music to my ears. We headed back so I could make
dinner. I let the kids have a popsicle to help cool them off, but they had to
eat it outside. I had to research sites for our next spot in Grand Teton &
Yellowstone National Parks. Needless to say I started getting stressed out
& the prices seemed to get higher & higher. We decided we weren’t staying
for more than 3 nights before heading into Utah.
Hubby hadn’t seen the river yet so we took the kids on
another nature walk. He put his feet in the cold river water to clean the stank
off his feet then dunked Dalton’s feet in too. Annika didn’t want to dip her
feet in because it was too cold & she feared for leeches. I didn’t want to slip
since I had Emry attached to me plus the feeling of cold water on my feet would
most likely make me pee in my pants. Ah the joys of motherhood. On our way back
to camp there were a million little bugs that just hatched. Hubby says when
they fly over the water the fish jump up to eat them so those are the kinds of lures
you want to use that imitate these bugs. Yadda yadda yadda….I’m nodding as I
pretend to listen. I’m not much of a fishing fan since my results aren’t
usually fast enough.
Got dinner for everyone & tonight Annika liked my
casserole, but yesterday it was “gross yucky”. I’ll never understand that girl
& what goes on in her brain. She said the same thing about the chicken n
dumplings. Hey as long as she eats it right? It doesn’t have to be that first
day, but as long as she gets some food in her belly than I’m happy about that.
I finally got our next 3 nights reserved. Unfortunately
where we wanted to be only has 1 night so I got it then we’ll do 2 more nights
at the less expensive place in town. Of course we could normally stay somewhere
for 3 nights for the same price of 1 night at this local joint. Sheesh. This
campground hunting is stressful.
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