Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 13

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”  ~Henry David Thoreau

Departed Casper, Wyoming at 8:37 after a Brightside Breakfast (John was wrong, it is NOT a Sunnyside Breakfast!) at LaQuinta. We shared a table with a nice fellow, also named John, from Cheyenne who had been displaced from his room near the Casper Mountain fire that we told you about yesterday. He is a salesman of equipment to the oil industry and explained some of the advances in that field to us. His company just completed a record setting slant hole well of more than 19,000 feet.

Breakfast for Wilma was purchased at Common Cents for $3.599 a gallon. We headed west on Hwy 20/26 and soon came to Powder River, population 51. It has seen better days. We stopped to take a photo of the Tumble Inn sign and building, the Supply Wagon sign and building and a boarded up motel with a reserved parking sign. Then back on the road again. John started making up a song about Powder River to the tune of Willie Nelson's Whiskey River. Remember, our Road Trip rules do not allow radio or TV and Linda couldn't hit him too hard because he was driving. Actually, she didn't hit him at all. But it was funny later when he couldn't get the tune out of his head for the rest of the day.

A few more miles down the road we stopped at Hell's Half Acre. This is a natural geologic feature known to cowboys as the “devil's kitchen” but today known as Hell's Half Acre. It consists of a 160 to 200-foot deep depression that formed as a result of erosion and downcutting by a small intermittent stream that is a tributary of the South Fork of the Powder River, which lies two miles to the southeast. Parts of it were formed 50 million years ago when a tropical climate prevailed in this area and palm trees flourished, There are red and yellow banks which are the remnants of soils that formed in a tropical environment. It looked quite forbidding and viewers are discouraged from going past the boundaries by a tall chain link fence topped by barbed wire. You can find more information on Hell's Half Acre by clicking here.

One of the towns we went through was Wind River, Wyoming. Then, we kept crossing the Wind River, over and over and over again. It twisted and turned so many times to cross the highway. Perhaps the "i" in Wind is a long "i".

At Shoshoni, population 689, we noticed the Shoshoni Senior's Center on the main drag. It was a very nice building and there was a van parked outside with signage indicating it was for senior transportation. We stopped to ask how the  van parked outside was funded. The old buzzards live in a town of almost 40,000 and its senior center has a great need for transportation of seniors but no funding for a van. We found that it was funded through a federal grant that is administered through the state department of transportation. Other notes: they serve lunch to around 26 seniors a day (a very large percentage of the town's population) and the lunch price is $4.00. At home, our Centennial Recreation Senior Center serves between 85 and 105 per day at $3.00. There are some photos of the Shoshoni Senior Center and their van in today's photo gallery.

We lunched on the road after stopping at a gas station in Kinnear. John had a diet Coke and a package of cashews. Linda had a ruby red grapefruit drink and her Raw Bits Twang Twang (she forgot to take them with her to the Brightside Breakfast room this morning).

John spotted an interesting old steel bridge that was across the Bull River so we stopped to photo it and the rushingi river. Both old buzzards seem to be attracted to old things which is a good thing, considering their advancing years. He also spotted an old, abandoned hunting club building with deer and elk antlers attacched to the gables.

After getting some glimpses of the Teton Mountains we arrived in Jackson at around 3:45.  We will visit Grand Teton National Park tomorrow.

Dinner was at El Abuelito's (The Grandfather). John asked Linda if she was in the mood for Mexican food. She said “Sure, I haven't had any since last night!” And, he had The Mexi Burger! Tonight, Linda had a bean & avocado tostada. John had Carne Asada with rice, beans, guacamole and two homemade flour tortillas. Both of the old buzzards enjoyed their roadkill!

Even though there were no planned adventures, there are 42 photos in today's gallery and you can view them by clicking here. That's the joy of having a relatively short drive. You can stop anytime you see something that catches your fancy.

Rastros felices Senoras y Senoritas y Senors.