Our RV Adventures

Got this photo from a postcard. It shows a full shot of Jimbo, the 106 foot Supersaurus at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.

That’s one big dino.

And this is a little paleontologist humor from the staff bulletin board at the Dino Center.

Today was a do-nothing day for us, and after a couple of very busy days, we really needed it.

After coffee at 10 and lunch about 11:30, Jan napped and read, while I spent some time planning our trip to the Tetons later this week.

After a little research I found a Motel 6 in Jackson, WY for a $110.00 A NIGHT!

WOW! They’ve forgotten the whole concept of what the 6 in Motel 6 stands for.

We’ll go down on Tuesday, stay two nights, and then come back on Thursday.

We thought about taking the rig down, but RV sites in the area are $75 – $85 a night plus about $200 in diesel for the 360 mile round trip. So it’s still cheaper to pay $220 for the room plus much less gas for the toad.

About 5:30 we headed out for dinner, and decided to try La Comida, a Mexican restaurant right across the street from Zapata’s, where we ate our first night here.

And compared to Zapata’s it was a mistake. The chips tasted like they came out of a 50 pound bag from Sam’s Club or Costco. And I would swear the salsa came from ‘NEW YORK CITY”.

And when Jan ordered the Deluxe Nachos, I heard something I never thought I’d hear in a Mexican restaurant. She noticed on the menu that the nachos didn’t come with jalapenos, so she the waitress if she could have them add some.

And the waitress said, and I swear I’m not making this up, “I’ll see if we have some”. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Well, at least they don’t put black olives on their nachos like some places up north do.

Coming home, we walked over a couple of rows here in the park to meet Sherry and Charley Dilworth. They had heard from Lu and Larry Tillotson that we were here and left a card on our door saying they wanted to meet us.

We spent an hour or so getting to know them and had a great time. They’re planning on being at Nick Russell’s Eastern Gypsy Journal Rally in Celina, OH this coming September, so I’m sure we’ll see them again.

Coming back to the rig we meet our next door neighbors, Beth and her husband. I’m sorry but I didn’t get his name. They’ve only had their camper for about 4 months, so they still learning about the RV life. I gave them copies of the Gypsy Journal which should give them a good start.

Tomorrow we’re taking a trolley tour around Cody, and then we’ll take in the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum.

More tomorrow . . .

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Thought for the Day:

"Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own." – Aesop

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After coffee and bagels we headed over to Al and Adrienne’s a little before 10 am to pick them up at their rig. Then it was off for the 85 mile trip south to Thermopolis, WY.

Arriving there, our first stop was lunch at Lil’ Wrangler Family Restaurant. Al and Adrienne had eaten here a while back and said it was really good. And they were right. Hamburgers made with 1/2 pound hand-formed patties of fresh ground beef.

Really good.

After lunch we headed over to the object of our trip, The Wyoming Dinosaur Center, the largest privately-funded dinosaur research center in the world. And the only one to have excavations in progress on their own property.

This is a cast of an ocean bottom containing hundreds of echinoderms, relatives to today’s sea stars and sand dollars. This fossil is about 300 million years old.

This is a pterosaur, one of the earliest flying dinosaurs. Although this one is about the size of crow, other species had wingspans as large as 30 feet.

A Dimetrodon.

Archaeopteryx is considered the first bird, since it had feathers. There are only ten specimens of this dinosaur in the world, and this is the only one in America.

A cousin to the Stegosaurus.

Two meat eaters in combat.

A Protoceratops.

A type of Ankylosaurus.

Triceratops.

Allosaurus, cousin of T’Rex.

A nest of baby duckbills,

And their mama.

Albertaceratops.

An Ichthyosaur, the ‘fish lizard’.

This is Jimbo, so big I couldn’t get him all in one photo. A 106 foot long Supersaurus, he’s one of the largest fossils in existence.

At 2 pm we all loaded in a tour bus and were taken about 5 miles out in the country to an active dig site. In the last 20 years 17 dinosaur skeletons have been excavated from here.

These next two photos show the remains of an Allosaurus that they have been working on for 5 years, and it may take them another 15 years to remove it completely.

In the wintertime, this large excavation pit is completely filled in with dirt to protect the dinosaur bones from freezing and cracking.

Next we were taken over to a large open excavation under the shed. The bones, mostly of plant-eaters, are lying around on the surface.

Because of the jumble of chewed-on bones, they think this was a kill-site where baby meat-eaters were fed.

Outlined in red paint, this is the footprint of a large Allosaurus.

And this is the footprint of a large plant-eating dinosaur. This is the only known location where both dinosaur footprints and fossils are found in the same area.

We really enjoyed our time at the Dinosaur Center, and it’s well-recommended. The displays are all top-notch, and very well done.

Leaving the Center, we drove up into the country behind the Hot Springs State Park just admiring the many unique rock formations, and rich colors.

The many hot springs in the area have been a tourist attraction since the late 1800’s, and are considered the largest mineral hot springs in the world.

Just how mineralized the water is can be shown by these ‘travertine beehives’.

A 8 foot pipe is stuck in the ground over a hot spring. The mineral-laden water flows out the top of the pipe and down the side, leaving the mineral deposits behind on the pipe. It slowly builds up and expands, creating these rock-hard ‘domes’. As the dome grows, more pipe is installed on top as necessary.

After another great day of exploring, we got back to Cody a little before 6, and after dropping off Al and Adrienne at their rig, we came back home, tired but having had a great time.

A little before 7 pm, we walked a few rows over to Lu and Larry Tillotson’s, readers of our blog who discovered we were in the same park and wanted to meet us.

We had a great time getting to know them and talking over some of our experiences in traveling fulltime. They’ve been on the road for 8 years now, still enjoying the RV life. Hopefully we’ll cross paths again soon.

And tomorrow . . . ?

Nothing, I hope. It’s time for a rest-up day.

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Thought for the day:

"The word bipartisan means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out." – George Carlin

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