Dubois, Wyoming

Now don't go giving away your city slicker ways by pronouncing Dubois with some kind of snotty French accent. The locals pronounce it DOO-boys.

We had a short day of driving today. It would have been even shorter had we not been stopped by a flagger for a half hour. It's intensely irritating when you're sitting there, as I'm sure you know. All you can do is brush it off when you finally get going again. But I need to back way up to the Cottonwood Lake campground and tell you what kind of stuff we've seen along the way. So let's back way up to Nebraska, shall we?

We're well stated, now. All the states we're going to add this trip have been added. There's a big hole right in the middle of our map. Kansas, your turn is coming. Of course there are all of those other states too, but Kansas seems to stick out more than the others.

We were slow getting started Monday morning. Gracie and Mike took a morning nap before we even got going. Gracie loves those soft blankies.

The road was long, straight, and flat coming out of Nebraska.

The scenery got a little more interesting as we approached the Nebraska-Wyoming border.

Just before we crossed over into Wyoming, there was a scenic pull-out. We stopped for one last look at Nebraska. Here's the panorama that I took:

The sky was threatening most of the day, and there was a big rain storm to the north.

We stopped off at the quilt shop in Lusk, Wyoming...the one from yesterday's post.  After that, we headed off toward Douglas. 

We've traveled this road before going in the other direction, and so we happen to know that Douglas just happens to be the home of the jackalope. We didn't stop in this time, but we did when we drove through here many years ago. We were headed to South Dakota back then on our very first RV trip with our very first RV. And, true to form, we took a picture. We'd both be in the picture, but it was so long ago that there were no selfies back then. Imagine that!

That's just some stud I picked up along the way. If you remember when we used to play Foto Finish on this blog, then you might remember that I posted this image for the "Funny" prompt. Here's what I said about it back then:

When we passed through Douglas, the tour book informed us that Douglas was the first place that anyone had seen the jackalope and that there was a statue of one erected in the town square. Well. This, we had to see. We left the interstate and drove into downtown Douglas (pop. 6,120, so, a short drive) and sure enough! There it was. I instantly dubbed Douglas as the town with the best sense of humor in America. The Douglas Chamber of Commerce has issued thousands of Jackalope Hunting Licenses to tourists. The tags are good for hunting only during official Jackalope season, which occurs for only one day: June 31, from midnight to 2 AM.

So, there you go.

From Douglas, we drove on to Casper, Wyoming where we spent one night in a really crappy RV park. On the way in, we saw this old oil well. There are lots of pumping wells in Wyoming, but this one is made of wood in the old style.

And that pedestrian sign blocked the works to the thing, so I shot one more image of the bottom on the way by.

Today we traveled on over flat, arid, brown Wyoming, where the deer and the antelope play. We saw hundreds, if not thousands, of antelope. They were a little too far from the road for a good picture as we sped by. They blend into the landscape so well that I found myself shooting blindly just hoping I'd catch one or two. I did manage to get a pretty good shot of this buck and doe pair. I believe it is their breeding season, and we found them in pairs more often than not.

As we approached Dubois, the landscape started to look an awful lot like Utah. This could have been the Painted Desert.

And this could easily have been near Bryce Canyon.

We're staying at the KOA in Dubois tonight, which is pretty much empty. Smitty wanted to get out right away for a very luxurious dust bath.

We were walking along just fine despite the man to our right. But then we spied a man to our left as well, and that put a quick end to the walk. Smitty headed back to the trailer as fast as his paws could carry him, slowed only by the hapless human he was towing behind.

Tonight we're going to return to the restaurant that caused us to stop here way back in our no-selfie past...the Rustic Pine Tavern. The Rustic Pine Tavern has been dubbed the world's most unique bar. You can see a short video about the place right here. and here's an old photograph from 1935. I couldn't find any information about this photograph, but I note that it says "flat tire here" at the top. I'm guessing it was a bad day for the photographer.

When we traveled through the last time, I believe it was our wedding anniversary. I'd read about the place in some travel magazine, and so we had dinner. Tonight we'll repeat our visit just for old time's sake. And what else can we do, as two oldtimers ourselves?

The only thing missing from the main street through town is horses hitched to hitching posts. We're just about to go walk the streets a little before dinner, and so I'll stop here. I'll tell you more about the place next time I write. Tomorrow we'll drive on through Idaho, stopping in Heyburn for the night. After that, Hot Lake, Oregon. Then home. We're a day ahead of schedule barring unforeseen problems. Please continue to keep your fingers crossed.