CasaRoll Notes: 2021 - July departing Sacramento for Travel Tour - Northern, Great Lakes to Maine and return to visit in November

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com
Tim and Linda Bunyan

July 2021

We are on the 'fast track' to catch up with Sherry and Mike G at Devils Tower. They have been on the road for about a month traveling up the Oregon coast for a visit with Bob and Sue. They have headed east and are awaiting us at the KOA at the entrance of Devils Tower.

This is our fifth and final year of travel for 5 months at a time in CasaRoll, our 26' travel trailer. It has served us well and is comfortable for our use on this Travel Tour journey. This map was given to us by Jason and Erin 4 years ago in 2017 as we set out on these Travel Tours. As you can see, it is this trip (Great Lakes and Midwest) to fill in and complete the 'bottle-cap map!

We have arrived at the Utah border on our second day of driving as this is a junction where we shall turn north to continue east toward Wyoming and meet up with Mike and Sherry at Devil's Tower.

Tim made reservations at beautiful Rockport State Park in the Wasatch Mountains. There is power plugin at the site, so we have air conditioning. He knew it would be over 80 during our short, but comfortable stay.

The park is situated all around the lake which makes for spacious camp options with views and access to the lakeside. After the miles we put on to get here it is a relief to pause and take in a nature break.

We continue on the next day as we plan a stop in Casper, Wyoming to spend a day at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center.

Miles of the country the wagon trains spent 5 months to get to the West. It takes us about 3 days.

Here is a pic (sent from Erin) of Rose Elizabeth, not even a month old getting in her sleep, much as the kitty cats do....about 18 hours a day!

This Little America is a Roadside Travel Stop where we are going to fuel up. We have our new Ram Truck diesel and also takes DEF. This fuel can be found at Little America.

Back on the road to Wyoming. Miles and miles of Wyoming! There are more cows in Wyoming than people......This stretch of land we saw neither.

We are staying at Harvest Hosts: Lori and Phil Johnson Ranch. They inherited 13,000 acres from his grandparents and was worked the farm (hay) most of his life. They are 'right-sizing and now have 245 acres and an alternate home in Colorado and visit often in Casa Grande in the winter. Their farm is nearly on the westward trail the emigrants experienced.

Here is our 'covered wagon' nestled in at the Johnson Ranch for a couple of nights. We are taking the day tomorrow to visit the Historic Trails Center.

We cross the bridge over the North Platte River, a major tributary of the Platte River 716 miles long. Water and grass for the westward emigration trails extended across

parts of Wyoming to what is now known as Casper, Wyoming.

Like those that came before us, we stop for a day in Casper, Wyoming. We can go to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. This center is a very special place that is built on a ridge with an expansive view toward the west. The entire visit here expresses the Westward trail experience.

The Center has depicted the trails into the Oregon Trail where emigrants were seeking their independence and to farm, the fertile land began its 2,000-mile journey in Independence, Missouri in the 1840s.

Gold discovered at Sutters Mill in 1848 sparked the greatest Gold Rush in history. 30,000 joined in the western movement, in the next year, which more than during the previous 8 years. The California Trail was filled mostly with men, few women in the 49er's Gold Rush.

In 1847 the Morman Trail improved the journey by providing a guide and a ferry at the North Platt River. 70,000 would follow later.

The Pony Express Trail could travel from St. Joseph, Missouri

to Sacramento in 10 days. It operated from 1860 to 1861!

This lantern is like the Bunyan family that Tim has kept in the family. Tim's grandparents traveled, with their 4 children, from New York in an REO Speedwagon with a canvas cover over the truck bed in 1920. They sold the farm and brought all their belongings that would fit in the truck. They spent the Summer working their way to the West.

Hosted at the Interpretive Center, we met the featured guest speaker Willie LeClair, a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the

Wind River Indian Reservation presenting his story of the American Indian.

Ezra Meeker (1830-1928) devoted the majority of his tie and energy to ensuring that the old emigrant trail used by more than one-half million pioners from 1842 to 189 was marked and preserved and that the memory of those pioners was venerated.

It is time for us to depart in our wagon from Casper, Wyoming, and say goodbye to Lori and Phil, and their 100 year Johnson Ranch to meet up with our friends Mike and Sherry at Devils Tower.