Tag Archives: Sheridan WY

2013_07_08 (Mon) A Day To Get Ready

The historic Sheridan Inn.

The historic Sheridan Inn.

Our nominal HFH work schedule is Tuesday through Saturday, so we had today available to do whatever we wanted/needed to do.  The Sheridan visitor center is close by so we went there early to get information and a walking tour map of downtown.  Sheridan has more than 50 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, many from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

Buffalo Bill Cody hung out here and interviewed acts for his Wild West show on the porch.

Buffalo Bill Cody hung out here and interviewed acts for his Wild West show on the porch.

Just coincidently, the Sheridan WYO Rodeo is taking place this week (it’s a big deal), so there is a lot of signage and commerce related to that.  Accommodations are hard come by, and a bit pricier, in the area because of the rodeo.  Fortunately our spots at Peter D’s were pre-arranged far in advance and at a slight discount.  We were asked to contribute $20/day towards the $32 cost of our site, and the local HFH affiliate picked up the difference.

Our walking tour done, we found the local Albertson’s grocery store using the Point Of Interest feature on our Garmin 465T GPS.  (This is the GPS we use in the car.  We can use it as a handheld unit, but we rarely do.  We have a DeLorme handheld GPS that we use for hiking and geocaching.  We use a Rand-McNally RV GPS in the motorhome.)

The Mint Bar.  "Meet me at the Mint" is what the locals say.  Lots of bars in town, not too many wine stores/

The Mint Bar. “Meet me at the Mint” is what the locals say. Lots of bars in town, not too many wine stores.

Besides a few grocery items, we were looking for some wine.  The Albertson’s in Gillette had a separate, attached store, but the one in Sheridan did not sell beer, wine, or liquor.  In this county you can only buy alcoholic beverages at a “liquor store.”  There was a small one a few doors down from Albertson’s, so we went there.

Back at the rig I continued working on my blog posts until it was time to go to the 4:30 PM social at Steven Gullette’s trailer.  A glass of wine and finger snacks with our new(est) friends; RVing is a good life.

For dinner, Linda made a flatbread pizza with caramelized onions, peppers, olives, kale, mushrooms, garlic, and a touch of balsamic vinegar.  There were severe storms in the area that we were tracking using several weather apps on our smartphones, but none that appeared to be a concern for us.  Before she got the pizza in the oven, the wind came up very suddenly and flipped up the front arm on our large driver-side awning.  We scrambled outside to retrieve the ladder and poles needed to stow the awnings, and were assisted by Marvin and Leo from the motorhome just to our west.  Linda hung on to the patio awning strap (barely) while we got the driver-side awning straightened out and stowed.  We then ganged up on the patio awning and got it stowed.  I then stowed the two small awnings.  The wind in Wyoming is constant and can get very strong very suddenly.  Hot, bright sunshine notwithstanding, we may just leave our awnings up for the duration of our visit.

The potential crisis averted, Linda finished assembling the pizza and baked it using the convection bake feature of the microwave oven.  She bought a flexible silicone baking disk at Escapade and has been using it to great success.  The pizza was fabulous; another example of how she is developing the ability to improvise dishes based on ingredients (G-BOMBS) that are the staples of our way of eating (WFPB).  (Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds.  We also let G stand for Grains.)

It was still light after dinner, so we went for a ride to locate the two build sites and see a bit more of Sheridan.  We found the county fairgrounds where the Sheridan Wyo Rodeo will take place and saw a magnificent sunset from there. We also found Kendrick Park, which has a wild animal section with Bison and Elk, but couldn’t find the entrance.  The Kendrick family was prominent in the founding and development of Sheridan, and a number of buildings in town bear the “K” which was their mark.

 

2013_07_07 (Sun) A Day Of Transition

Today was our last day at the CAM-PLEX in Gillette, Wyoming.  John & Cheryl pulled out at 6:15 AM, so we did not get to see them off.  We had a leisurely morning prepping the rig for travel, and pulled out of the Boxelder RV Park around 10:15.  Our destination was Peter D’s Campground in Sheridan, Wyoming, where would be joining nine other rigs (16 people) for a two week Habitat For Humanity RV Care-A-Vanner build coordinated through the HFH BOF of The Escapees RV Club.

The 103 mile drive was “high plains scenic”, and the first glimpse of the Bighorn Mountains was exciting.  The terrain was rolling and some of the grades were steep, albeit not steep enough to require special signage.  The last 30 miles of the trip one of the pyrometer gauges (Left) started exhibiting a new behavior.  On downhill grades, both pyros drop to the bottom of the gauge (300 deg F) as the engine is using very little fuel and getting lots of cooling.  As I started up the next grade, the “R” pyro would instantly start to rise as the engine burned more furl, but the “L” pyro would sit on 300 for 3 – 10 seconds and then jump up to and indicate a temperature close to the “R”.  (Note:  the left pyro has always indicated about 150 – 200 deg F less than the right one.)

We arrived at Peter D’s RV Park around 12:30 PM.  Peter D’s is easily accessed from I-90.  It is not a fancy place, but it is nice with clean restrooms/showers and laundry room.  The sites are a bit narrow, but they are all pull-through with full hookups and 20/30/50 amp power.  Out site was close to level and long enough for our bus and car.

I was a little concerned about the pyro readings, so I e-mailed my mobile mechanic and three fellow bus nuts, to see if they had any suggestions.

Before we left Gillette, Nick Russell gave us a bundle of latest issue of The Gypsy Journal to distribute during our travels, so we dropped off copies at the campground office.

Our HFH RV CAV / SKP HFH BOF team gathered at Jack & Shirley Krohn’s Airstream Sovereign trailer at 3:30 PM for the initial team orientation, led by Steven Gullette.  We were joined by Matt, the Executive Director of the Sheridan HFH affiliate, and Brian, the construction supervisor for our builds.  We learned that we would be working on two different houses, both within a mile of Peter D’s.  We had a late addition to the team, so we will have 11 rigs and 18 people.

Our HFH team assembled for dinner.

Our HFH RV CAV / SKP BOF team opening dinner.

We gathered at the Krohn’s again at 5:00 PM for the pot-luck welcome social.  Matt brought a grill and the meat and team members brought side dishes.  A bit to our surprise, there were several things we could eat (besides the dish we brought).  We were barely finished eating when a thunderstorm blew in and we had to gather up our stuff, head back to our rigs, and secure them against the coming storm.  At that point we hunkered down for the evening.

BTW:  The Rescue Tape holding the two halves of the roof-mounted searchlight worked just fine at highway speeds.