Day 3
Friday morning the
Days Inn started their complementary breakfast at 6:00 am and we were
there. It was nothing extra but it put
something in our stomachs for the trip and we were on the road at 6:30. We headed north on Highway 191 toward Farson. It was a bit chilly but we were treated to beautiful open country green with sage and no wind.
Our first cache
was called “Parting of the Ways” which marked the spot where pioneers either
headed south toward Utah and California
or due west toward Oregon. The highway passed through a tiny corner of Sublette County
at this point before entering Fremont County. Not far down the road we found “View of the
Bear”. The terrain had begun to change
from the flat sage prairie to some hills and mountainous outcroppings. The “bear” could be plainly seen in the
jagged top of a rock outcropping.
At Farson we took
Highway 28 which headed northeast toward Lander. From Lander we continued on toward Riverton
and then Shoshoni getting a few more caches along the way. At Shoshoni we turned southeast toward Casper and Natrona
County. Around noon we stopped at “Planet P” which
was probably my favorite cache. This
site was where some scenes from the movie “Starship Troopers” (1997) were shot. It served as the planet Klendathu during the
initial battle at night where the Troopers were decimated. Later in the movie
during daylight scenes it served as Planet P.
It was absolutely unreal. We had
our lunch in the shade of a lone tree on the precipice of the “planet”. I can report that there is life on the
planet because I saw a cow down near the bottom.
The afternoon was
really hot and we stripped down as much as our motorcycle gear would
allow. We picked up a few more caches
and skirted around Casper and into Converse County.
Another favorite cache was “A Blast from the Past” at the Glenrock
museum. While we were logging the cache
the museum volunteer, Rosalee, came out and invited us in the sign the
register. She was very nice and the
little museum which was an old church that had been relocated to this site was
crammed with artifacts. I wish we would
have had more time to look around but we had many miles to cover. We did make one more stop in Glenrock to
climb up a hill and log a cache by the Glenrock “G”. 
We tried to avoid
the Interstates as much as possible but a certain amount was inevitable. We found a rural highway at Olin that
paralleled Interstate 25 for a ways but we had to get back on for a while
before reaching our day’s destination at Guernsey. On this Interstate stretch we had a nice
tailwind and I was letting `er go pretty good when I noticed the flashing red
and blue lights behind me. Turns out I
was doing a little more than the law would allow. He was very polite about giving me a ticket
and as I told Yancey, he didn’t tell me to slow down just to be careful. This is the fifth state in which I’ve
Motocached the counties (and my only ticket) and I saw by far more state
patrolmen here. Yancey said it was
because Wyoming
has lots of oil and gas money.
Guernsey is a
small southeast Wyoming
town which has one down home motel called “The Bunkhouse”. When I told Yancey where we were staying he
asked if that meant we’d have to sleep with all the other travelers. The decor is rough western and it was really
pretty nice.
Our evening dining
experience was another matter. Choices
were limited and we were late so we tried a nearby (everything was nearby)
bar/restaurant the motel owner had suggested.
It was absolutely packed this Friday night. There is an Army camp at Guernsey
and I suppose that was one of the reasons.
We had a little wait before placing our order and after another 30 or 40
minutes we still hadn’t been served. At
this point I went back to the bar and found that they hadn’t even started on
our order. I told them to cancel and we
went next door to the bowling alley. It
wasn’t crowded and after a short wait we got a hamburger and hot dog.
Our day ended with
10 caches, one DNF and 379 miles covered.
Pictures:View of the Bear and Yancey at Parting of the Ways, Planet P, One Yancey calls "Breaking Bad", Yancey in front of the Bunkhouse. To be continued. M/W
Pictures:View of the Bear and Yancey at Parting of the Ways, Planet P, One Yancey calls "Breaking Bad", Yancey in front of the Bunkhouse. To be continued. M/W
10 comments:
Planet P looks like the walls of the Grand Canyon, but with lots of sunlight. I suppose that a river cut through that area to carve out the sides many million years ago, right?
In the '80's I visited an aunt & uncle in the southwest. We drove to eastern Arizona in search of a copper mine. We were lost & stopped at a teeny tiny motel in a remote area near the mine just to get directions. A man was at the counter paying for a room. The motel clerk asked if he wanted breakfast. His reply, "Yes." Her reply, nothing. Then she reached under the counter and brought out a donut. She gave it a softball pitch & it went racing down the counter toward the man. So much for hospitality in the west.
Which is worse: A ticket or mechanical problems? Sounds like a toss up.
In the caching world, do you challenge each other or measure yourself against goals? Are there top cachers? What did they do to get to the top? Let's see, 379 miles and 10 caches...that's 37.9 miles per cache! Is that good or bad?
I haven't researched to see how "Planet P" was formed but I don't think is was from river erosion because it is a box canyon.
I think mechanical problems are worse than a ticket.
Geocaching competition is whatever you make it. For many it is logging the most caches. For some it is being the first to find (FTF)a cahce. For me, it is the journey and one particular goal I've set is to log a cache in each county of Idaho and its contiguous states by motorcycle. I also take pride in the highly rated terrain caches that require a lot of physical effort such as hiking and climbing.
Yes, tickets are the worst on a list of travel woes. Hope your ticket has the correct mailing address. Why would I say something like that?
Years ago on the way home from visiting relatives in Arizona, I got a ticket near Blythe, CA on Interstate 10. Not happy, but I mailed a check to the address on the ticket when I got back to Los Angeles and forgot about it. Several weeks later, I received a notice from Blythe, CA that my ticket had not been paid! There was a phone number on the 2nd notice and I phoned right away. It turns out that the ticket given to me had the "old address" for city hall. It was resolved and I didn't have to pay a late fee. You'd think that when City Hall moved they would throw out the books of traffic tickets or at least write the good address on tickets.
I admire your energy and high goals that you've set for getting caches.
I've been trying to pay that ticket on line ever since I've returned and I keep getting the message that they can't find the record. I suppose I'll have to get a money order and mail it.
Reminds me of another roadtrip ticket story. In 1957, my husband (in the Army) was sent to Germany. We were in South Carolina and his mother & stepfather drove from Missouri to get our car and tow it back home. In Kentucky, we were pulled over and given a ticket (towing a car without side lights).
The ticket had to be paid RIGHT THEN. My step-father-in-law had to go back to town in the police car to see the judge. They went into a roadside dive and the "judge" turned out to be the fry cook. Maybe they didn't trust out-of-state travellers to pay by mail, thus the hasty traffic court session. My mother-in-law was so angry about the sloppy justice system in that town that she wrote a letter to the Governor of Kentucky!
Interesting territory. A ticket out there is WAY better than breaking down. It looks like you'd be buzzard food!
There were 3 things I appreciated about this event:
1. The cop blew by me without notice, even though my speedomoter read over 90 mph.
2. I managed to get a photo.
3. He was very respectful of the "Old Man". I think even, impressed after I caught up and pulled over. "Is that your son?" He asked?
I actually think Dad was a little proud in this moment.
Perhaps the cop rather thought the two of you were together in which case it was certainly better to stop the lead rider. We've noticed a change in attitude toward us now that we're older. I've only been stopped once for speeding, and when the cop stepped to the window and looked me in the face, he was speechless, I assume because it was "granny" driving the Mag with the racing stripes.
This ticket is problematic, though, because he's supposed to pay it online and it isn't showing up. There's no contact info on the ticket itself. No phone numbers.
About the ticket. When you say "It isn't showing up," do you mean that you can access a website and the ticket isn't listed? Or does it mean that you can't even get to the website?
Google the city involved and get a phone number. Phone the jurisdiction (city or Sheriff) that issued the ticket. If you can't find a number for the specific entity, just start calling. Someone in the city or county will know whom you should talk to. I just googled "Where do I pay traffic tickets in Guernsey, WY" and all sorts of websites come up. There are websites for the Wyoming DOT and several others. The WYDOT has a place to contact them through the website. What you really need to do is talk to someone in person on the phone to explain your problem.
Thanks, Leah, for your research on the ticket issue. We can access the website but when we search the citation number, it isn't there. The payment deadline is Sept. 24 -- next week, so it's probably time he made some calls.
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