With the visit to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center and Fort Caspar, I've been "feeling" the Oregon Trail. Of course, Liz living in Portland helps that also. I think when I go out there in November, I'll try and follow the trail more closely than just the Interstate.
By the time the travelers left the Casper area, they had traveled close to the North Platte River for almost 500 miles. Love it or hate it, the river was sustaining for the travelers through much of Nebraska and Wyoming. But, at Casper, the river turns south down to Alcova, Pathfinder and Seminoe dams and then to Saratoga and Encampment, and finally to headwaters in Colorado. So, after crossing the Platte in the Casper area, they headed west to Independence Rock and Sweetwater Station. If they could make it to Independence Rock by the 4th of July, they could probably make it to their destination before snowfall.
As they headed west out of the Platte valley, they passed through a gap in the ridge that marked the divide between the Platte and Sweetwater rivers. Look back to the Platte and forward to your destination. The gap was called the Emigrant Gap. When I looked it up, it was only 3.5 miles from the place where I was staying. So before I hitched up the trailer, I drove out there. There is a small BLM sign indicating the location. Other than that, Poison Spider Road goes through the gap and out west.
BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Sign
Approaching from the east. Black dot is a car at the mail boxes.
Getting Closer. The car is at the high point of the Gap. (Not the road behind it.)
At the top of the Gap. You can just see the BLM sign to the left of the orange left turn sign.
Looking down the hill and in the direction of the Independence Rock and the Sweetwater Station.
At this point, I had to head back home to Laramie. I had an appointment with my oral surgeon to check on the implant cone he had inserted three weeks earlier. Everything looked really good, so in three months, I may have a 2nd molar again.
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I had received a phone call from my good high school friend, Larry Moore on Sunday. Larry lived two doors to the west in Houston, and he was my best friend from about 7th grade until I moved before 10th grade. Even then, when I would go down to Houston, I would normally end up at Larry's house on Saturday or Sunday or both before I headed back up to Conroe. Lots of good old stories between us....yeah.
I called him back on Wednesday. After some phone tag, we finally actually spoke to each other, for about 2 hours. About half way through, I could tell he was eating something, and I was concerned that he was picking at dinner. He laughed and said dinner was a while ago and he was just eating his evening snack, Cheetos!!! Yes!!!! Cheetos are my friends, I often have a bag of them next to the driver's seat in the motorhome or the pickup. That, or Dot's Original Pretzels. Both are addictive.
He asked me if I minded getting orange fingers from them. I said, it really didn't bother me. I'd get some on the steering wheel, but it would wipe off. He said, he had a way to keep from getting orange fingers when he ate. And he sent me a picture. It's below obviously, but I almost had you check on another blog page to see it.
He eats them with chopsticks!!! I laughed so hard that he probably had to put the phone down, but he explained that it kept his fingers clean and slowed his eating down in the process. I'm bad enough with chopsticks, I can just see me driving down the road, dipping chopsticks into a Party sized bag of Cheetos and snagging one to munch on. I'd be much safer texting on the cell phone!
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