Awake: 4:45am Temp 58 sleep 5+34 sunny overnight @
Rawlings, WY.
We watch satellite news while eating a small breakfast & then: leave the
Western Hills campground in Rawlins, WY @ 7:50am. This campground was
great! Easy off & on; level sites; instant on phones; miniature golf &
close to town + Archie & Mimi are here.
Smooth roads continue on I-70. Our destination today is not a campground
but a tarmac parking lot on the west side of Rock Springs, WY & we arrive
@ 9:53am.
Today’s travel: 2+03 time 114 miles 12.3 gal used 9.31 mpg 55.5
avg speed.
This is a Detroit Diesel-Allison Transmission Service facility & it’s on a
1st come, 1st served basis. I meet the shop foreman, Wes, & repeat my
concerns about our Detroit Diesel engine: overnight starting is not easy;
it cranks longer; sputters & runs rough initially when started & then
billowing puffs of whitish/blue smoke are emitted from the exhaust. After
that, it runs great until the next overnight stay. Wes hints that he might
not be able to get us into the shop today but he’ll try. “That’s ok” I
tell him. We’ll tour the town & find out why this area is booming.
After lunch, we open our windows to give cross air ventilation & maybe
keep our coach from getting too hot while we are downtown Rock Springs.
The coach is on battery power now that we are “dry camping” … no hookups.
1st stop, the Chamber of Commerce & the young girl behind the counter did
a great job. She pointed us in the direction of the famous historic museum
downtown that was built in 1894. This former Rock Springs City Hall
building featured electric lights from the day it first opened—unusual in
an era when many municipalities used gas lights. The museum was well
furnished with historical items from the early coal mining days & from the
Union Pacific Railroad Company that owned many mining camps & mines during
those days.
Today, they are surface mining something different in this region,
“Trona.” Trona is not a rare mineral but deposits of it that are in
mineable quantities @ a reasonable cost are rare. It’s a naturally
occurring mineral (sodium sesquicarbonate), “double salt” which is
much-needed because it contains soda ash—which is used to make glass,
paper, laundry detergents, etc. This is one good reason for the boom
growth in Rock Springs. The second contribution for the boom is butane
gas; it seems as though the wells were everywhere as we approached Rock
Springs from the east on I-80.
The museum was our starting point for the self guided walking tour. 47 old
buildings total to look at & read about & all of these located within a 2
mile radius. I couldn’t help but notice the air swirling around downtown,
the wind gaining speed with dark clouds forming from the southwest. At
times, I would take cover behind a tree while Kathy read about another old
classic building. She wasn’t bothered by the wind & fine dust blowing
about. I didn’t want to spoil our fun tour but it got so bothersome for me
that I had to insist we cease & return to our motorhome.
Well now, it was a BIG–BAD-GOOF! Leaving those coach windows open to keep
our home cooler cost us plenty…..of time. I thought the fine dust & wind
was strong downtown; where we were parked, stronger winds blew & to add to
our cooling, a grader machine was doing a terrific job of leveling a large
area of the desert ground about 500 ft from where we are parked & that
extra fine dust was changing the temperature & color of our living room &
kitchen. I spent 1.5 hrs vacuuming “everything” & Kathy spent 1.4 hrs
wiping everything with a damp rag & mop.
7:30 dinner: Dusty New York Strip Steak, rusty looking broccoli, leftover
brown rice pilaf & discolored toast.
(2) movies tonight: “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid” with Paul Newman,
Robert Redford, Katharine Ross etc. Delightful character study
masquerading as a Western; outlaws Newman & Redford are pursued by
relentless but remote sheriff’s posse. If you haven’t seen it, you should.
1969.
“Absence of Malice” with Sally Field, Paul Newman, Bob Balaban, etc. Sally
Field is a Miami reporter who writes a story implicating an innocent man
(Newman) in the mysterious disappearance & possible murder of a union
leader in this tense & thoughtful drama about the ethics of journalism. It
kept us both awake. 1982.
High temp=84 Lights out: 11:00pm
Leave a comment