Off to Canada

July 6, 2016

Left home this morning in motorhome pulling the Jeep for our next adventure. We're headed to Canada. Banff National Park to be more precise and camping at Lake Louise Campground. We're in a hardsided campers only campground. The pop-ups and other soft sided campers are in a campground with an electric fence around it! We decided to put the hard top on the Jeep before we left. We sure didn't want a bear tearing it up before All-4-Fun!

We drove to Casper, Wyoming today. It got windy this afternoon (it almost always does when we head out in the camper) and we had quite a wind/rain storm after we got to the campground, but that has blown over and it's going to be a beautiful sunset.

Since this was a fairly short day and we got to Casper about 3, we went to the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. Because just west of here was one of the easiest (relatively speaking!) spots to cross the Rocky Mountains, the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express trails all crossed here. The Center was quite interesting and brought together several of the things that we have done and seen in the past. I've always been fascinated by the thought of traveling across the country by wagon train. I can't imagine the stamina, fortitude, courage, etc. that it took to pack up everything that would fit in a wagon and leave family and friends behind knowing that you would probably never see them again. No phones, no internet, no Facetime or Skype. Pretty much no mail. We did a covered wagon trip out of Scottsbluff several years ago. It was interesting with a lot of history, but pretty lame as for as how realistic it was. we were pretty much along for the ride and all the work was done for us by the guide. We weren't even allowed to help cook over the fire for liability reasons. We've been to Independence Rock and Devils Gap west of here a couple of times. If the folks on the trail made it to Independence Rock by July 4th they knew they were in good shape to make it to their destination before snowfall. They usually rested here for a day and carved their names and the date on the rock. All these things were talked about in the Historic Trails Interpretive Center with lots of hands-on exhibits. It was well worth the time to go through!

This guy was huge! 

David checking out a device on a wagon wheel that counted revolutions to figure out how far you traveled. Something that I'd never heard before was that if they didn't have a device like this, that they would tie a hanky to one of the wheel spokes and have a child walk along beside counting revolutions so that they would know how far they had gone. 

Casper from the Historic Trails Center

Here is David on a tread mill to replicate pulling a hand cart. Many of the Mormons traveled this way with their personal items in the cart and the food for the group carried in a wagon pulled by oxen.

This was really hard!

Pony Express rider and a station below. The riders traveled between 50 and 75 miles each trip, changing horses each 10-12 miles. The Pony Express only operated for 19 months before telegraph took over. 

And then there were wild flowers begging to have their pictures taken!

Lovely clouds along the way (these pictures didn't load the way they were supposed to and I don't know how to move them around!)

Life size sculpture outside the center.