Lucy is on the road to Alaska

[dgk]

Awesome. Will be following. Planning on leaving for Alaska myself in 2 years. Thank you for the adventure

[moosetags]

Lucy broke camp in Glenrock, Wyoming this morning. We continued north through Casper and on to Sheridan where we made a Wal-Mart stop. We stocked-up on essentials and continued north to Ranchester, Wyoming, where we got Lucy a campsite at the Lazy R Campground. We have camped here a number of times before. Ranchester is an excellent jumping off point for Moosing in the Bighorn National Forest.

We got Lucy settled into her campsite and headed up into the mountains in Lillian. We scoped out some of our regular Moosing spots and struck Moose Gold. We had sixteen Moose sightings in the area near Burgess Junction where US 14 meets US 14A. Today's sightings were along both the paved highways and dirt Forest Roads. We were able to get some decent pictures of the closer sightings.

We returned to Lucy at the campground in Ranchester just before dark.

Tonight's pictures include:

- 1936 Buick that we passed on the Highway near Sheridan.
- The 1923 WYO Threatre in Downtown Sheridan, Wyoming.
- The Mint Bar on Main Street in Sheridan, at this same loction since 1907.
- Moose Cow grazing in willows.
- Bull Moose.
- Snow covered bighorns.
- Moose Cow and Calf in the distance.
- Bull and two Cows sitting near the willows.
- Another Cow and Calf.
- Interesting rock formation in the Bighorns.

Brian

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, I see that the Buick has a trailer ball and tow mirrors.

[Alces2]

Great moose shots! Can’t wait till we can go moosing there

[GettinAway]

We love the Bighorns also. Have spent many nights there. Great to see the moose!

[farafield]

Originally Posted by turk123

I might chime in here as I own a Model 3 Tesla...

I am on my second Ford Focus electric (the EV for the masses This iteration has a range of 135 and I can plug into 110 and charge in about 12-15 hours.

Another point is that if you use heat, defroster or AC, your mileage will drop quite a bit.

Also, have a topographical map handy. If you are planning a one-way trip, is it more uphill than down? Oops, there goes some range.

[crispyboy]

I absolutely love the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming cowboy towns and the area your driving thru. Wyoming has the coolest looking license plates of all the states.
Thanks for the great travel log.

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, I see that the Buick has a trailer ball and tow mirrors.

and a rifle in the back window! It is the West!

[moosetags]

The 1936 Buick in the picture is from Johnson County, Wyoming (County Number 16 on the tag). Johnson County has a population of 8,500 people and is nearly twice the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

Brian

[Mr. Merk]

Originally Posted by moosetags

The 1936 Buick in the picture is from Johnson County, Wyoming (County Number 16 on the tag). Johnson County has a population of 8,500 people and is nearly twice the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

Brian

I saw bunch of cars like this parked in front of the Cashway Cafe, just north of you in Montana.

[moosetags]

Lucy is still camped in Ranchester. We again went Moosing in the Bighorns. We had another great moosing day. We had a total of 28 Moose sightings. We even saw three Mama Cows with Calves. The calves are all small as they were just born at the end of May. We had several close-up Moose encounters today. Today was one of our best Moosing days, ever. This is saying a lot as we are in our fourteenth year of Moosing.

We came down off the mountain in a rain storm and arrived back at Lucy before darkness set in.

Love, SuEllyn and Brian

Tonight's pictures include:

- Typical Wyoming Ranch Truck.
- Moose Cow grazing in the distance.
- Forest Service Road.
- Pair of Mooses.
- Nice looking Cow.
- Cow with Calf.
- Famous Twin Buttes in the Bighorn National Forest.
- Cow with radio locator collar.
- Pair of Bulls.
- Another Cow with Calf.

Brian

[xrvr]

Thanks for the report!

[davidrrand]

Great shots! Have a great trip.

[GinaNBob]

I have followed your travels over the years and thoroughly enjoyed them. I have two questions:
You take wonderful pictures on your travels. How do you keep track of the location and description of the photo? Do you down load and tag every evening, keep a logbook of the pictures taken? Do you build a vacation photo album once you get home?

How do you decide on your campground locations? Nothing fancy for overnights, just a spot with electric hookup? And then nicer spots for longer stays that include trees and more room between spots? Or are the drive and parking just the basics and the travel and scenery the main attraction? Do you have all your stops planned out for the entire trip with reservations too?


We are dreaming of an Alaskan and Canadian trip next year. Already have my Milepost magazine. Does it change significantly year to year or can you use a copy a couple of years old for planning?

Know you are traveling and a lot to answer, but inquiring minds want to know!
Gina

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by GinaNBob

I have followed your travels over the years and thoroughly enjoyed them. I have two questions:
You take wonderful pictures on your travels. How do you keep track of the location and description of the photo? Do you down load and tag every evening, keep a logbook of the pictures taken? Do you build a vacation photo album once you get home?

How do you decide on your campground locations? Nothing fancy for overnights, just a spot with electric hookup? And then nicer spots for longer stays that include trees and more room between spots? Or are the drive and parking just the basics and the travel and scenery the main attraction? Do you have all your stops planned out for the entire trip with reservations too?


We are dreaming of an Alaskan and Canadian trip next year. Already have my Milepost magazine. Does it change significantly year to year or can you use a copy a couple of years old for planning?

Know you are traveling and a lot to answer, but inquiring minds want to know!
Gina

Hi Gina,

Thank you for the kind words on our travel threads. As to your question about the photos, we try to take pictures of the town names that we enter to identify the pictures that we take when there. We also take pictures of signs that identify places and structures of interest. This gives us information on the pictures that we take. We do download our pictures each evening, but do not catalog them. We do not build a trip album per se, but keep all of the pictures from each trip together.

As far as campgrounds go, we usually pick them on the fly. We just call campgounds around where we want to stop and see if they have a site for us. We want to tour the areas that we visit. We rarely spend time around the campground, so the campground is incidental.

We never make any plans far in advance. We kind of go where the winds take us.

We have the 2019 Milepost that we got for this trip. I think that as long as your edition is fairly recent, it will give you what you need.

Brian

[moosetags]

Tonight finds us temporarily stranded in Billings, Montana. This morning started off great. It was a bright and sunny morning in Ranchester, Wyoming. All went well and and we actually got on the road before 9:00 AM. We drove about 120 miles to Billings where we stopped at Sam's Club for fuel and supplies. When we pulled into the Sam's parking lot, we heard a load a very load "clunk" from Lucy's hitch. Lucy has a fairly complex anti-sway hitch system. Upon inspection after fueling Lillian, we found that our hitch had locked up and was not functioning properly.

Our 14 year old Hensley Hitch is guaranteed for life. We called Hensley in Michigan and texted them pictures of Lucy's hitch. They are sending us a new main unit. This is something that cannot be found locally. It will not be here until next Wednesday. We were able to tow Lucy a very short distance to the Billings KOA Campground. We got Lucy settled into a nice campsite.

Lucy is now stranded here in Billings for the next week. This is a little disappointing, but we are glad that it happened here as opposed to along the remote Alcan Highway. Tonight we celebrated our relative good fortune with dinner at our favorite restaurant, Popeye's, where we dined large on the best fried chicken in the world. We will make the best of this situation and enjoy our time in Billings. We will get back on the road to Alaska as soon as we can.

Tonights pictures include:

- The girls are ready to pull out in Rabchester this morning.
- We entered Montana shortly after leaving Ranchester.
- An older Airestream traveling in the other direction.
- Maverick fuel truck with Devils Lake graphic on the back.
- Downtown Billings, Montana.
- Lucy and Lillian settled in at their campsite after a tough day.
- Lucy's broken Hensley Hitch.
- SuEllyn scored some comfort food at Sam's.

Brian

[xrvr]

I bet that hitch has a ton of miles on it. Things wear out. Soldier on!

[trigal]

At least you have a nice campsite and good moosing country!

[Mollysdad]

Since you're in Billings, I'd recommend a short trip to Red Lodge. It is one of my favorite "Cowboy" towns.
Then a short hop to The Beartooth Highway. Charles Kuralt said it was the most beautiful road in America. I did it on a motorcycle, and it is spectacular! If you keep going, you end up in NE Yellowstone, but there's no shortcut back, so see the pass and return!

[moosetags]

Thanks for the tips of things to do around Billings. We are a captive audience until Lucy's Hensley parts arrive

Brian.