Saratoga, Wyoming – Hot Springs

Thank you Microsoft Streets & Trips and the data files from Discovery Owners!  We used the pushpin set to look for hot springs and found a delightful little town at 7,000 feet in Wyoming – just 20 miles off Highway 80.  And the hot springs is … Hot!

Here’s that portion of our map.  Every little red marker represents a hot springs, then we use Streets ‘Find Nearby Places’ to find an RV park.  The number 6 represents our night’s stop: Deer Haven RV Park.

The *free* ‘Hobo Pool’ at Saratoga Hot Springs.  The water is minimum 108 degrees! 

And here’s where it flows into the stream outside the walls.

The hot water is held in by the piles of rocks and/or sandbags, but it mixes with the cold water from the stream to provide whatever temperature you want.  AAAAaaaahhhhhhhhh

And, the air temperature overnight is in the low 60s.  We visited the hot springs twice, once at night, once in morning.  Just delightful.

And, to top it off, there’s a fish hatchery just a couple miles away.  Back in my 30s, I made a point to visit fish hatcheries – I found that they were almost always in beautiful wilderness areas and had friendly staff more than happy to show you around.  When Jim and I started our current journey, we were thwarted in our efforts to visit Fish Hatcheries and gave up.  But, this hatchery has revived my interest in seeking them out.  Check out this view:

Jim is taking video here.  Once we get it edited, we’ll add it to this post.

Then, back at the campground, after watching the deer walk thru camp and the bald eagles fly overhead, we sat behind our rig on the banks of the North Platte river and watched the sunset.  OMG

Believe it or not, we actually were working most of the time we were here (the park has Wi-Fi – no Verizon data here.)  When you get to stay in the midst of such beauty, all you need is an hour or two break to be able to enjoy it.  I love my job!

We’re on our way to Redmond, Oregon where we’ll be presenting 8 seminars at the FMCA Convention.  Anyone can attend our Picasa seminar because they’ll be doing a live Webcast of it – mark your calendars for August 11.  Click here for times and details.

Colorado Hiking

I don’t think you’re allowed to spend time with Diane and Andy without some adventurous, physical activity! I remember meeting them in our RVs in Montana in 2004 – whitewater rafting was not on my agenda, but they were very convincing!  See the blog post.  Thanks guys, for getting us geeks away from our computers and out of doors to see the mountains!  Diane originally planned a 7 mile hike for us, but this train had other ideas.  It was stopped, blocking the road, *just* before our trailhead.  Others had already been waiting a half hour, and there had been no word of when the train might fix its problem.  So, we turned around in search of another hike.

Serendipity strikes again!  I can’t imagine a more perfect trail for our day.  A little higher elevation – about 9,600 ft – but a shorter, gorgeous trail.  3 miles thru wildflower strewn granite, pine forests, and aspen groves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only was the trail a loop trail, but the road we took to get there made a loop back with a stop at Panorama Point where you can see the core of the Rocky Mountains, the Continental Divide.

 

1130 miles in 4 Days

That just may be a record for us.  I know we have done over 400 in a day before, but then we stay somewhere a couple of days.  Here’s our route from Louisville, Kentucky to Denver, Colorado:

But, now we are staying a couple days.  We’re visiting our friends Diane and Andy in Arvada, Colorado.  Here we are at their place.  Can you see the view of the mountains in the background?

Diane is about 7 months pregnant.  I am assuming therefore, that I will be able to keep up with her on the 7 mile hike they have planned for use today!

Never AssUme!

Eisenhower Presidential Museum, Abilene, Kansas

Through dedicated hard work and constant planning, we have now completed our visits of all 12 official Presidential Libraries – plus Lincoln’s for a Baker’s dozen!  See list at the bottom of this post.

Actually it was pure luck and serendipity, that led us to the Eisenhower Presidential Museum yesterday :-).  Our original plan was to travel highway 80 thru Nebraska on our way to Oregon, but as we perused the map on our first day headed west from Louisville, we noticed that it would be just as easy to stay on 70 to Denver, then jog north to pick up 80 in Wyoming.  That way we could visit our friends, Diane and Andy, in Golden!  Our Streets and Trips trip planning software indicated a second night’s stop near Abilene, Kansas and Lo and Behold we saw billboards advertising the Eisenhower museum.  Can anyone deny that ours is a charmed life?!

The RVer’s President?

Eisenhower is primarily known as the General who won the war in Europe – being the Supreme commander of allied forces in Europe during WWII, but he was equally skilled at ‘Winning the Peace.’  He governed over a very prosperous time in the United States: 1953-61, and he was responsible for building the Interstate Highway system as we know it the Eisenhower Interstate System!  We could not be traveling as we are if those Interstates weren’t here!  He also revitalized the National Park Service with a 10 year plan called ‘Mission 66.’  And, last but not least, Alaska became a state during his watch.  Here’s a page that lists all the major events of the Eisenhower years.  ‘Ike’ is generally accepted as one of our top 10 American Presidents.  Did you know that our Presidents are ranked?

We love history and biography.  We also love these United States.   There’s just nothing that puts that all together like our Presidential Libraries. Yes, we could watch documentaries on the History channel, but there’s just something about walking the same ground as the President walked, and being surrounded by the actual memorabilia of the time that brings the information to life.

And, sometimes Larger than Life!

There were some pretty impressive murals inside too:

If any of you are WWII buffs, you may already know about the ‘Mulberry Harbors’ built at Normandy to facilitate the invasion.  This was the first time I had learned of these ‘Miracle Harbors.’  What a story!  There was no way to put troops on land without a port, and there was no way the Germans were going to allow any existing port to be taken – so the Allied forces built their own!  After manufacturing all the parts elsewhere, they were towed to Normandy and assembled in a two-week period so that jeeps, tanks, landing craft, personnel and supplies could go ashore.  If you’re at all interested, click the link above to read the story and see pictures.  Given that I’ve seen a 2 block stretch of city street take 3 months to expand and resurface, it truly is a miracle that breakwaters, docks, and floating roads became a reality in two weeks!
There  was so much more!  Actually, now that we’ve visited all the Libraries – I’d be more than happy to go back to each one again!  Here’s the list of all the Presidential museums we’ve visited.  The links take you to our blog post from the day.  If you know of anyone else who might be interested, there is a set of icons at the bottom of the post that you can use to share this via Facebook, Twitter, or just old-fashioned email!

1. Gerald Ford (BB - Before-Blog)
2. Richard Nixon
3. Ronald Reagan
4. Jimmy Carter
5. Bill Clinton
6. Lyndon Johnson
7. George Bush (Sr.)
8. Harry Truman
9. Herbert Hoover
10. Abraham Lincoln
11. John F. Kennedy
12. Franklin Roosevelt
13. Dwight Eisenhower

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Headed West

When you pass the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, you are officially headed west.  We are now ‘West of the Mississippi!’

 

And the Missouri:

Jim drove a long day – 350 miles – and we stayed at a Missouri State Park: Graham Caves.  We might see the cave this morning, meanwhile it’s a very quiet, pretty campground.