WY – Jul 2024

Wyoming is one of those natural beauties that exists here in this country, and a state that I thoroughly enjoy each time I visit.  And this visit certainly did not disappoint.  Above is a pano shot I took of the Grand Tetons – majestic and oh so beautiful.  Just a sampling of the amazing scenery here in this state.  Read ahead for more accounts as I traveled through this magnificent countryside.

Cheyenne, WY

I’ve been to Cheyenne twice before since I began my full time RV adventure. As such, there was little for me to explore that I’d not seen already. I was hoping to get a tour of the NCAR Supercomputer Center, something I’ve tried and failed on two prior visits, but once again, my scheduled stay did not align with their tour calendar and thus I struck out for a third time. Oh well, maybe next year.

With the shortage of places to visit in the immediate vicinity, I decided to head south, back into Colorado, to explore areas I’d not been to prior. I started by heading south to the town of Loveland. There I drove a bit west of town on Rt 34 to see Redman – another Trails of the Whispering Giants piece by Peter Toth. This would be my 12th sighting in the series, but sadly this one was not in the best of condition. It would appear the base became unstable a couple years ago, so the locals laid him down to this “at rest” position.  A local quarry donated rocks which were placed around the statue – making what looks like a makeshift memorial. I sent this picture to Peter to share the state of this work.  Maybe he will be inclined to pay a visit to do some restoration. Next, in downtown Loveland was yet another BSA Liberty statue from 1950. It, along with the towns adopted heart logo, sit in a little park along the shores of the town’s namesake Lake Loveland. Last, as I was heading north into Fort Collins, I came upon this giant slingshot.  Made from a forked tree and standing about 8 feet tall, this giant-sized kids weapon is locked and loaded.

There were a number of interesting Roadside items to visit in Fort Collins, not the least of which was this gem. I think my brother Dick and nephew Matt will find this to be most interesting.  You see, it’s the story of a man named Chris Brown. Chris worked in the stone (granite, marble, etc) countertop fabrication industry for over 25 years. Among his many duties, one of his specialties was to make the cutouts in the stone slabs to accommodate sinks and other inserts. The company he worked for was not interested in saving those cutouts, so for decades Chris gathered them and brought them to his home. Those thousands of cutouts evolved into these amazing works of art in Chris’ backyard. Roadside indicated it was necessary to contact Chris to arrange a tour. I did so, and we agreed to a Sunday afternoon visit. Chris was very welcoming and extremely gracious with his time. He took me through all around the outside of his home which not only features these beautiful art pieces, but also more traditional pieces such as tables, benches, and walkways – all made from stone scraps. But it would be these backyard structures, with beautiful interlaced flowering gardens, that truly showcased both his artistic and geometric design talents. He is also an avid rock collector, and integrates hundreds from his collection into the towering stone pieces. This is just one of those places you have to see to believe as pictures don’t fully capture the essence and beauty of these amazing stone structures. Chris also happens to be a skilled videographer and producer, and has his own YouTube channel called Chris’s Granite Paradise. One particular video I found especially interesting was his 15 year retrospective showing him starting to use the stone pieces in his yard in 2008, through the evolution of his creating his spectacular works over the subsequent 15 years. You can see that video HERE. Thank you so much Chris for your warm hospitality and for sharing your incredible works of art. Don’t be surprised if my brother or nephew come out for a visit someday.

Next in Fort Collins was a visit to a place called 80s Pizza.  From the outside, this strip-mall pizza joint does not look all that different from any other pizza joint.  But once you step inside, you are immediately transported back to the 1980s with their vast collection of memorabilia that consumes every square inch of wall space.  Their collection includes toys, video games, movie props, and a wall with autographed celebrity photos..  Their movie items included a large pizza-eating Green Slime Monster from Ghostbusters, and a life size Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 from Terminator among many others.  It was a really fun place that brought back lots of memories from the old pop culture days of the 80s.  Bonus, the pizza was pretty good too!

There were a few other interesting things to see in downtown Fort Collins.  A visit to the entrance of the public library showcased this statue of Annie the Railroad Dog (right, center right).  This Collie mix mutt was adopted by the Mason Street train station railroad men back in 1934.  For the next 14 years, Annie became a sort of celebrity and would greet passengers at the station as they disembarked from their trains.  In fact, it was not uncommon for these travel wary passengers to great Annie before their own families.  Next was this robot taking a dog for a walk piece (right, top right), made from miscellaneous auto parts and stands in the parking lot of Nelson’s Auto Tech Center.  Very interesting!  A giant Campbells Tomato Soup can adorns the campus of Colorado State University, School of the Arts.  The can even bears the signature of Andy Warhol. It apparently originated from an Andy Warhol exhibit back in 1981.  Last up, I visited this really cool ice cream place, located in the middle of what I would call a gathering area.  Filled with picnic tables, and surrounded by bars and restaurants housed in what used to be shipping containers, this little park in the center of town was really cool.  So too was the actual ice cream place – housed in a giant antique ice cream churning machine.  Two scoops inside a home made waffle cone provided a nice mid-day treat, and an end to my visit to Fort Collins.

Rock Springs, WY

My next stop takes me to Rock Springs.  Despite being the 5th largest most populous city in WY with its 23,000 residents, there was not much in the way of Roadside items of interest.  Once a popular coal mining town that fed the needs of the Union Pacific Railway, it would seem its more recent claim to fame was the corruption within the police and city government as reported by a 60 Minutes episode in the mid 1970s.  A follow-up story was produced 20 years later by City Confidential with an episode titled “Rock Springs: Deadly Draw in the Wild West”.  Anyway, a couple of statues – one a colorful 6 foot tall Town Gorilla greats visitors arriving in town, while a fat bellied 10 foot tall Buddha sits at the parking lot in front of Buddha Bob’s Bar.  The Roadside item I found most interesting was this piece featuring a group of bronze children with hands over heart facing a large American flag.  Titled “Patriots Eight”, it was produced by artist Reed Jensen, and unveiled in May 2006.  Now that’s cool!

Dubois, WY

Next, my travels take me to the town of Dubois, WY.  Despite being a tiny town with just over 900 residents, and located in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, this town certainly had lots to offer.  A couple hours after my arrival in town, my brother Gerry arrived to spend the next few days with me to explore this scenic mountainous area.  And of course, being that neither of us spend too much time in the kitchen cooking these days, we did avail ourselves of several of the local dining establishments in town.  One night a BBQ venue, second night we partook of some local fair chomping down on both Elk and Buffalo, then our third night we enjoyed a tasty pizza with some beer.  All in all, we certainly did eat well here in Dubois!

Speaking of eating well, Gerry spotted lots of special treats to be had here in town. First up, while he had stopped in the local grocery store to pick up some beer (he doesn’t much care for the beer I drink), he noticed some yogurt featuring a unique flavor – strawberry rhubarb (left, bottom left).  Having never seen that before, and assuming I too had never had it before (he was right), he emptied the store of the remaining four of them for us to enjoy for a couple of morning breakfasts.  They were in fact delicious, and before leaving town, I went back to the store, who had since restocked, and I picked up a couple more for the road.  The evening we were enjoying our Elk and Buffalo at the Cowboy Cafe, Gerry spotted the chalkboard dessert list, and noted something unusual.  While it featured a nice selection of various pies, including a family favorite strawberry rhubarb, it also listed something neither of us had seen or had before – blueberry rhubarb.  Why not!  Sounds like a perfectly good combination, but definately not one we’ve ever heard of or eaten before.  Despite being comfortably full from dinner, we opted to get some pie to go for a later evening snack.  So, two each of strawberry rhubarb and blueberry rhubarb slices were ordered.  As we left the restaurant, four pie slices in hand, we realized that ice cream would be a great addition to these desserts.  So, we ventured off to the nearby convenience store to get some.  While there, eagle-eye Gerry spotted something else in the freezer case besides ice cream.  It was a selection of full size pies, fresh, uncooked and frozen, including both strawberry and blueberry rhubarb.  Turns out, this convenience store is also a bakery, and makes hundreds of pies to sell direct, and also to serve the dessert needs of the local Cowboy Cafe.  Well, the following two nights we had our dessert – one night featuring strawberry rhubarb, and the second being blueberry rhubarb.  While we both agreed the more common and familiar strawberry rhubarb was best, we found the blueberry rhubarb rather tasty, and an interesting twist of a new flavor combination.  My other brothers fear not – before I left town, I went back to that convenience store and purchased both a strawberry and blueberry rhubarb pie, and will carry them in my freezer along in my travels for the next few months, until I return to FL where we can all have a taste of these special treats when we get together over the winter.  That is, assuming I don’t eat them first.

Besides all the good eatin’, Gerry and I did manage to get in some fun filled sight seeing.  First up was a trip to Grand Teton National Park.  This 340,000 acre park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile long Teton Range, offering breathtaking snow-capped mountainous scenery including the tallest of the Tetons, the Grand Teton at 13,775 feet.  This land, which sits a mere 10 miles south of Yellowstone, was designated as a National Park back in 1929.  Our drive-through tour of the park included more than 20 stops that feature favorite photo ops including Oxbow Bend, the Chapel of the Transfiguration, and Glacier Turnout to name a few.  Sadly, the famous view from across Jenny Lake was not included due to the closure of the main access road where they were road striping.

Besides the many Teton view points, we also stopped to catch a view of the 15-mile long Jackson Lake (at left, bottom right), which also feeds Jackson Lake Dam (at left, bottom center). Downstream from the dam forms the Snake River which flows for some 800 miles through Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington until it meets up with the Columbia River in eastern Washington.  The purpose of the dam back in the early 1900s was to provide a controlled source of irrigation water to Idaho.  Gerry and I thought we saw generators for hydro-power production, but it turns out those were likely just motors used to control gates to influence the flow of water.  While there have been several studies to add power generation to the dam, estimated to produce significant power in the 8.6 megawatt range (enough to power the needs of 3,000 Jackson homes), no such capability has yet been added.  So, we can simply enjoy the powerful flow of this waterway as it feeds the Snake River.

There were obviously way too many photos that I took of this National Park than can be shared here in this little blog.  So, I did my magic and produced a short video featuring many of the photos and short videos I took while visiting this park.  So, check that out below.

On the way back to the campground from Grand Teton, we stopped to checkout a couple of Roadside attractions.  First up was a visit to Hatchet Resort.  This place, a mere 48 miles from Dubois to the east, and 38 miles south west to Jackson, is known to be the only overnight accommodations between these two locations.  Originally built as a motor lodge in 1954, today it boasts log-hewn buildings, cabins, and two restaurants.  What makes this place Roadside worthy are the original neon signs that still grace the property as they did back in 1954.  The other stop was to a monument honoring Tie Hacks.  In the 19th and early 20th century, railroad ties were in big demand to support the thousands of miles of railway being laid across America.  Beefy woodsman would down a large tree, and chop it up to an 8 1/2 foot railroad tie using axes and hand saws.  These men were known as Tie Hacks.  Once completed, they would float the ties down river to be collected and shipped to their final destination.  This monument, created in 1946 by artist Boris Bilberston, stands on a bluff overlooking the Wind River – where the ties were once floated.  Powered sawmills eventually took over replacing the need for this difficult and likely exhausting manual activity.  Very cool tribute!

The next day, we drove into downtown Dubois to checkout a few more Roadside oddities – mostly of the animal variety.  This 11 foot tall, 25 feet long black bear welcomes potential guests to the Black Bear Inn.  Not a whole lot of info about this one other than another bear from the same fiberglass mold is said to be at Red’s Big Bear Lodge in Winter, Wisconsin.  Next, in 1982, Vic Lemon crafted a 15 foot tall buffalo skull to adorn the entrance to his building – which at the time housed a cafe, car wash, and laundromat, which collectively he called Grub ‘n Tub.  Today, the cafe is no longer present, but the car wash and laundromat are still around – as is the giant buffalo skull.  Lastly, a couple of new creatures showed up in front of the Jackalope Travel Stop.  So new, that neither Roadside has any info about them, and even Google Maps street view from 1 year ago does not show them there.  But, some sort of giant hairy monkey-faced creature, and an iron fictional creature (unicorn) giving a bareback ride to another fictional creature (jackalope), now grace the parking lot.  Too cool!

Speaking of the Jackalope, Wyoming seems to be another popular home to this mythological creature, similar to its neighbor South Dakota (e.g. Wall Drug). The walls of the Jackalope Travel Stop were filled with all sorts of examples of this crazy half bunny half antelope.  They even had a giant one in the back that you could climb up on for the perfect Wyoming photo op.  I tried very hard to get my brother Gerry atop this thing for a souvenir photo, but alas he was not having any of it.  Frankly, neither was I.  So, I settled for some bare bones pictures and left it at that.  By the way, this store that houses all the Jackalopes is also the same place where I got the rhubarb pies I mentioned earlier in case any of you are ever in the area.  I wonder if they make Jackalope meat pies?

After chasing after these Roadside items in downtown Dubois, we headed back east out of town to visit the National Museum of Military Vehicles.  We both spotted this place on our initial arrival into the area, and figured it would be an interesting place to check out.  To be honest, my expectations were kinda low.  After all, we were virtually in the middle of nowhere, in a town with less than 1,000 residents.  How good could this place be?  Well, after spending over four hours going through the five rooms of exhibits, we both left in total shock and awe of the place.  For me, it was perhaps the largest and most comprehensive collection of tanks, armored, transport, and speciality vehicles I have ever seen.  And, I’ve been to quite a few military museums in my travels.  It also had the best presentation of those vehicles that I’ve ever seen.  Everything is organized by battles and setup as dioramas with historical backgrounds all to tell a story.  In fact, the founder and owner of this private collection actually says that the vehicles are just the bait to get people to come visit, while his actual intent is to educate people about US military history.

There were rooms dedicated to WW I, WW II, Korean and Vietnam wars, each having representative vehicles and artillery related to those battles.  There was even a gallery dedicated to General George S. Patton.  The entire complex is over 140,000 sqft, and was built at a cost of $100 million (which does not include any of the content).  Walking through many of the areas gave you a sense of actually being there in the middle of the war.  Along with each vehicle set are beautifully  done backgrounds, perfect lighting, and multi-media components throughout that completes the story being told.  It truly is not just about the equipment, but rather the story that goes with it.

They also had a weapons vault that contained an impressive collection of guns, rifles, and other related artifacts.  Their pride and joy piece in the collection is a musket (at left, center right).  But not any ordinary musket – rather THE musket that fired the first shot at Bunker Hill.  It was Private John Simpson, a 26-year old citizen-soldier from Deerfield, NH, who carried this musket into the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.  Despite being ordered not to shoot until you see the whites of their eyes, Simpson made that early first shot after which the battle ensued.  Simpson was actually court-martialed and reprimanded for his action, but otherwise not punished and went on to serve honorably from then on, working his way up through the ranks to ultimately become a Major in the New Hampshire militia.  This piece was purchased directly from the descendent family at auction for a whopping $492K in 2019.  Other interesting pieces included this four-barrel pistol (at left, bottom right), and a US Navy Sedgley Mark Two Fist Gun (at left, top left) that featured a single-shot .38 pistol mounted into a standard work glove.  There were only 52 of these known to be made, and not surprisingly, they saw almost no actual use.

Ok, so who owns this collection, and why in Dubois?  Well, the brain trust behind this endeavor is Dan Starks (at right, center right).  He spent his career in various executive level positions, wrapping up as the Chairman, President, and CEO of St. Jude Medical, a medical device manufacturing company, from 2004 through his retirement at the end of 2015.  He also served as its COO since 2001.  Having a net worth in the area of three quarters of a billion dollars, I guess he has the funds to dabble in tank collecting.  When he retired, he wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of big corporate America, so he bought a cattle ranch in Dubois, WY and settled here.  His first tank purchase was either related to a project he was doing with a Veterans group, or his desire to pilot a tank down Main Street Dubois during their annual 4th of July parade.  The latter is something he actually does to this day, but now features upwards of 20-30 vehicles of various types in the parade.  If you want to get a sense of what this looks like, you can view a clip of the parade from 2021 HERE.  Today, his collection is approaching 500 pieces – the largest collection of US military vehicles in the world.  He has also acquired a complete collection of technical and operating manuals totaling thousands of documents – also making it one of the largest and most comprehensive.  It has since been organized into a public research library. Of particular note with his vehicle collection is the extent to which he goes to fully restore them.  It’s not just slapping a fresh coat of paint.  Rather, he references the documents he’s collected, does detail restorations to make most of them fully operational (less the guns and cannons of course), including accessories and labeling to ensure its accurate representation.  They truly are beautiful to look at.

Our admission tickets were actually good for two days, and as luck would have it, Dan Starks himself would be personally conducting tours through the museum the following day, as he apparently does on most Saturdays.  So, I went back the following day and got the chance to meet him, and listen to his intensely interesting stories of US military history as we progressed through the various points throughout the museum.  It truly was very interesting, and he is quite the military history buff – despite having never actually served in the military.  Overall, I believe this museum would be well suited to be in New York, or Washington DC, or some similar vastly populated area as its offerings are such that lots of people should get to see it.  Then again, I guess what makes it kinda special is it serves as a nice tourist draw to the tiny town of Dubois.

The campground where I stayed in Dubois was quite nice.  Large tree lined pull thru spot, with a nice size grassy yard complete with fire pit and picnic table.  It was too windy for the bulk of the time there, so no campfires were had.  We did, however, have local entertainment courtesy of these little creatures.  They were hole dwellers, and were all over the campground including a couple of burrows in my yard.  At first I thought they were either Prairie Dogs, or at least in that family given their behavior.  But, I was wrong.  They are actually called Urocitellus – or more commonly known as a ground squirrel.  Through DNA testing, it was found that they are not even in the same family as Prairie Dogs, and ultimately considered a genus of its own.  They were certainly lots of fun to watch, and I discovered they enjoyed cheese and crackers as much as Gerry and I enjoyed them.

Final Thoughts

Well, while this blog covers only the time from Jun 21st thru Jul 2nd, a mere 12 days, there was certainly enough content to write about for me to end it here.  There was lots to see and explore, and I especially enjoyed doing so once again with my brother Gerry.  Thanks for stopping by and playing tourist with me, and I look forward to catching up with you again in Vegas in Sep.  My next stop will be a nice 8 day respite over the July 4th holiday.  The town I’ll be staying in has a reputation of wonderful holiday celebrations and events, so I’m looking forward to partaking of that.  Finally, to my friends and family who remain in Florida for the summer, I offer you this hurricane guide to help in your preparations should any hurricane be coming your way.  Until next time, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!