July 21st

I spent the day at the campground and it felt good having a day of rest.

I got up fairly early and washed the whole rig, since it gets dusty running on the shoulder. I had number of people come by said, they could see us from the road.

One camper came over and pounded on my door. When I opened the door, a ruff voice hollered what this was all about. I tried to share our mission and I could soon tell he was miserable. He told me he was a veteran from Vietnam and no one cares. He came home one day and caught his wife cheating. Needless to say, they aren’t together. He sold everything and bought a camper and trailer to put his cycle on and decided just to take off. I asked him what his plans are and he didn’t know. I told him there is hope for him to not give up.

We talked a while. Then all of a sudden, he just got up and just left and wouldn’t answer me be back. He did say he would be back in the afternoon but he never showed up, my heart goes out for him. He is one of many struggling with PTSD. When those guys came back from Vietnam, I don’t think we had any idea what PTS was all about. That’s why so many struggle. It is heartbreaking to see.

Mark and Tammy (the ranchers that took me out for dinner Saturday night) were planning on coming back out, but called and said they had problems with their irrigation pumps and wouldn’t be able to make it, so I decided to take Smiley off his perch and go cruising through the country side. And I found such beautiful! We live in the greatest country on earth.

Tonight I sat outside. It was a beautiful day in the 70’s and had a nice breeze.

My rig is all ready. I’ll have a long run on Monday to Casper, WY.

I was wrong on the name of the campsite I was planning to stay at. I had B&K Hot Shoreline campground in my mind and it is B&K Shoreline Stop RV Park. They said no charge for the two nights but would like to have something from OSC, like a sticker. I gave them a hat and information that I had and I said we will have it on Facebook that I got to stay and they were happy.

July 22nd

Shoshoni to Casper, WY

I got up at 4:30am and by 5:30 it was getting daylight. I knew I had 100 + miles to travel today with no campgrounds or gas stations in between, so I decided to bite the bullet and seize the day.

My scenery was full of Antelope’s and oil wells all day. I stopped a number times but since it was a nice road, I kept putting along. I ran in 6th gear the whole day and had some rolling hills.

I needed to stop along route 26 to pump gas up to Johnabilt. People were passing me and stopping and taking pictures all day long.

I arrived in Casper, WY. As I came into town, I stopped and filled Johnabilt’s tank and put 12 gallons in my spare tank, knowing tomorrow will be another long day in between campgrounds and gas stations.

I jumped on Smiley and headed to a store nearby to stock up on water and make sure I have enough supplies for the next two days.

Stopped and took a few pictures of what they call Hell’s Den, where the Indians would run the buffalo up this hollow and spear them. I had a hard time leaving, as tourists kept coming by and said they saw up me on Fox and Friends and they wanted to know more about our mission.