Sunday, Sept 4: From Gillette to Cody

      We left Gillette after our noon SmartWeigh appointment and headed to the Cody Wal-Mart. The drive was uneventful until we had to cross the Big Horn Mountains. When we started climbing the grade, it almost seemed that we were going straight up! The speed limit was 30 mph, but that didn’t matter because the truck couldn’t do over 30 mph anyway. The truck moaned and groaned as it pulled the 13,000 lb trailer, but it didn’t overheat as we made it to the top of Granite Pass at 9,033 feet. At 8,000+ feet, we traveled along a winding road through beautiful alpine meadows and evergreen forests and even passed a ski area. Then down we had to come, a little at first and then steeper and steeper. My truck has a tow feature on it that automatically shifts down as the brakes are applied, so the diesel engine does most of the braking, taking the strain off the brakes. The biggest principle of RV driving I learned in boot camp was to go SLOW and I’ve been applying it since in my driving habits. If you get stuck behind me on a Sunday afternoon, don’t get mad, I’m trying to be safe. The mountains gave way to more semi-arid high plains ranch land and straight roads as we made our way to Cody, Wyoming.
      We pulled into Wal-Mart and met another friendly couple about 15 years our senior who had been at the Escapade, but who couldn’t get reservations to Yellowstone, so they were going to stay at an RV park further up the road, but outside of the park. Of course, being fellow escapees, we had to hug. The lady reminded me a little bit of my Mom, as she was refined, short, and soft spoken. They pointed out to us that we were staying amongst royalty as there was one of those $1 million + RVs parked near us. I had seen these RVs being made on the Discovery Channel with their gold plated faucets and Italian marble tile floors. We were wondering why they couldn’t afford the $40 to stay in a nicer place than Wal-Mart! 
      When we hopped back in the trailer, we smelled that an awful sewer smell, but couldn’t figure out how it could be coming from us as I had drained the black tank and washed it out for a long time. I walked around the trailer sniffing, but couldn’t find the source. We opened windows, but it just got worse. Jan said that she felt ashamed as we were talking to others by our trailer and smelling the odor from our “trailer trash” trailer. It wasn’t until the next evening when I walked out of Wal-Mart way away from the trailer that I smelled the same smell. Then it hit me. We were parked on the side of Wal-Mart where there was the gardening section and the smell was from the fertilizer! I was relieved that we were not the cause.



The trailer in the Wal-Mart parking lot, Cody, WY
You can see the gap in the mountains leading to Yellowstone.