After a ton of planning, preparing, cleaning, packing and waiting, the day had finally come. It was finally time to hitch up Gipzee, fire up Zeke and motor up I-25 from Castle Rock to Cheyenne. Or, more importantly, it was finally time for our epoch. Our new beginning. Our life. Revised. With a pug and a chicken no less.
The day was long. Mostly packing all the little things. And waiting for the FedEx guy to bring our bike rack. Which only partially came. Lots of grumbling, laughing, crying and finally – singing.
Memory #1 – Family Song Time
A tradition that started with my Dad, singing “On the Road Again” by WIllie Nelson. It may not have actually been a tradition, but it happened at least once. After all the chaos of getting to the point of leaving, I force the family to sing the entire song. And how appropriate are the words? “Going places that we’ve never been. Seeing things we may never see again”. That is our reality for the next year, and I couldn’t be more excited. When we were finally on the road, it was surreal.
The drive up I-25 was uneventful, which was fine by us. There are so many horror stories of the first trip of a long road trip. Tires blowing out. Trailers not being hitched. Leaving behind loved ones. OK, maybe that last one was made up. But thankfully, we simply turned the key and went.
Because of the long wait for the FedEx man, we didn’t get into Cheyenne until 9 p.m. . We pulled into the Cheyenne KOA right as the office was closing. The managers we nice enough to get us registered and point us in the right direction. We really didn’t see the RV park until the next morning. The one thing anyone who has been to Wyoming knows is that it was windy.
We got some sleep, got up the next morning and headed to downtown Cheyenne to visit the Capitol. Unfortunately for us, the building was under construction. Even so, we checked the box on our first Capitol visit. After snapping a few pictures, we decided to grab some breakfast before our long drive to Flaming Gorge.
#2 – Yummy Breakfast
We stopped in at the Luxury Diner in Cheyenne. It was a tiny little spot, with some pretty great food. And don’t forget the ginormus cinnamon roll that was so delicious! We got our fill of fat and cholesterol, went back to the RV park to get Gipzee, hitched her up and jumped on I-80 West. Destination, Lucerne Campground in the beautiful Flaming Gorge.
The drive was, well, windy. And long. And slightly uphill. All this meant worse than hoped for gas mileage. Not only that, I quickly realized that the budget I created many, many months ago was based on the expectation that gas prices would be around $2.80 per gallon. Don’t laugh, that was the national average when I was doing the budget. But what can you do? Controlling gas prices is not a gift I have been giving.
When we finally arrived at the campground, we were very impressed. It was basically empty. There were clean bathrooms and there were even showers! With hot water. And jet-fire shower heads! Even better, our pull through site had a perfect view of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
We unhitched, unpacked and explored the campground a little the rest of the day.
Memory #3 – Relax!
The next day, we didn’t do much at all. The kids slept in and we spent the day relaxing and adjusting to our new world. Isn’t it crazy how we tend to never slow down? There is always something to do. Somewhere to go. On vacation or not, there is always something. And for me, busyness overtakes memories. If I don’t intentionally slow down, force myself to take in “right now”, it will never stick in this brain of mine. Relax!
Memory #4 – Fishing
We got our fishing licenses on day 3. We attempted to fish from the shore just off of our campsite. I mean we tried. For hours. In the sun. No fish. No bites. Nothing. So we decided to try another spot. After scouring the fishing forums, I found a place that was supposed to have great shore fishing. And as an added benefit, it had a sweet scenic drive to go with it.
So we jumped into Zeke and made our way to Sheep Creek Bay via Sheep Creek Geological Loop. There was a bit of a detour as I forgot to bring the tackle box… Half way to Sheep Creek Bay, we had to turn around, go back into town and get some worms and marshmallows…
The drive through the geological loop was amazing and we saw a goat! Coming back down had an amazing view into Flaming Gorge. DO THIS if you are in the area!
Once we got to Sheep Creek Bay, we threw in our lines in the water. I caught a fish. Bella caught a fish. Scout caught a fish. Kari caught some great pictures. This was more like it! Fish dinner for the Newsoms!
Memory #5 – Bike Rides
One thing we were worried about while on the road was getting fat. Being inactive. Kari thought we should bring bikes, and it was a great idea!
Throughout the week, we took short little bike rides daily. As a family. As individuals. On one particular adventure, Scout had found a enormous birds nest. Turns out it was a family of Osprey! We were even able to get some great pictures of the daddy bird bringing fish dinner home to the family.
On another ride, we discovered the Lucerne Valley Marina and check out the boats docked there. All in all, great memories were created on two wheels.
The Wrap
We had a really great week to start off our 48 state adventure. The weather was perfect, minus a couple hours of hurricane force winds. The family adjusted well to being away from home. The pug and the chicken did great. The views of Flaming Gorge and the Green River were unforgettable. Sheep Creek Geological Loop was beautiful. Memories were made. Stories were created. What more could we ask for?!?!