Thurs., May 15,2008--Cheyenne and I-80

After leaving Ft. Collins, we proceeded to Cheyenne, Wyoming which was only 45 miles away! We stayed on F. E. Warren AFB. From our campsite, we walked up a hill with a view of the campground toward the historic area of the base. Many of the buildings on the AFB are on the National Historic Register. This is one of the historic parade fields with officer quarters across the field.The buildings surrounding the parade field are officers' quarters. These are duplexes that are 3 stories with a basement. Each side has over 3000 square feet!
General Pershing visited this base when it was Fort D. A. Russell. Pershing never lived here, but this house was built for his visits. He married senator F. E. Warren's daughter and went from Captain to General in less than 6 months! The name of the post was changed to honor F. E. Warren--territorial governor, first governor, and U. S. Senator for 40 years. It was originally named Fort D. A. Russell.

The base reminds us of Ft. Benning. At Ft. Bennning there are white tailed deer everywhere! Here we saw pronghorn antelope everywhere (and a few white tailed deer)!
They were even munching on the plants near the houses!

General Billy Mitchell also lived here. He was very outspoken about the use of air power as a defense, not just reconnaissance. He was so outspoken,that he was demoted and chose to leave the military. His promotion to Major General occurred posthumously when people realized his remarks were correct. He resided in Quarters # 47.

We enjoyed our visit to Warren AFB, the only AFB we have visited that does not have an airfield! At one time it had a dirt field 900 by 900 feet. Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I flying ace, had a mishap at the dirt airfield. On a cross country flight, he crash landed on the field. It was one time of his military career that he would like to forget.

We visited the museum which is devoted to the missiles and silos the base operates.

The campground was not very crowded--there were 5 campers while we were there. One of our neighbors was from Alaska! He gave us some suggestions as to what to see. Other neighbors were from California and Florida!

On Thursday we planned to do the walking tour of Cheyenne, but the weather was miserable! It was the trio we have come to loathe--wind, cold, and rain! After checking weather.com, we decided to move on toward our next big stop--Grand Teton National Park. The weather there was supposed to be in the upper 70s for the weekend and into the next week!

After our second trip to the commissary we packed up and backtracked to Rawlins, WY to make the turn north on US 287 toward Lander, Wyoming. At Cheyenne we were still over 400 miles from Grand Teton! We don't like to drive over 300 miles a day if possible.

After driving west on I-80 we encountered light snow at the higher elevations. It didn't bother us until it started to stick to the windshield!

The weather cleared before we got to Rawlins. In Rawlins, we topped the gas tank in the rv at a whopping $3.49 a gallon. Then we headed north on US 287 toward Lander. The road was clear and dry for our drive. Along the way we saw several snow fences. Some were metal, but most were wood. It was difficult to determine why the fences were placed in the positions they were.

In some places, the fences were parallel to the road and in other places they were perpendicular! In several long stretches, the fences followed the contour of the hills.We arrived in Lander around 3:30 and stopped at Twin Pines RV Park. It is a Passport America Park so it was half price for us--$14. We have full hook-ups and free WIFI if we need it (which we don't as our Verizon air card works great here). Out our front window we have a view of the mountains with horses and cows grazing on the hillsides. It is nice to see grass and trees. We saw grass and trees in Ft. Collins, but the drive to Lander was rolling hills, rocks, and sagebrush. We are looking forward to seeing the landscape of Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone!