Over the past week, Heidi and I have gone on multiple adventures without our kids. Dropping them off was tough, but they are resilient. We towed the trailer about 535 miles from Bozeman, Montana to Gillette, Wyoming.
Day 1 without kids: Sentinel Ranch Alpaca Farm.
Heidi and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of WinCo apple turnovers and scrambled eggs before turning to some RV repair work. We had a malfunction in our propane oven where it wouldn’t stay lit so I ordered a new part and had it delivered to our current RV park. Technically the oven is under warranty, but there is no way to get warranty service easily on the road, so I just ordered the replacement part with plans to fix it myself.
I tore apart the RV oven, removed the original pilot light assembly, replaced it and put it back together again. We tested it out and the oven seems to stay lit now so hopefully the problem is fixed.
We made it out of Bozeman and I got stuck behind a semi-truck doing about 35 mph up a hill. I pulled around him and accelerated, but the truck and fifth wheel behind me weren’t paying much attention and they came up fast on my tail. It didn’t seem too treacherous to me, but Heidi said it looked uncomfortable to her.
Once we exited the freeway, we crossed the Yellowstone river and meandered on a “highway” for a few miles. Eventually we ended up on a washboard gravel road including a steep section where my truck struggled to maintain traction up the hill. I thought about changing to 4 wheel drive briefly, but then it was over.
We made it to Sentinel Ranch Alpacas a little after 3 pm, were greeted by the farm owner and got unhitched. She sent out her 12-year old son to give us a tour of the field. He brought along a bucket of grain to feed the alpacas out of our hands. It is birthing season and they have about 30 babies at the moment. (A baby alpaca is called a cria). The youngest baby we met was wearing a tag that said he was born 5 days ago. The female alpacas and juvenile alpacas all live together, but once they turn 1, the boy alpacas move to a different field with the adult males. They keep them separate to control when breeding (and birthing) occurs. The alpacas get their fur cut once a year in June and they divide the fur up into 3 types. I think it’s like olive oil and the first pass is the best stuff. They have several large herding dogs to keep the coyotes at bay. The dogs are quite friendly to humans and other dogs and were very happy to welcome Ranger to the farm.
Unfortunately, it was nearly 100 degrees which was too much for our air conditioner to handle and so we were too hot inside. We ran it off battery power for about an hour before we switched on our generator for about 3 hours. Today was the first time to fully test the generator programming that I adjusted a few days ago, and I’m happy that it all worked properly. It appears that my generator uses about 7% of a 40lb propane tank per hour and since I have 2 of those tanks, I could theoretically run the generator for 28 hours if I had full propane to start with.
I got a text from my dad this morning informing me that my grandma met with the hospice nurse today and decided to enroll in hospice. She turns 101 next month and is having recurrent fluid overload (pleural effusion) causing difficulty breathing and subsequent hypoxia. Her assisted living has placed her on supplemental oxygen and her doctor gave her some additional diuretics.
My grandma and I stay in touch so I called her tonight and we had a lovely conversation. She didn’t sound short of breath on the phone and she was completely clear-headed. She told me she isn’t scared to die, but she doesn’t want to be gasping for breath at the end. We talked about our trip and she let me know that she has visited all 50 states in her lifetime and she is glad we are working on the same thing. Grandma Hill is my last living grandparent and I know her time is short. I’m glad for all of the good times we’ve had together and I’m glad she lived such a full life.
After chatting with grandma for about 30 minutes, Heidi and I went back to trip planning mode. We booked a site in Amarillo, Texas in September. The Professional Rodeo Association is having a big event while we are there and we got tickets. I’m pretty sure my kids need to go to a rodeo at least once in their life and if you’re going to do it, why not Texas?
We got a single text message today from the Pathfinder group with a photo of the Pathfinders by Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone. Annalise and Dexter were wearing their Sun hats and looked good in their matching purple T-shirts.
Days 2-4 without kids: Taylor Ranch Hip Camp
I didn’t sleep that well last night. It was too hot to fall asleep and then I had a terrible dream. I don’t usually remember my dreams, but last night was quite vivid. In my dream, I needed to undergo upper endoscopy for some reason, and when I woke up from the procedure, the gastroenterologist let me know that I had gastric cancer. Gastric cancer is a terrible disease and quickly fatal in most cases. As I was struggling to accept my terminal diagnosis he told me that I would need to have surgery “right away” to have any chance of survival. I realized that this meant that not only was my life over, my road trip was over too. This news was devastating and for whatever reason, I was all alone. When I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, the dream felt so real that I had to convince myself that I’m actually OK, I don’t have cancer, and that my trip can continue.
Today we drove about 60 miles to the Taylor Ranch Hip Camp. There weren’t too many reviews, but it said they have 560 acres of farmland which sounded nice. We drove out of town and shortly onto a bumpy gravel road. I removed the sway bars and kept driving. The last 7 miles, all gravel, took me about 40 minutes as I took my time. When we arrived at the GPS coordinates, we discovered several old abandoned farm buildings and an overgrown grassy field. I pulled into the field and spent some time orienting the trailer so that the front door pointed towards the best view.
After setting up in the 95 degree heat (again), I came inside and we proceeded to watch Sunnyside church online from earlier today. Pastor Seth preached about nostalgia and the importance of moving forward and not lingering too much on the past. I think this is a good message and I took it to heart.
On our second day at Taylor Ranch, I changed the oil in our generator and we watched a movie.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to drain the oil from the generator and I didn’t bring a big oil pan with me, and you have to lay underneath the rig to access the drain plug. I emptied a half gallon milk jug, lined up my oversize funnel and opened the plug. I had to lie directly underneath the plug to get it open and although I got most of the oil into the funnel, a not insubstantial amount of hot oil poured out on my chest and pelvis. It was not delightful, but it wasn’t so hot that I got burned, so I was glad it was a messy problem and not an injurious problem.
My brain was tired from doing hours of computer work so we decided to vegetate and watch a movie. Today we watched Knox Goes Away which was a good movie about someone trying to tie up all of their loose ends before their rapidly progressive dementia gets any worse. It fits nicely with my theme of living life as much as possible while you are able to do so.
Day 5 without kids: Dead Swede Campground
Today was a long travel day as we were crossing into Wyoming, spent a bunch of time on gravel roads and winding mountain passes.
We made it to the highway from our campsite around 11:15, and meandered through the town of Laurel, Montana on our way South towards Wyoming. I continued to listen to my audiobook and around noon we stopped at a rest area for lunch. It was over 90 outside and over 90 inside the rig, so I fired up the air conditioner and fired up the generator so we could be more comfortable while eating.
After the rest area, we stopped for diesel in Lovell, Wyoming. I’d mapped it out ahead of time, but when I arrived at the gas station, the diesel pump was on the wrong side, so I had to make a big turn round to get fuel, and after I got fuel I had to make another big turnaround. I’m not a big fan of getting fuel at small gas stations along the side of the road when the trailer is attached, but I didn’t have any other options.
After refueling, we headed east into the Bighorn national forest on Wyoming highway 14A. Apparently it is one of the steepest highways in the country. Here is the sign at the top:
We were going the opposite direction, so it was a 3,600 foot climb over 13 miles. This was an opportunity to test the strength of my truck and it did well. I took it slow and steady and had no problems.
The last 5 miles or so were on a forest service road and when we got to the campground it was a relief as my body was tired of absorbing all of the bumps.
It took us 2 tries to back in to our campsite, and just as I was ready to unhitch, a thunderstorm cell came over and dumped rain all over me. Given how hot it was earlier, the rain felt fairly nice, but the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in a few minutes so it didn’t feel nice at the end.
Day 6-7 without kids: Buffalo, Wyoming
After one night at the Dead Swede Campground, it was time to head East out of the Bighorn mountains to Buffalo, Wyoming. We left about 1030 in the morning and by 11:00 were ready to descend out of the mountains. When we got to the top, there was a sign pointing the way to a mandatory stop for RVs and big rigs to make sure brakes are fully operational before beginning the descent. The speed limit for trucks down this area is 20mph and there are multiple runaway truck ramps. There was dense fog to the point where it was hard to see more than a few hundred feet down the road.
After about 5 minutes of driving in the dense fog down the steep, winding road, we came out of the fog and had beautiful views the rest of the way down. The “Fog” up top was actually a cloud layer that we were inside of due to our elevation.
The descent down the East side of the Big Horn mountains on Hwy 14 was one of the most beautiful drives we have done on this trip and certainly one of the most treacherous. We came across a whole bunch of people pulled to the side of the road and when I looked over, I saw the back side of a moose walking away from me.
We pulled into Buffalo, Wyoming about 12:30 PM and headed to the Deer Park RV Park to check in. The lady at the desk used a golf cart to lead us to our site and headed back to the office. As I started to unhook, she came back and told us we needed to move to a different site so we obliged.
Heidi made sandwiches while I got the RV set up. Something is funky with our battery monitor as it gave a low voltage alarm when the battery was reading “45%.” We charged it up, and once the battery was reading “100%” it continued to charge for a few more hours. Hopefully the updated reading is correct.
After laundry, we headed into town for supper. We met the RV park owner and she told us that Buffalo doesn’t have any good restaurants. “We built this RV park 45 years ago and we’ve had a few good chefs come through over the years, but we can’t get them to stay.”
We decided to grab a bite to eat at the Occidental Saloon as it is a place with historical significance. The Occidental Hotel (and adjacent Saloon) was opened in 1880 and has been continuously operational ever since. The menu notes multiple famous people who ate at the Occidental including Buffalo Bill Cody, Teddy Roosevelt, Calamity Jane, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The review we read online said that they preserved the ancient bullet holes, but we didn’t see any bullet holes ourselves. The décor was very much “Ritzy 1880s” theme with many prominent taxidermized animal heads on the walls. I don’t think I have ever eaten a meal underneath a moose before.
I ordered lemonade and Heidi ordered a Shirley Temple, then we picked the vegetarian items of the menu: Macaroni and Cheese, Onion Rings, and Salad. In the 144 years that this saloon has been operational, I suspect we are some of the only customers to have drinks and a meal where we had no alcohol and no meat. We definitely are oddities here.
On our second day in Buffalo, Wyoming, I spent the entire day getting caught up on work online. Not a fun way to spend the day, but good to earn some money to pay for our adventures.
Day 8 without kids: Driving to Gillette, Wyoming. Surprisingly retrieving the kids a day earlier than expected
Today drove to a cattle ranch which hosts a popular YouTube channel: Our Wyoming Life. This ranch is split down the middle by a highway and the ranch house and farm store are on one side of the highway, and the RV parking area is on the opposite side.
We met the farm owner (Erin) and she drove her gator UTV to lead us to our parking spot. The spot was kind of narrow and I initially parked to close to the edge, so I had to readjust in order to be able to open the slide. Somehow the emergency brake cable got dislodged as I was parking and this locked up the trailer tires so I ended up (accidently) dragging the trailer a short distance into its parking space. Fortunately, this was over loose gravel, so it didn’t cause any tire damage.
When you stay at a Harvest Host, you are allowed to stay for free (no additional charge in addition to your annual membership), but you are expected to buy something from the host.
We went to the farm store where we bought farm-fresh eggs, homemade ice cream, and homemade tomato sauce. Since this is a beef cattle ranch, most of the items for sale were of the meaty variety. It’s kind of funny to think that you can watch a youtube video about a ranch where you get to “meet” a cow, and then later you can go to the farm and eat the meat of that very cow.
We were not supposed to get our kids back from the Pathfinders until tomorrow, but due to thunderstorms, they are cutting the Camporee short.
This evening, we headed to the Gillete Cam-plex to retrieve Annalise and Dexter from the Pathfinder Camporee. This is a huge complex and we didn’t have a map which made navigating difficult. We had purchased day passes ahead of time but no one checked our passes when we came in to the parking area. There were 60,000 people in attendance, and they had an additional 15,000 people who wanted to attend but couldn’t get tickets.
Heidi and I wandered around the complex for about 45 minutes before we finally found the Sunnyside Pathfinders campsite about 4:00PM. We found our kids, gave them hugs, and shortly thereafter they headed to the amphitheater with camp chairs to reserve space for the evening program. The evening program didn’t start until 7:30 PM, and when our kids arrived to get seats about 4:30, the first 20,000 seats or so had already been reserved. Apparently people started saving seats at 1PM for the evening program.
We ate supper with the Pathfinders and it was haystacks and curry.
We all headed to the amphitheater about 6:00 where they were having a huge number of baptisms. They had 2 swimming pools and a line of kids on each side, with two separate, competing audio systems.
The official program started a little after 7:30PM and included a ventriloquist, a praise band, 2 sermons, a pre-recorded play about Moses and then a live action play about Moses.
Originally there was supposed to be a Friday Night Program and Final Saturday night program, but there is going to be (another) big thunderstorm on Saturday night so they decided to cancel the Saturday night program and instead make the Friday Night program twice as long.
We didn’t finish the program until almost 11 PM and by then it was about 58 degrees outside. Heidi didn’t bring warm enough clothing and she was quite miserable by the time it was over. The temperature swings wildly here in Wyoming in August.
The Sunnyside pathfinders gathered on a decorative locomotive for a group picture and then it was back to the campsite to say farewell, gather Annalise and Dexter’s stuff and head to the car.
We didn’t manage to depart until midnight. I was a little concerned about our ability to find Heidi’s Highlander in the dark, but we found it without much difficulty.
By the time we made it back to the rig, the kids took quick showers and we crawled into bed, it was 1:11 AM.
All in all, it made for a very long day. I’m glad to have my children back with me again.
SAOTD: Heidi, who endured an outdoor program in cold weather with insufficient warm clothing.
August 9, 2024, Day 33 of Trip. Travels from August 2-August 9, 2024. Posted online on August 10, 2025.
Travel Map with links to other blog posts here.