Day 42, Saturday April 11th: Fossil Butte National Monument and getting blown east.

Saturday Morning it was 47F and looking gloomy. We said our goodbyes to the Forhans and set out east around 08:00. 

Fred, June, Sheri and Tim

We all had morning hair (some of us more hair than others 😑) but took the picture anyway, Angela was still in Bed. 

 

We had a nice visit with the Forhans and hope to see them out east soon.  We plugged in Lava Hot Springs as our next destination.  

Lava Hot Springs

It was cold and raining, so just drove through for a look. Some people were using the springs, they are more hardy than us. 

From Lava Springs it was only 2 hours to Fossil Butte National Monument. 

Fossil Butte is the location of a lake that existed about 50 million years ago. The lake conditions were such that the fossils are very well preserved in the layers of rock.  They are amazing in detail and show that this lake was at times both a fresh water and salt water body. 

Fossil Butte National Monument

In addition to the fossils, the area has beautiful scenery, even on a rainy day. 

Fossils from Fossil Lake

The detail of the fossils is remarkable. 

Natural Gas Tanks

From Fossil Butte NP we took Rt 30 east, again there was almost no traffic and we saw a lot of natural gas fields, but little else. 

From Rt 30 we hit I80 east, the wind was cranking, but mostly from the west so it wasn't that bad, the Mercedes ESP system had not even bailed, which it does in strong winds. 

We did not get far on I80 before the overhead banner on I80 stated "I80 is closed to high profile vehicles under 35,000 pounds due to 40+ mph winds". I pulled over and did a quick google, the fine is $750 if you get stopped, so we doubled back on I80 to Rock Springs where we booked a KOA.  

We did laundry and watched the movie "Air Plane" because we had listened to a Mike Rowe podcast where he interviewed the writer and director, David Zucker. It was OK, but is much funnier if you are with a bunch of guys and a few beers into it 😁.

Sunday we will continue East, our next planned stop is Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska.