Phillips Campground, Evanston, Wyoming – July 24 & 25, 2013
It was hard to leave the Grand Tetons, but off we go. On the way to Evanston from Jackson (both in Wyoming) the drive along the Snake River was really beautiful.
Life on the road always has it’s little surprises. All of a sudden we hear an alarm and look at all the gauges to figure out what’s going on. Turns out it was the leveling jacks alarm, so we pulled over to check it out. Frank fiddled with it and all seemed OK. As a side benefit we were in Afton, WY where they claim to have the worlds largest Elkhorn arch.
Further down the road we saw this unidentified structure next to a soccer field behind a pile of bundled wood sticks.
We choose Evanston as our next spot to land for three reasons. One because the Phillips Campground offered a decent discount, two because it perfectly poised us for our descent into Salt Lake City to pick up the new inverter for Big Guy and three because it had a Laundromat.
On our arrival EJ immediately went into laundry mode because we intend to only stay one night as the inverter will be ready for pickup late tomorrow afternoon. After the laundry was done our reward was dinner at Pedros, a convenient Mexican food establishment next to the campground. They served a decent Margarita and the food was good (even if a little messy) so EJ was happy.
What we hadn’t counted on was Evanston being an interesting town with lots of history. It was a former mining town and railroad center. There’s going to be lots to explore. On the way to breakfast we discovered this artifact which has something to do with mining, we think.
There was an excellent Museum where a docent adopted EJ and wouldn’t leave her side the whole time we were there. The docent didn’t like me though because maybe I snarled at her or something. But EJ got a lot of information. The museum was in an old Carnegie Library and full of great exhibits and lots of mining and railroad artifacts.
Our timing was right for a change and we were able to catch the local farmers market. There was a neat renovated truck at the entrance to the market, an old Freightliner, I think. The market itself was good as there was lots of good ole’ produce and decadent baked goods. In fact at one of the baked good vendors we had to fight off a little old lady to get the last cinnamon roll. (Actually a new tray of cinnamon rolls came out so there was plenty for everyone).
Afterwards we walked around downtown to check out the old buildings and flowers.
We figured the townfolks liked having fun with us tourists. For instance, all the crosswalks had instructions about how to push the button to change the traffic lights so it was safe to cross the street. Only there were no buttons to push.
At one point we went back by the RV to pick something up and there was a big beautiful Country Coach parked in the site next to us. The owner came over and said “you’re in my spot”. We thought he was just joking around. We didn’t think too much about it until we drove by a little later and it was in the same site, only pointed in a different direction. We thought it a little odd, but didn’t pay much attention as we were in search of the local Elks Lodge to say hello.
I had remembered seeing it on a map as being located close to us, but after we drove a reasonable distance and didn’t find it we decided to pull out the iPad and see what info the Internet had about it. Of course it had a different location all together so we drove across town to where the GPS said the address was. There was nothing there but houses, duplexes to be specific.
So we drag out the iPad again and ask Google maps to find the local Elks Lodge. It shows it located just beyond where we gave up searching the first time. We figure we’ll be more diligent this time and leave no street unexplored, no stone unturned. We follow the directions along a gravel road up a hill to what looks like a promising building and find this.
We finally came to the conclusion that there is no Elks Lodge in Evanston, Wyoming.
We finished the day exploring the railroad buildings and parks. Evanston was a repair center for locomotives and had a huge roundhouse. Over the years the building had fallen into disrepair, but efforts are under way to restore it. About half the building has been fixed up and it looks pretty good.
After a day of exploring it’s time to head back to Big Guy and relax. Only, when we get to Big Guy, the Country Coach is now parked on the opposite side from before and over in our site, about 3 feet from the side of Big Guy. Now EJ knows I ‘m kinda touchy about what I perceive to be my personal space and this guy had stepped waay over the line. When we pull up, I see the Country Coach owner and the campground owner having a go at it, and I figure I’ll just sit back and see what develops.
The campground owner is unhappy because he’s parked the wrong way and I’m unhappy because he’s parked over in our spot and well inside my personal space. I’m hauling our farmers market booty from the Element to Big Guy and Country Coach owner corners EJ and starts chatting her up.
It becomes obvious that Country Coach owner (who we now know as Matt) is starved for company, likes women and the spot he ended up in is the only place he could get his Direct TV satellite antenna to work. After we talk a bit, he goes back inside his coach and brings out a present. It’s a roll of toilet paper. With Obama’s face on each square. We break out laughing and Matt looks relieved. He wasn’t quite sure how we were going to react.
Turns out Matt is 82 years old, travels alone, and has been fulltiming for about 20 years. EJ and I set up some outdoor chairs and invite Matt to join us. Reluctantly he agrees, afraid we’ll be offended because he has a tendency to talk too much. Which is understandable because he said he has a hard time finding agreeable company.
We had an enjoyable evening listening to stories of his travels, his wife who passed away, girlfriends and Frank even managed to get him to talk about his coach. It was 16 years old and looked brand new. Country Coaches really hold up well.
We finally call it a night, Matt asks us how late we sleep in because he doesn’t want to make any noise before we’re up since he’s only three feet away. EJ told him she hoped he didn’t snore too loudly!
The next morning he’s on his way and we wave goodbye. We’re not far behind him.
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