Whiskey to Wild West

Yesterday was a travel day in Andiamo. We ventured across the most desolate areas I have seen in many moons from Thermopolis, Wy to Cody Wy. Stark landscape between two huge mountain ranges. But in the middle of nowhere we stumbled onto the Wyoming Whiskey Company distillery. We spent an hour with Gary touring the facility. It was awesome to say the least.

Wyoming Whiskey is true bourbon whiskey made from limestone filtered water, local corn, barley and wheat cooked together, then aged in charred white oak barrels before the golden love is bottled and sold. This is good sippin whiskey for sure. Check it out at www.wyomingwhiskey.com

We tried to buy a case, but they make so little of this precious stuff they would only sell us one bottle per person. They are averaging only 8 barrels a week! They cannot keep up with the demand at this point and are adding another 4 fermenters to the distillery soon.

So next time you pass Kirby, Wy population 97 (if company is in town) stop in for a tour and taste of some mighty fine moonshine. It's located 12 miles north of Thermopolis, Wy.

After a wonderful tasting we headed out to Cody and stopped in Meeteetse, Wy for lunch along the
Grey Bull River. Then on to Cody and a wonderful time at the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. Charlotte got some amazing pics of a Great Horned Owl and Peregrine Falcon they were showcasing at the museum. She was totally in her element with these birds. You can see more pics at http://taters.smugmug.com/Other-1/Unfurled-Road-to-Cody/30213915_KJ577f

We are heading further north this morning through the NE corner of Yellowstone National Park to our next stop which is 5 days fishing on the mighty Yellowstone River!!! Heee Yaaaa. And hanging our with friends in Emmigrant Montana.

Andiamo Amigos

Coy,Charlotte and JoJo

Hot water and cool fishing

A critical piece of support for the project

We have spent a couple of days in Thermopolis, Wyoming. It boasts the largest mineral hot spring in the world. We spent our first evening soaking in the thermal waters. Feeling fine and frisky we fished all day yesterday and were skunked. It has been a few moons since the captain caught no fish in a day of plying the water.

So we decided to take a day off from fishing a spend a little time on Andiamo. The first project of the day was to install our new awning. It looked like a two hour job max. Not! It took a full six hours and the brain power of my new best friends, John from Florida, and Phil from Washington State. After many trials and tribulations I can say with confidence that our new awning works flawlessly!! What a great feeling to solve a problem and make a little progress toward getting our new home in full working order.

Ms Charlotte was a domestic goddess today. She washed all our dirty clothes, cleaned the floors, and washed the dog!! I think she deserves a night on the town. We are heading out for Mexican food and some of the local night life here in Northwest Wyoming.

Tomorrow we are heading up the road to Cody Wy. and the Buffalo Bill Museum. More fun to follow.

Andiamo!

Ms Charlotte, Captain Coy and JoJo the clean dog

Does this hat make my head look too big?

Really smart people working together

My new best buddies

AAAAHHH Finished product!!

On the Road Again

Howdy from Western Wyoming.

Home of Cowboys, cows, sheep and big fish.

We ventured across the great prairies of central Wy yesterday. We stopped at Independence Rock and stood on the Oregon Trail. The rock was a landmark that was used as a halfway point sign for travelers going from St Joe Missouri on their way west to Oregon to seek fame and fortune. If they did not reach the rock by July 4th, they were in trouble because the snows in the Rocky Mountains would surely fall before they reached the far west.

It was an amazing feeling to stand where these weary travelers walked and see their names chiseled into the granite rock. I felt very fortunate that our "Conastoga Wagon" is a 34' Camper with all the comforts of home. I really could not fathom how difficult it was for our ancestors to trudge across over 1000 miles of prairie grass just to come over a hill and see the Grand Tetons looming in front of them. It was a beautiful sight for us, but maybe not so for the wagon trains.

We are camped in an RV park along the Big Horn River in Thermopolis Wy. It is the home of the world's largest mineral springs. We soaked our weary bodies in the waters last night after a long hard day on the trail. ;-p

Today we start fishing the Big Horn. Yippie. A new river for me and some big ole fish just waiting to eat our flies. pics to follow.

Life Lesson from the Road - Developing patience. I do not need to stop and pick up everything on the side of the highway what looks useful. I had to bite my tongue as we passed a brand new sewer hose laying along hwy 220. It was all I could do to keep from turning Andiamo around in the middle of the highway to go back and pick it up. I did get a nice "noodle" that had blown out of someone's boat the other day.

Andiamo!!

Capt Coy, Ms Charlotte, and Jojo

Check out our latest pics at
http://taters.smugmug.com/Other-1/Unfurled1stDayOnNorthPlatte/30113162_gnqD77#!i=2588900087&k=5JPV2D7

Just the two of us ..... we can make it if we try ..... just the two of us

Finally after many months of planning and trial and errors, and more errors than trials, Ms Charlotte and I have headed North from Denver to Central Wyoming to fish.

When we started planning this grand adventure during last winter, fishing, birding, family, and friends were all on the radar.

We have seen all of our families recently and I have learned more about birds in the past couple of months than I ever dreamed I would and now ..... finally we are fishing.

We are now alone on our adventure of getting to know one another better and falling deeper in love every day. She is amazaballs!! (her word, not mine)

We pulled into my favorite fishing spot in North America yesterday about 5. It's called Grey Reef for some unknown reason that nobody around here can explain. I can tell you it ain't grey.  The Oregon Trail runs right through our camping area. How cool is that??

We had plenty of daylight to set up camp, make more mistakes, and then head down to the South Platte River in Central Wyoming to settle in for some serious fishing.

The three Reservoirs that make up this fishery were built in the early 1900's to provide water and power to farmers all along this stretch of river. Inadvertently, they created some of the best trout fishing streams in the world right here smack dab in the middle of Wyoming. Who'd a thunk it.

In the fall, huge brown trout come up out of the cold deep waters of the three lakes into the river to spawn. Rainbow trout do the same thing in the springtime. We missed the spawn, but there are plenty of healthy fish to tempt us at this time of year.

We hooked 9 fish last night and did not put one in the net. That was both exhilarating and frustrating to a guy that loves to net fish.

The this morning we hit paydirt. Charlotte, hooked, fought, and landed at 20" Rainbow on her very first cast. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. By the look on her face, I think I got me a fishin' woman!!! She was thrilled to land such a quality fish. She fought it about 10 minutes and landed it after it made 6 long runs. She looked like a pro.

As you can see by the picture below, she does need a little coaching on how to hold a nice fish for a picture. Trust me when I tell you it was a solid 20" fish with at least a 12" girth. In the neighborhood of 4 lbs.

We are resting this afternoon as the Wyoming sun is brutal today, the longest day of the year. Happy summer solstice to all!!

We will be here for another couple of days then head northwest to fish the Big Horn River near Thermopolis, Wyoming. More fishing stories to follow.

Andiamo!!
From Charlotte, me and JoJo the Magnificent

All is well in Pooville

The day was all hot and sticky,
The captain found something icky
He thought it was gross and so stinky
and realized it was poo on his pinky

So he found some plasti mend
and applied with gusto - amen
When it finally dried and
The poo back inside
Andiamo was ready to ride

Yes folks it true, I was able to repair for $40 what would have been at least $500 at the shop to replace a bad waste water holding tank!! Yippie
It did take about 10 hours total of my time
But hey -- who is counting.

Life back to some semblance of normal here in Colorado.
We are getting booted out of our campsite this AM with weekenders that made reservations last January.

So we are heading up the hill, also known as I-70, to Hot Sulphur Springs, which is a lovely little hippy dippy type area with great hot springs, free camping!!!!!, and of course fishing. Then back down to Denver for a few days to say good bye to friends and family until we return in late summer.

Yesterday was great fun with Grandkids Grace and Caleb at the beach on Cherry Creek Reservoir. Building mud structures, making new friends, laughing, and splashing in the chilly waters. Then daughter Morgan and husband Seth dropped by for dinner and conversation while the kids, dirtier than a Manhatten Sewage worker, played until dark with their news best friends. It was a magical evening until the mosquitoes decided to join the party.

Thanks again to all that read our little adventure blog,

Andiamo!
Captain and Ms Charlotte and JoJo the wonder dog

Attacking the Leaking Pooper

It's not everyday that one gets the opportunity to play with raw sewage. It's not everyday that one gets to crawl under a camper where this raw product has been leaking onto the concrete and put one's hands and fingers around slimy, nasty, poo-filled areas. This is just not something we get to do everyday.

However, today is my day to do such an activity. As soon as I finish typing I will be putting on my chemical warfare suit, aka a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, and crawling under Andiamo with a grinder and drill to remove all the "residue" around a crack in our sewage line.

Sure I could pay someone else to do this, but I would be depriving myself of this experience. And as you all know, I am all about the experiences life offers us. This is just not one that would have volunteered for unprovoked.

Ms Charlotte will be providing moral support and tequila if needed for this activity.

I have tried many different ways to fix this type of problem in the past with little success. On other campers I have used JB Weld, Epoxy, Steel Putty, Epoxy Putty, Liquid Nails, Elmer's Glue, Gorilla Glue,  and chewing gum. Nothing works.

My buddy and sometimes cohort in "projects", Doug "the master RV mechanic" Pollock has sworn that the only thing that works on black plastic is this stuff called Plasti-mend. It's sounds like something out of a children's book, but Doug says it works. But first you have to grind away all  the other stuff that didn't work including poo residue build up around the aforementioned crack.

I find it rather humorous that my sewage problem is referred to as a "crack". Just sayin'. Anyway, back to the story.

Since it was 156 degrees here in Denver yesterday, I have decided to spend the early morning hours today under the camper on by back before the concrete becomes so hot you could fry some bacon on it.

More to follow after my first attempt at "preparing the crack for repair". I think I would rather be going in for hemorrhoid surgery to fix my own crack than what I am about to attempt.

Stay tuned for more fun and games (and pictures) from the road...

Andiamo!
Captain Poo Bear and Ms Charlotte

Poetry Reading

Most of you most likely don't know that I write a little poetry and do a little storytelling. But if you do know me, you know that I do love to tell a good story.

Last night in Denver I was featured Poet/Storyteller at Stage C, which is a local Denver institution. The venue last night was the famous Mercury Cafe, a funky restaurant bar with a venue for performers. It's a throwback from the 70's for sure. Lots of tapestries and Christmas lights everywhere.

We arrived early and had a wonderful dinner with the couple that started Stage C a number of years ago, Marcella Skogen and Wayne Massi.

Since most of you weren't there, I thought I would share the first piece I read. It's about searching the highways across America looking for an old fashioned honest to God service station. They are few and far between. If you know of one of these places please let us know. We would love to stop by and filler 'er up.

I hope you enjoy........

The Road Seems so easy 

when looking at it from the comfort of my home.

Reality always seems to show up a little differently than in my dreams.

Sometimes harder --- but mostly just... different

On the maps all the places appear to be closer together than I expect it will take us to cover that piece of ground.

The maps don’t really give you much information about the turf between the dots on the paper. That is where the action is!!

Tiny diners along the blue highways selling coconut cream pies and velvet pictures of Elvis alongside “official” jackets with NASCAR emblazoned across the back.

We pass along abandoned service stations that gave up trying to compete with the big chain outfits like Roadrunner, Quick Mart, Kum and Go, U-totem, Tote and Poke, -- the list goes on forever.

But we keep looking for one of the good old boy stations  where someone greets you with a red rag hanging out of their back pocket and a cigarette hanging out of the corner of their mouth.

With their names displayed proudly across their hearts – gas station attendant names like Leroy, Gus, Sparky, Joe bob, Clarence and Boo.

We haven’t found one yet, but we will keep looking for a real gas station that sells Peppermint Patties and Chicken Stix.

Andiamo!

Capt Coy and Ms Charlotte 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

When we started our adventure we knew that it would not all be wine and roses. It did not take long for the reality of being on the road pulling 16 thousand pounds down the highways at 60 plus miles per hour.

Our first day on the road was a short one. Thank God. We left Hot Springs, Arkansas after having new tires put on Andiamo, our 34' camp trailer. We headed west to Daisy State Park on Lake Greeson which is only 50 miles from home. We stopped overnight there for Ms Charlotte's going away party with Weyerhaeuser Lumber. They had fried catfish, homemade coleslaw and all the fixins. Just a great evening.

When we opened the camper after our first 50 miles, it looked like a bomb had exploded inside. There was stuff scattered everywhere. Lessons learned in the fine art of stowing all gear before heading out on the road. Thankfully nothing was broken and only our pride was bruised.

The second day on the road was quite eventful. That is a really nice way of saying a rough one. Andiamo is not a new camper. She is 11 years old and even though everything works, not everything works perfectly.

As we were cruising along just 30 miles south of Tulsa we heard a Whoooooshing noise that came from the camper. It occured as we were going under an overpass, so my problem solving brain instantly decided it was nothing more than us driving through puddled water. That didn't seem to satisfy Ms Charlotte. She looked back and saw what was left of our awning flapping against the side of the camper. I looked into the mirror and saw the remnants of the metal attachments bouncing around along the interstate. The sound I mentioned was the tearing of the fabric on the awning away from the supports. Not a good sound at all to hear at that moment.

We were Extremely fortunate that this mishap did not occur when we in heavy traffic in Tulsa or what was a problem could have become a disaster.

We were able to stop the rig in a perfect place to be able to assess the situation. We both remained surprisingly calm and decided the best thing to do was to rip the remaining canvas down from it's attachment to the camper. Then we pulled the remaining pieces of the metal awning together and used bungy cords to fasten it to the side of the unit.

We we got back in the truck we were both able to laugh at our plight and decided to put a large warning sign on the back of the camper that tells everyone to stay 500' back because we are RV Rookies!

The only real bright spot in the situation is that we now have a very nice ground cloth to put under our tables.

One of the life lessons for me here is to not take anything for granted. The old latches on the awning had loosed and opened from the road vibrations. I remember wondering a couple of weeks ago if these latches might need a little reinforcement, but did nothing about it. Hopefully I will not do that again. I vow to pay attention to that little voice in the back of my head.

Day three on the road produced no mechanical failures that we are aware of, and we cruised into Denver, Colorado last evening just in time to get our camp set up and enjoy a glass of wine as the sunset over the Rockies.

We plan on spending at least 10 days here to celebrate my birthday with my kids and grandkids. That should prove to be a great time. If they ask me what I want for my birthday, I will tell them a nice awning!

The Captain and Ms Charlotte

YIKES!! It's time to go

Today is our last day getting everything ready to head out on the road tomorrow. So many things to do in the next 24 hours.

Our "list" is down to about 10 items. The big ticket items are checked off, but the little stuff will eat up our day today. When we started planning there were over 30 items on the list! It will feel great to lock the house later today and move into our new portable home.

When we looked at all the "stuff"(Charlotte has another name for it) we didn't think it would all fit, but sure enough it did. Plenty of "shoe space" for Queen Charlotte. That would have been a deal breaker. Also, enough room for my fly rods, gear, belly boat, and two grills for manly cooking on the road. Also was able to get my tools in there as well. Trying to decide if I should take me mig welder too. I know I will want it if I don't have it. So many choices, so little time.

Trying to decide what pictures to take to put on the limited wall space has been a challenge as well. It's amazing all the thoughts that go through our minds as we are trying to make these kind of decisions. Everything seems so very important initially but most of it fades into the back ground quickly.

Perspective changes our decision at every turn. I hope to write more about this later when I have more time to sit and reflect. But today is Go Day.

Thanks again for your interest in our madness. Any tips or ideas for living the Gypsy Lifestyle are appreciated.

Andiamo!!!!!

Coy and Charlotte and JoJo

Getting Ready

Starting a 4000 mile journey is easy. You just get in the truck and head out on the road. However, preparing for that journey is another story all together.

We have been planning this adventure now for about 5 months. We bought an older 5th wheel camper we have named "Andiamo"or "Let's Go" in Italian. Then we had to get a newer truck to pull the 34', 15,000 pound beast. This turned into purchasing a new Dodge 2500 with a diesel motor. Those of you that know me know that I would never purchase anything new especially a vehicle. But I think we made a wise choice in getting a truck that has a full warranty and such, and it's a damn nice truck.

We are now down to what clothes to put into a 4' wide closet. Charlotte is moving from a walk in closet, so she has many harder choices to make than me. Having said that, I had to go through 19 fly rods and choose 6 that I would take on the road. That was tough.

The other aspects of leaving are deciding what to do with birds, dogs, the house, etc. Fortunately, friends have stepped in to help us in with all of this stuff. So we are now down to one dog, Josephina, a ten pound miniature Schnauzer.

Other choices include what spices to take and what tools to take in a limited amount of space. We are moving from 2500 square feet into less than 400 square feet. We really are putting 10 pounds of flour into a 5 pound bag. It's not easy, but we are getting there. We have two more days to put the finishing touches on the whole shebang and then we are off on Wed.

We so appreciate those that are following us on our blog. We hope to make it fun and entertaining as well as enlightening. We are living our dreams being Rewired not Retired.

Bon Voyage,

Ms Charlotte and the Captain