Miracle Mile, WY

It is coming up on Thanksgiving and I once spend Thanksgivings by myself in a small cabin in a remote spot in Wyoming. I have been there many times in summer and winter. Some of my fondest memories of Thanksgiving were there with my dog Sage. I always write my x-mas cards on thanksgiving and when I was at cabin #6 I cooked up Dinty Moore stew for dinner. 

This is cabin #6 and I enjoyed several Thanksgivings here in the center of Wyoming. I know it doesn't look like much with two rooms, a kitchen and bedroom. The outhouse was a short walk. 

The cabin has a central gas stove or wall furnace that kept the place warm. It had a small two burner gas stove I used to heat up the stew. It was very basic with a table and two chairs in the kitchen and a  bunk bed in the bedroom. 

 

Why is it called Miracle Mile, you ask? No, not the abundance of wildlife. It is called the Miracle Mile because there is a mile of river between two lakes that provides some of the best trout fishing in the world. 

Not only is it between two lake but there are mountains all around. 

The water level remains very constant due to the dam that feeds the river from the upper lake. 

It is never very crowded because it seems only avid fishermen know about this place and it is also hard to get to with 40 miles of gravel road to get back to the stream. It is very peaceful. 

People even fish here in the winter. The water flows most of the year. 

I like to fish and even had the pleasure in winter. Yes, that's Sage and we had gone fishing. Not much luck that day.

And yes there were fish to catch. This was a summer catch.

I have fished there summer and winter. It is such a private pace with beautiful surroundings.

It is hard to judge scale of objects in the distance. Can you see the fishermen in the photo? 

This is a photo zoomed in of the last photo. This is a big stream and big mountains.

It is never very crowded.

It certainly is different in the winter.

Can you imagine Pelicans in Wyoming.

Some of the shoreline is very rocky.

I always find it to be a beautiful place.

There are 6 cabins and I have always had #6 but here is #3.

I hope to return someday in the near future to fish again.

 

Utah Parks

Southern Utah is a dramatic, colorful, and fun place to visit. 

Check out a map to see where this is located.

Picktographs from the early Native Americans. 

Amazing rock formations all along the drive. 

Never a dull moment, do you see the power pole in the picture.

Check out the rich colors.

An old one room country school house.

Got to love the scenery.

Pretty dry place as you can see from the vegetation.

I was there on my bike once. 

Very remote!

Another great park.

Lots of color here!

Even snow in July.

You can even go through the rocks. 

How about this, a gas station in a rock. I went in there to pay for the gas for my bike.

I couldn't pass up the bakery.

Want to climb that sand pile.

Try to get out to southern Utah someday.

Big Rig Days

In 2004 I was at a crossroads where I had to make a decision. I was not making enough to cover expenses living in Colorado so I decided to change course. 

I decided to go to a school to learn to drive big rigs, semi's, 18-wheelers.

Here are a few pictures of the days on the road and the equipment I drove. See if you think you would have enjoyed driving a Big Rig.

This is my first truck. It was a 2003 Freightliner I started driving in 2005.

I lived in the sleeper and it was very comfortable. It had a Refrigerator, TV, Heat and Air Condition, Closet, and real comfortable bed. 

If you look close you can see my buddy and friend Sage, a border collie. 

A great friend.

There were many beautiful places. This was just south of Moab, Utah. 

Delivering to Family Dollar stores required an ability to back-up the truck to doors in tight places. 

Outside of Grand Junction, Colorado are some really cool mountains. 

This golf ball house is located in western Arizona near Lake Havasue. 

What a place to live.

The trucks were very comfortable and really easy to drive once you got the hang of it. On the driver's seat is the computer I used to get and send messages to the company from all over the US.

BIG TEX is a restaurant in Amerillo, Texas where if you can eat a 54 ounce steak you get it free. 

I thought the sunset against this hillside was a beautiful color. 

I drove in winter also. This is east of Flagstaff, Arizona on Interstate 40. 

In the distance was a herd of Elk. 

Cattle of the west are often feed hay when the snow is so deep they can not get to the grass underneath. This was on the border between Wyoming and Idaho. 

It's not the best picture but I think you can see the Bald Eagle. 

It could be very cold and windy putting 100 gallons of diesel fuel into the truck. I had to fuel my own truck and check the oil at every stop. 

There were some really nice snowy days as well. 

This was at a rest stop along the interstate. 

My second truck was shorter so I could deliver into Canada which had overall length restrictions. This one had only 50,000 miles and was only a few months old.

This was very early in the morning in Toronto, Canada at a hotel on Lake Ontario. I had a load of mattresses to be delivered. I had to park the truck on the street during rush hour and it did not make drivers happy. It was there for an hour. I got to go take a walk along the water front while men unloaded the truck.

I saw things along the highways that were not very nice either. These people got out alive. 

Mt. Rainier, Washington.

Check out the spelling on the sign at an old deserted motel in an old deserted town in New Mexico. 

Crossing a dam near Page, Arizona.

Roswell, New Mexico truck stop. 

Trash left by truckers at a truck stop in El Paso, Texas. At night the drivers would clean out trailers and put the mess in the parking lot. Sad!

Crossing a river.

Mt. Shasta, California.

A little better view of Mt. Shasta.

I saw a lot of beautiful country and a lot of states from Maine to California and Florida to Washington state. I loved it.

This is Wilson Arch south of Moab, Utah.

Never a dull moment.

Lots of highway, see the lake in the distance?

We had a good time!