Hello from Chugwater, WY

Hello from Chugwater, WY

Sunday Evening July 18, 2010 (Third travelogue of this trip).

We are parked on the main street of Chugwater (map). We had decided to make our trip home (a bit less than 390 miles) in two days. I did quite a bit of thinking about where to stop. As I thought, a wave of nostalgia came over me.

In the mid '70s we joined a membership ranch in Wyoming (Flying X Ranch). It was located on Wyoming 34 not too far from Wheatland. We were among the first members and the membership was not all that costly. At the time we were living in Lakewood and getting away to a huge ranch with lots of wild animals, horses, fishing, swimming pool, square dancing, etc made for a great get-away. We spent a lot of time at the ranch and have a ton of memories.

The nostalgia creeps in twice in this story. First, the ranch had a bus that transported us to the ranch – yes an Eagle Bus!!!! Secondly, the bus used to stop in Chugwater to pick up meat for the meals at the ranch.

I did some searching on the Internet, hoping to find a picture of the Flying X bus. I will contact the ranch in the next couple of days to see if they have any photo achieves.

Chugwater is much like most small towns – dying. Kind of reminds us of Prescott. However, as I walked around, I saw the sign shown below. No question about it, we had to eat there. We talked at length with the owner and she said that while the rest of the town was mostly shut down, her business is doing very well. There was a couple in the “soda fountain” that had lived in Chugwater all their lives (at least 70 years) and they remembered the great meat store and talked about all of the gas stations, stores, etc. that existed before the interstate went around the town.

Great sign that got our attention!

Chugwater makes a big deal of their chili contest and “Chugwater Chili”. So, of course, we had to have a bowl for dinner and it was great. We also had great malts.

Just across the street from where we are parked there is a small outdoor museum. One of the items is a sheepherders wagon. I had thought one time of putting mural of one on the bus and labeling it “Our Shepherd's Wagon” Pat was not too hot for the idea {grin}

Sheepherder's wagon in Chugwater

It was close to 100 degrees when we got here, so we have been running the generator to keep the bus cool. In SD, the weather was quite warm in the daytime, but cool in the evening. Last night we had a HUGE thunderstorm that got everyone's attention.

That is all for now.