Longmire Country

 

While walking into the campground office in Buffalo Wyoming to register I saw souvenirs for Longmire. Longmire was a popular TV show a few years ago. I really liked the show, watching all seven seasons. I even bought the official Walt Longmire Cowboy hat and coat to wear out west. I remembered right away that Longmire took place in Buffalo Wyoming. The show was not filmed in Buffalo. The author of Longmire series of books lives near in Buffalo and is a frequent visitor.

The woman who checked me into the campground was not very pleasant at all. Even after I mentioned Longmire she was rude, she said she hated the show. Then she led me to the lower edge of the campground along a creek and quickly left before giving me a chance to inspect the site. While going through my normal exercise of trying to line the rig up square in the site, I noticed that even though the site was gravel, my front right tire left a 10 inch rut behind it. The deep rut immediately concerned me causing me to worry about getting stuck in soft ground. There had been a lot of rain there, and the campground sloped down to a creek which I was across from.

The first thing I do when I get to a campsite is to figure out how I am going to get out. I often walk the route out of the campground. One of the main stressors for me in RVing is worrying how I am going to get out of a campground. Often the concerns are narrow roads, or other rigs extending past the perimeter of their sites partially blocking the road. I never really enjoy a campground if I don’t see a clear way to get out. I always feel better when I see the way out is easy.

When I arrived in Glacier National Park for two weeks, I realized right away that I really didn’t have a way to drive forward out of the site. I knew right away getting out would be a problem and I worried about that for two weeks. The last day I was there I was talking with a guy across the road from me and he agreed. The problem was not just because the turn was tight. The RV was going to severely twist and flex because of the higher terrain on the right side and low terrain on the left. I considered backing out the entire time I was there. I knew I had driven in that way, so I could back out that way. He helped me back out and even had the guy behind me move his truck blocking the road behind me.

In Buffalo, I went back to the office to tell them how soft their site was and how I had left a huge rut there. The women who were now in the office were much friendlier. They assured me that ground was solid and they added a lot of gravel to make the site harder. To the best of their knowledge that might have been true, but they were wrong. We talked about Longmire again and they were much more positive about the show. We talked about the show for a while. They told me I had to go into the historic downtown area of Buffalo and see all the Longmire banners of the characters hanging from the light posts.

The weather was now warm, and I was in a t-shirt and shorts. Closed for the 4th of July, I saw nothing open. I started walking towards a steak house that was only 1/2 mile away that Google Maps indicated was open. The steak house probably was open but there was only one car parked there. I decided to walk into town which was about 2 miles away. I saw almost no one in town. I saw the Longmire Banners, one of them picturing Lou Diamond Phillips, who played “Standing Bear.” Standing Bear owned the local saloon and he always answered the phone by saying, “It’s another beautiful day at the Red Pony Saloon and continual soiree.” Every place in Buffalo looked closed. I continued walking down the street and saw some folks walking into a place, so I followed them in. The place was a historic hotel called the Occidental Hotel and Saloon.

I went in and sat down at the end of the bar. The Occidental Saloon is a historic landmark and is over 139 years old. The saloon was enjoyed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Teddy Roosevelt, and now me. Located nearby was the hiding place for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and their Hole In the Wall Gang. Their gang name came from the remote The-Hole-in The Wall Pass in the Big Horn Mountains. Deadwood South Dakota, east of Buffalo, a lawless wild west town where anything went, was where Calamity Jane sometimes lived.

I looked up from where I was sitting and saw a photo of Longmire. The autograph confused me because the signature did not look like Robert Taylor who played Sheriff Walter Longmire. The autograph was from Craig Johnson, the author of the books the series is based on. That is when it dawned on me that the guy who wrote the books lived here. Robert Taylor is from Australia. I wondered why he might be in Wyoming.

I only expected to stay for a bit, have some dinner and then walk back to the campground. Tomorrow was a long day of driving to Rapid City South Dakota. Then I found out that Thursday night is Bluegrass Night. Several local musicians play Bluegrass music and many locals show every Thursday. The bartenders said the saloon would soon be standing room only. I had a seat. I looked like a local since I had my Longmire Hat and Wyoming t-shirt on. The locals immediately accepted me there I think because of my Longmire Cowboy Hat. The tourists asked me questions because it appeared as if I was a local sheriff. Tourists were probably surprised to see the local sheriff drinking wine, not beer, and in such large quantities.

The bartenders were very nice to me even though they were really busy. The waitress was friendly too, she kept winking at me. Again, I think the reaction must have been because of my Walt Longmire hat. The hat is distinctive even for a cowboy hat. I talked to a biker dude and his old lady who were from Pennsylvania. They were a little rough. When they found out I had traveled for almost three months they seem to accept me. An older couple at the end of the bar were also very friendly.

Several hours and several glasses of wine later, while waiting for the band to start, a thunderstorm let loose. The temperature dropped quickly. I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, I had not planned to stay that long. They opened the front door I was near so smokers could stand outside and not get wet and the chill rushed in from outside. Who would think that in Wyoming smoking would be banned? I think the Marlboro man lives in Wyoming. Perhaps they are more worried about the 139 year old Occidental Hotel accidentally burning down.

The band started and they were great. I really never knew what bluegrass was. I thought it was country-western music. You know, they had both kinds of music, country and western. Now I find out bluegrass is its own genre. I was really enjoying the music. The name of the band was David Stewart. They gave me a CD of theirs called “Don’t Sell Your Saddle.” That phrase must mean something. I think it means to not give up your dreams. I realized I was in for a really cold walk home even though the rain stopped. I had no saddle, horse or bicycle. The Harley dude told me that they were staying in the hotel and that there was a gift shop next door. So I went over to see if they had sweatshirts. Sure enough, they did, with a picture of the Occidental Hotel on the front. I knew I might only wear the sweatshirt once since I lived in Florida, but I gladly paid the $33 price tag so I would not freeze on what was at least a two-mile walk home (one I never had to make).

While I was in the hotel lobby next to the bar, I heard the band playing the Star-Spangled Banner. I looked into the bar. Everyone was standing, their hats off, hands over their hearts and singing. I did the same. Midway through the song, tears started streaming down my cheeks. Traveling on the 4th of July, I didn’t expect much of a 4th of July celebration. This was one of the most moving 4th of July moments of my life, and I have seen fireworks shot off in Washington DC on the 4th of July. You only just have to travel across to America to realize that there are really good nice people out there.

A few songs later I knew I had to get going home. The walk was going to take at least an hour. The bartender seemed worried about me, I had been there over four hours. I told her not to worry, that I was walking. She said that is why she worried about me. The older couple who was at the end of the bar, who had been there longer than me, offered to drive me back to the campground. They seemed like good people. I had talked to them for several hours so I took a chance. I would either be back at the campsite in 15 minutes or stuffed in a meat locker in a remote mountain cabin. Fifteen minutes later I was back at my RV. They handed me a card about finding Jesus, and I handed them a card for this website.

I got ready for bed right away. The drive to Rapid City South Dakota was over 200 miles. I have a general rule about not drinking the day before driving. You really need to feel fresh and alert while driving. I knew the next day would be tough.

The next morning I changed my mind about ten times whether to try to pull straight out of the campsite and risk getting stuck in the ground or try to back up. I had already seen the rut the front right tire caused. The rear of the coach is even heavier than the front since the engine is in the back. That is why they call it diesel pusher (DP). The DP literally pushes you from behind instead of having the engine in the front, similar to Indy Cars and F1 Cars. There are several reasons for locating the engine in the back. One is the noise from the engine, DPs are very quiet in the front so you can actually hear. The other is for space. Putting the engine in the back frees up a lot of space in the front. Locating the diesel-powered generator in the front also makes sense since you sleep in the back of the coach. The generator makes a lot of noise too but you generally run it if you don’t have shore power at night while you are sleeping.

I remembered my number one rule for travel, going back over 20 years. The rule is so important that I write it down in the note pad I keep on trips on the first page. “SAFETY FIRST.” I also remember talking with a fellow RVer Dennis McClin in Yellowstone that the most important rule in RVing is safety first. Pulling out straight would have been a breeze. Directly in front of me was the exit road with no turns. I decided to back out. I knew backing out of the space would be difficult. There was enough space in the rear, that was the way I drove into the site. And I also realized that the ground was more solid in the back. I did not see deep the ruts in the back.

Backing out meant I needed help and a spotter. I asked the people in the site next to me. They were either Swiss or German and language was a bit of a problem. The guy helped me back out, and it took some effort to clear some boulders on the left side of the site. The guy did a very good job guiding me, stopping me when I almost drove over a boulder. He directed me and gave me excellent suggestions to get out. People in RV parks are almost always very friendly and helpful. Driving a 42 foot bus by yourself is difficult. After finally successfully backing out, I made three tight turns, right, right, and left to make my way to the exit road.

While making the last turn to the exit road, I looked at the campsite I was in and my eyes widened with horror. I saw many huge ruts, one to two feet deep, throughout the site where I backed up and pulled forward several times. These ruts were mostly in the front of the site, but not as deep in the back. I saw the Swiss guy walking through the site as I left with his hand on his forward, shaking his head while looking at the huge deep ruts. I am not sure he understood what I meant when I said the RV weighs 20 tons or 40,000 pounds. He uses the metric system. Forty thousand pounds is over 18000 kilograms. Being stuck in the mud was the likely outcome if I had pulled forward. I got stuck in the mud on the maiden voyage of the Mountain Lioness, and I never want to experience that again. I almost stopped in the park office to tell them and complain. I had told them the previous day about the soft site. I just kept going, I had over 200 miles to drive. I left them with an unusable site and it’s their fault for putting me there. I guess someone could pitch a tent there, but then they would trip in the deep ruts especially after they filled up with water when it rained.

Besides the campground, Buffalo was great, one of the hidden gems in America that has not been overrun and ruined by tourists yet. That is except for one week during the Longmire Festival they have in late July when tourists descend on the town. The town gets overrun for a festival about a TV show about a fake town, fake county, fake people, and fictional stories., Oh never mind, lucky they didn’t film Star Wars there. The pure random chance of stopping in this town was one of the best days of the entire trip.

I didn’t feel so good the next day driving to Rapid City South Dakota. I drove past the town of Deadwood, another famous western town, and another great TV show with Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hitchcock, I was beginning to see a pattern here, This is where some of these famous western folks lived, eastern Wyoming and South Dakota. There is even a town called Cody after Wild Bill Cody. I tried to get a campground site in Deadwood, that would have been a great place to stay for a week. There were no sites available for the rest of the summer.

The drive was easy and I finally made it to South Dakota. I spent seven weeks in Wyoming and Montana. The campground in Rapid City was much better. They guided me to a wonderful long, huge, wide, and solid site, easy in and easy out. I somehow got two nights booked there for the 5th and 6th of July which took me through the long 4th of July weekend. I was grateful for the two days. I had driven five straight days since Glacier, over 1000 miles. I went into the campground office to see if I could stay for a few more days. They said there were no available sites for the rest of the summer. I still don’t know how I got the two nights on the 5th and 6th of July holiday weekend. Rapid City is near Mt Rushmore and the Badlands, which are very popular destinations. After all the crowds in Yellowstone and Glacier, I had no desire to go there. I had seen them as a kid, that would be enough. The nostalgia part of the tour was over. And of course, the motorcycle was still broken, so I would have had to rent a car again and sit in traffic. No thanks.

The next day the destination was Mitchell South Dakota. South Dakota is another huge state. I felt a little closer to home. I made my successful re-entry from orbit. Now the time arrived to navigate my way home. There was still over 2000 miles to go.

Next Post, Rapid City SD to Springfield Illinois.

Sow “Em On The Valley – The Carter Family