I am pleased to report that as both a learning experience and a fun outing, our inaugural camping adventure on Thursday with Girasole, our new little T@B trailer, was a success (though not without a bit of unanticipated excitement!) Naturally I had to record it for posterity. :-)
Here's BW putting the finishing touches on setting up our campsite under the watchful - if somewhat baffled - gaze of the girls...
And here BW conducts a final inspection of our portable dog kennel set-up, which met with everyone's enthusiastic approval...
We bought two of these for the kennel, used a few of the interlocking foam mats we'd purchased to go under their beds, and used an old tarp for a shady shelter. And we hauled all of it (plus more of the mats and our folding camp chairs) on top of the Jeep in our new soft cargo bag. BW's package-car loading days at UPS (memorialized on his water bottle, lol) sure came in handy...
The kennel was very handy for keeping the girls both safe and legal (the park has a leash law) while we were busy and overnight, though they were so very well-behaved (as we knew they would be) that they were quite content to just hang out with us, never wandering off or making a sound, even when other people walked by with their dogs. We camped along the Tongue River (I think; I'll explain later!) at Connor Battlefield State Park in Ranchester, about 20 miles north of Sheridan. It's a small campground, and when we arrived at around 2 that afternoon there were only two other campers there. A few more arrived during the night, but it stayed very quiet. Except for the trains! We didn't realize the tracks were just three blocks away, and trains went by all night long, blowing their whistles with gusto. The only thing that drowned them out was the thunder - I know, look at that cloudless blue sky, right? More on the unpredicted midnight storm coming up. Meanwhile, enjoy our peaceful campsite by day, like we did...
We also all enjoyed our walks around the park. Let me take you on a little tour…
This place wasn't always peaceful. This monument marks the site where an Arapaho village of about 500 inhabitants once stood...
At around 8 in the morning of August 29, 1865, in what is now known as the Battle of the Tongue River (or Connor Battle), the non-belligerent village was attacked by Gen. Patrick Connor, commander of the Powder River Expedition, and about 300 of his soldiers. Most of the young Arapaho men were gone, raiding ponies from the Crow along the Big Horn River. The women, children, and mostly elderly men who were left in the village were caught completely off guard by the attack and the indiscriminate firing by the soldiers, and many were killed, wounded, and captured. After the initial attack, the few able warriors in the village managed to put up an effective defense, retreating 12 miles up Wolf Creek while covering the escape of the surviving women and children. Most of the soldiers remained in the village, looting and burning about 250 lodges, while Connor and 30 or so of his soldiers and Pawnee scouts pursued the retreating Arapaho, who counter-attacked. When all was said and done, Connor claimed to have killed 63 Arapaho, including 35 warriors (the latter number one that historians believe was probably exaggerated), with a loss to himself of five dead and two seriously wounded.
The highly observant among you may have noticed that we happened to be camping there on the 149th anniversary of this tragedy, and its victims were very much on my mind. I agree with what this brief article about "The Connor Battle," states in its final sentence: "The tragic events of the past can be felt in this quiet and contemplative setting." And I take issue with calling an unprovoked attack on non-combatants a "battle." It's worth noting that as the Powder River Expedition began, Connor's orders to his officers were, "You will not receive overtures of peace or submission from Indians, but will attack and kill every male Indian over 12 years of age." (Connor's superiors countermanded this order). It's also worth noting that after this, the Arapaho did become enemies of the US Army (understandably!), attacking a wagon train three days later on Sept 1 and joining forces with the Cheyenne and Lakota (Sioux) in their successful attack on Fort Fetterman the following December.
I think the Arapaho may be continuing to exact a small measure of revenge, in that both times we've visited this park we've been attacked by a cloud of mosquitos whenever we stood before this monument. Didn't matter what time of day it was, and we didn't experience it anywhere else in the park!
All that history of violence and tragedy here stands in stark contrast to the playground that now also marks the spot. It was deserted the entire time we were there and so never disrupted the "quiet and contemplative setting"...
The bison appeared to be made for climbing with all its toeholds and handholds,
while the stagecoach was a unique alternative to typical playground equipment.
On the opposite side of the park is this nifty suspension footbridge that crosses the river (or creek?) to a residential area. The dogs were very brave about crossing it a few times, given that it sways and bounces noticeably!
Despite the bouncing, the bridge provided a great vantage point for taking the next two photos. I have tried to do my homework on this, I really have - but I still don't know if this waterway, which wends its way around three sides of the park, is the Tongue River or Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek is a tributary of the Tongue River and the road that runs along this portion of the river/creek is "Wolf Creek Road." The river/creek is identified on various maps of the town and park as the Tongue River, Wolf Creek, and Five-Mile Creek (where'd that one come from?!) I'm guessing the portion beside our campsite where the water flows more rapidly is the Tongue River, and this more sedate portion opposite is Wolf Creek, but that's the best I can do. It's pretty, whatever it's called, especially with the evening sun shining on it and the Big Horn Mountains in the distance...
The arrow is pointing to our campsite and "outfit," as they call a truck or a tow vehicle + trailer-of-any-kind combination in these parts...
While we relaxed at our campsite that evening, I noticed a white church steeple, nicely illuminated by the evening sun in the distance on the other side of the river, and took this photo of it with my telephoto lens...
Not long after, when we took the girls for another stroll across the suspension bridge to explore the surrounding neighborhoods, we came upon the church, which turned out to have a Mini-Me! lol...
As dusk fell, we went inside and prepared our first meal in Girasole - a complex affair that we slaved over for hours! ;-)~ We've enjoyed various Dr. McDougall soups at home for years and are happy that they, along with his delicious oatmeal, are also perfect for camping (just add hot water)! BW had snagged the chocolate goodies at the health food store the day before, but the beer was a spontaneous purchase. We've been told by several veteran RV campers that some people engage in this activity in order to socialize (so our main goal being to get away from people might prove tricky!), and we'd also heard that the colorful T@Bs are people magnets. Sure enough, we'd barely arrived and were setting up the dog kennel when a man from one of the two other campers in the park strolled over to visit and ask about our T@B, Scotch on the rocks in hand. He was joined later by his wife, who we'd hoped was coming to fetch his talkative ass but no such luck, she was there to join him (with a stinky lit cigarette in her hand, yuck). They were nice people, but a half hour of their uninvited, chatty company right after we'd arrived was a bit much! Anyway, a while after they left I said to BW, "I don't even like Scotch, but damn his drink looked good to me!" And BW said, "I thought so too!" And then together we said, "Let's get beer!!!" :-) Our site had no shade, Mr. and Mrs. Chatty Britches and the other camper having snagged the only two shady spots, and running our A/C really sucked the generator juice, so needing to get more fuel gave BW a great excuse to pick up some Fat Tire ale while he was at it. We enjoyed our simple meal on our new table (having ditched the heavy convertible table/bed platform that came with Girasole, installing bed rails and slats instead along with getting this lightweight folding table), by the light of our sweet new little 3-way LED lantern...
While we were noshing, BW remembered Girasole's stereo and jumped up to turn it on. It happened to be tuned to Sheridan's oldies station and he'd turned it on just as the chorus to Still the One was beginning! "We're still having fun after all these years…" :-) So of course we clinked our beer bottles and sang along! (And you can too, as I've put the video with lyrics at the bottom of this post!) :-)
It's all fun and games till a wicked thunderstorm that no one predicted appears overhead at 1am (a ghostly, meteorological anniversary reenactment of Connor's attack on the Arapaho, perhaps?) BW got up when he heard one of the dogs pawing at the fence (most likely Tess, who is terrified of thunderstorms), and that's when he saw all the lightning in our vicinity. A loud crack of thunder woke ME up, and the race was on. Willow and Josie can't safely or easily jump in or out of our Jeep anymore, so we bought this PetLoader a few weeks ago - best purchase we've made. But we had to get it untethered from the back of the Jeep and deploy it, put a harness on Willow (she still has bouts of vertigo and holding the top of the harness helps steady her as she uses the PetLoader steps), put collars and leashes on Tess and Josie, gather and shake off their beds and put them in the Jeep, and then load the girls - in the dark and the wind (luckily the rain held off), with lightning striking all around us and thunder crashing and banging overhead. Though our girls haven't used the PetLoader very often - and never under such challenging circumstances - they were real champs! Loaded right up and spent the rest of the night sleeping contentedly in the back of the Jeep. We rolled the windows down so they could catch the nice breeze, and although it rained most of the rest of the night we were all lucky that the inside of the Jeep stayed dry. I checked on them at 4 in the morning and wish I had a photo of our little angels snoring peacefully away, all lying with their butts touching in the middle of the Jeep with their bodies fanned out like flower petals. :-)
The next morning we had a muddy mess to contend with, but that's all part of the camping experience. It was chilly and overcast but the rain didn't resume, and as you can see in the reflection of Girasole's front window we even had a few tatters of blue sky flirt with us before it finally cleared up late that morning. I took photos of the pretty, chameleon-like sky and will share them as part of this week's SkyWatch post. Meanwhile, here is BW sipping his hot tea and being entertained by Willow's vain attempts to convince Tess it would be fun to mud-wrestle...
