Spearman, TX

The Windmill Town

We have spent a week in Spearman, TX in the Texas Panhandle. We came here to have our hitch receiver on the truck welded and to visit our cousins.
The drought effects started 15 miles north of the Oklahoma border and across the Oklahoma Panhandle into the Texas. It is so dry that the irrigation systems are unable to put enough water on the crops for optimum growth. The corn is thin and the dry land cotton is really spotty. When we came through here in June the corn had just been planted and was just inches high. Now the corn is golden and being harvested. The soil is being worked in anticipation of planting winter wheat.
Spearman is a sleepy small town unless you talk to the farmers.They always have something to do. They are in the fields planting, fertilizing, irrigating, harvesting, moving equipment from one field to another. The farmers  fix their pumps, tractors, irrigation systems or fences and any other equipment needed for the job.
This town still has its cobbled streets downtown. Most of the businesses downtown are focused on farm business. There are seed companies, fertilizer stores, several large grain dryers and lots of storage for the crops. Several new restaurants have opened in the town since early summer with Mexican restaurants leading the way. We enjoy coming here to slow down because most everyone is not a hurry. The Football game was last night and we could hear the crowd and some of the announcements.

Cobble  Streets in Downtown

Grain Elevator (Dryer)

Grain Storage

More Grain Storage

Volunteer Sunflowers

  These multiple headed plants are the result of planting sunflowers the year before from hybrid seeds that will not sprout the single headed plant as the parent plant. This plant has a 1 to 2 inch center where as the parent plant has a 10 to 15 inch center. Most commercial seeds are hybrids.

Dry Land Cotton

Irrigated Cotton

Green Corn

Dry Corn Ready to Harvest

Milo or Sorghum Corn

Big Dry Field John Deere

Muddy Field John Deere

Traveling South

Left Gillette, WY on September 2 and traveled to Spearman, TX stopping at Hill City, SD and North Platte, NE to spent the nights. In Hill City we stopped at a KOA and in North Platte we stayed at the WalMart parking lot.
 We traveled 187 miles the first day, 304 miles the second day and 381 miles the third. This is more miles then we normally travel but the miles were easy, plus we had a nice tailwind. We arrived at our destination, Spearman, TX, on the 4th of September. We are having a welder take a look at and fix our hitch on the truck. We will spend maybe six days here and visit our cousins. The hot weather has ended for now, highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s for the Texas Panhandle.

Gillette, WY

We arrived in Gillette on August 27th to attend the Escapees Escapade. What an interesting time was had by all attendees. One could attend classes from 8:30am to 4:00pm for four days. I went to classes in Blogging, Cleaning the Rig, Controlling odors, Picasa, and lots of other things. A Market was open every day with everything an RVer might want. The final tally was 679 rigs and 1,286 attendees. The Cam Plex complex was unbelievable in its size and accommodations. (1,100 RV spaces)

Gillette, WY

Flowers

Flowers from MN and TX

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Tecumseh's Trading Post

This is a small museum in Cody, WY. It is just great. Has one of the largest collections of arrow heads I have seen. And it is free!!!

Tiny buffalo driven over the edge of a cliff are suspended in mid-fall. Mountain men fight and throw tomahawks at the Green River Rendezvous. A stockade trading post, first known structure built by whites in Wyoming, is besieged by Sioux. Chief Joseph retreats from the Army through the mountains. Indians communicate with smoke signals. Little Big Horn swarms with hundreds of people. A homestead is burned by Indians, with prisoners marching in front of their captors.
A train winds through the scenes, and visitors can push a button to operate it. Recordings and a map will help guide you through this unique exhibit.
Jerry Fick spent his lifetime collecting and making the figures. Portrayals are historically accurate, though not necessarily to scale.
The museum section of the complex includes thousands of Western and Indian artifacts.  Including full size wildlife mounts, guns of the Frontier and fur trade artifacts.

An 1882 issue of Harper's Weekly details the death of Jesse James. A beaver hat, pre-1840, was made from grinding beaver fur and mixing it with mercury.
The oldest piece of Indian pottery dates from about 1200 AD and was excavated in Pennsylvania in the 1920s.
The Old West Miniature Village and Museum is located with Tecumseh's Frontier Trading Post, which produced clothing for the movies "Tombstone" and "Son of the Morning Star."
The museum is open daily 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. mid-May through mid-September. During the winter season, hours vary, please let us know you are coming!

Cody Dam

We have spent the last month in Wyoming, three weeks in Cody and one week in Gillette. It has been hot, up to 97 but is cooling down today. Cody has many interesting things to see. Cody was founded by Buffalo Bill Cody in 1901. Buffalo Bill was the most famous person in the world in 1901. He had toured the world and across the United States with his wild west shows. One site I enjoyed visiting was the Cody dam which was completed in the winter of 1910.

Visitors Center - Cody Dam

Top of the Dam

Looking Down From The Top of the Dam

The dam was built only during the winter because of the high waters on the Shoshone River from snow melt and summer rains. The dam was originally called Shoshone Dam but was renamed Cody Dam in 1924 to honor Buffalo Bill. When completed in 1910 it was the tallest dam in the world. The dam supplies irrigation water to 93,000 acres of land in the Bighorn Basin. I bought a "Dam t-shirt" to remember my visit.

Buffalo Bill Cody

Cody is most famous for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, a museum of several parts. Western Arts, Buffalo Bill, Firearms, Greater Yellowstone Natural History, Plains Indian History are the main parts of the museum. Also there are traveling exhibits during the year.  My favorite was the Western Art section with its Remington bronze statues and paintings. This is a world class museum and should be on everyone's list of places to visit.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Bear Claw Neck less

Nature Center

 Cody is also known for its deer that run free in the city.

Running Free

Wall, SD

At the end of the prairie where the hills begin, there is "the Wall," a strip about nine miles long with spires, ridges and gullies. The town of Wall is named for this rugged wall.

Wall is the home of Wall Drug advertised from far and wide and worth a visit. Wall Drug was purchased by Ted and Dorothy Hustead in 1931 and they gave the business five years to become a success. This was in the Depression and no one had any money and for four years they lost money and thought they would have to give up. Then Dorothy thought about all the travelers going to Yellowstone and the newly completed Mt. Rushmore passing by on the highway and not stopping in the drug store. She came up with the idea to offer free ice water. Ted put up signs on the highway and the first summer they had to hire eight shop girls to help with the customers. From that time forward the drug store has offered free ice water and nickel coffee. It now covers a city block with lots of customers. It sells everything from original art work to tee shirts to a meal, morning, noon and night and outback you can ride a Jackalop. You never know who you could run into in Wall. Evan Oscar Mayer Weiner visits Wall.

Get your picture in a covered wagon

Old Prospector

Dinosaurs

A city block building

More Dinosaurs

Ride the Jackalope

Wall of Pictures

Signing Cowboys

Oscar Mayer Weiner