Our day of unlimited rest has put us a day behind in getting to our next planned destination in South Dakota, rather than drive the whole way, we search and we find Casper, Wyoming about half way on our route.

On the way in to town we hear about an amazing free discovery center that focuses on the trails out west in the 1800s. of course on this one day the center is closed due to construction blocking the road access. Instead we find Fort Casper, a really fascinating museum and reconstructed fort from the Wild West rebuilt by the CCC. We had a good time seeing the old living conditions out here during the late 1800’s despite many locals approaching us to tell us we need to take our kids to the trail center which is way better! The details in the stories of the raids against native people and the ensuing retaliations that took place at the exact location, really stuck with me. This era is often romanticized in popular culture but the first hand accounts don’t sound romantic at all.

We find the last available campsite right outside of town and they repeatedly warn us and apologize for how awful the site is and give us a list of reasons, in the worst case scenario we could barricade ourselves in the bus and watch movies and play games all night. Turns out that this site wouldn’t even crack the top ten for bad campsites this summer. Sure the road is a little noisy but that is more than made up for by the shade provided by our billboard. The real treat was the fact that this small town has Pronghorn Antelope lounging all over, the locals seem to be desensitized to them and id venture that seeing a squirrel might be more interesting to them. I’m amazed to see how the second fast animal on land has integrated itself into the small town. This campground rocked an indoor pool with a playground on the way. Perfect for another day of relaxing but filled with some activity, a sort of soft reintroduction to adventure before we get to the Black Hills of South Dakota tomorrow.