It is that time of year when we return to our Home Base 2, Hattiesburg/Petal, Mississippi. Our first stop on the way was Bend, Oregon. We will spend a day here getting some trailer work done before continuing on south.

Once we had the trailer work completed, we basically just drove straight to Petal, Mississippi. We did not do any site seeing along the way, but scenery was fantastic.

Oregon

The first day we drove through the Willamette National Forest on an Oregon Scenic Byway. We were able to boon dock for nothing, in the Deschutes National Forest by Bend, before getting the trailer work done. Below are some of the scenes along the way.

We were enjoying the fall colors along the way. Last year, we were never in an area to get a good view of the foliage as it turned colors.

The next few images show the results of a devastating fire in 2005.

The road into this campground was very primitive and there were not very many campers. There was an old abandoned, beat up car very close to us. It was a beautiful site but freaked me out!

After getting back on the road in the early afternoon, we knew we would not make a lot of mileage. We stopped at a Love’s truck stop in Ontario, Oregon. This was our first time to stay the night at a truck stop.

Idaho

We continued our travels, through Idaho. This is a beautiful state and we definitely plan to come back here when we can spend a lot of time. Just past the southern border, we reached Brigham, Utah. We boondocked for the night at a WalMart in Brigham, Utah. Utah is another state that we need to spend much more time in.

Utah

Wyoming

Wyoming is one more state we definitely need to visit. I think I foresee a trip that includes Idaho, Wyoming and Utah in our future. After driving all day, we reached Laramie, Wyoming. Our plan was to boondock again, at a WalMart. Our plans changed!

We first pulled into WalMart and cooked a meal for supper. As we were eating, a man pulled in near us, in a car. Apparently he hit the wrong button on his key, and it started beeping. This is nothing new in a WalMart! Before we knew it, he was screaming and hollering very loudly, proclaiming himself to be the Messiah. I was nervous and wanted to call the police but Dave convinced me to call the store instead. I did so and suggested to the woman who answered, that someone might want to check this out. We expected to see a policeman arrive soon but after almost an hour, no one arrived, so I called the Laramie police. Two squad cars arrived within five minutes. One parked on the side of our trailer where the man could not see him. They talked to him for a few minutes and then left. They were barely gone when he started screaming again about an RVer who had reported him and he knew who it was. (There was no way for him to know it was us, except that the squad car picked our trailer to park by.) He walked by our door and started making threats before he went on into the store. I called the police again! When they arrived and were talking to us, the man was returning to his car, saw them and started toward us, again ranting loudly. By then, there were two police cars and a sheriff in front of us. The man was arrested for disturbing the police but one officer suggested we might want to leave, in case the man was able to make bail. We moved on and spent another night at a truck stop, this one a Pilot, in Laramie.

The pictures below show our drive into Wyoming.

Colorado

Leaving Laramie, we headed toward Colorado. We soon hit very dense fog that lasted over 1/2 hour. We sure were happy to get out of it. However, we were not able to see much of the foothills in the area. Below are a few after the fog lifted.

Kansas

We reached Kansas that same day and stopped in a wayside rest near WaKeeney, Kansas. Overnight stays are not only allowed, but almost encouraged. The next morning was Sunday. We got up and started driving early, then stopped before noon for lunch. Being Sunday, it was Bloody Mary Sunday, so we set up outside the trailer to enjoy or weekly ritual.

We fond out that there are actually some hills in Kansas, something neither of us knew before. They are called the Smokey Hills of Kansas.

The wayside rest where had our Bloody’s, had a map of local history. Both the Santa Fe and the Oregon Trails passed through this area as well as several cattle drives.

Oklahoma

We continued and got east of Oklahoma City. In Minnesota, one can park overnight in casino lots. We found a casino and confirmed on a website that we could indeed stay there. To be on the safe side, Dave went inside and asked. He was told we could park there. We set up, grilled a supper then went to bed. At 4 AM, we were awakened by security, telling us it was NOT permissible to sleep there overnight. Yikes!

Louisiana and Mississippi

We had planned to take two more days to reach Petal, but with such an early start, we decided to continue on to Home Base 2. We reached Jane’s house about 6 PM on September 30.