Devil's Tower and How To Gain Lots Of Muscle Mass in 3 Weeks

Our experience becoming Care-A-Vanners for Habitat for Humanity was good.  It's a lot of work.  Hard labor work.  Lots of heavy moving things, such as piles of wood, compressors, piles of dirt and tools of the trade.  You also find yourself climbing up and down scaffolding and ladders.  You take down or put up that scaffolding all over the build.  Within an hour of starting on the first day, Chris was high up on a ladder with a nail gun putting up siding.  3 weeks was one week too long.  Most Care-A-Vanner builds last 2 weeks. 

It's a good way to build muscle.  Some morning we couldn't get our bodies to move. It was painful, but in a good way.  Kind of.

The idea behind Care-A-Vanners is that they show up as a group of 2, to maybe 8 couples.  We all park in the same RV Park.  We Care-A-Vanners work hard for two weeks and this gives a huge boost to the build.  This helps out the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate managing the build.  Our 6 couples, and one single women, put the build a month ahead of schedule. This means the family may be able to move in by Thanksgiving.  It was worth the work to have our Construction Manager tell us that.  We will do it again.

Before we left the Gillette area after the Escapade, we took a day trip to Devil's Tower.  It was a beautiful drive through the rolling hills of Wyoming.  Half way there we ran into a trial ride.  However, instead of cows, it was sheep going right down the middle of the highway.   The sheep dogs were doing a good job of containing about 200 sheep.  The cowboy on the horse and the cowboy on the 4 wheeler were working it also.  Pictures below.

Devil's Tower was amazing.  It certainly draws you to it.  You can't take your eyes off of it.  There were at least a dozen people climbing it.  There is a trail that goes around the bottom that's a little over a mile and it's paved.  A nice walk but your neck gets a cramp from looking up.  Like I said, you can't take your eyes off of it.  It does have a spiritual feel around it.  Here's the National Park info on it.   http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm

Here's some pics of the sheep and Devils Tower.  As usual click the link below, select slideshow and hit F-11 on your computer to enlarge the pics.

https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/HerdingSheepAndDevilSTowerWyoming?authkey=Gv1sRgCMiAxPj0iZPQ-gE

2011 Escapade Rally And A Change of Plans

This past week we have been attending the 2011 Escapade Rally in Gillette, Wyoming.  What is an Escapade you ask?  Well, it is everything to do with RVing.  Part time and full time RVers come from every direction to attend classes, be entertained, shop for neat things for your RV and learn how to join in with groups that may be of particular interest to you.  It is put on by a club we are members of....Escapees.  See this link:

http://www.escapees.com/escapade/2011/

For instance, Alex and I joined the group for Habitat for Humanity.  The group is called Care-A-Vanners.
We were going to head into South Dakota to check out the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, etc.  However, we are now going to back track and return to Sheridan, Wyoming where there are two "builds" going on that we will help with for about 3 weeks.   There will be 6 teams (1 couple = a Team).  We will help on a house that is almost finished for a couple of days and then start another house with the Care-A-Vanners for a two week period.  We will work for 8 hours a day and Habitat for Humanity will pay for part of our campground fee.

We knew we wanted to do this before we even started full timing.  We are willing to give it a try and see if it is for us.  We'll let you know how it goes.  http://www.habitat.org/rv/about_cav.aspx

The Escapade was great.  Alex attended everything he could.  I did as much as I could, but it wore me out after a couple of days.  They had so many things going on from early morning till 9 or 10 at night.  It was fun and we would recommend anyone thinking about buying an RV or going full time to attend one of these rallies.  You will learn a lot and meet some fantastic people from all walks of life with one thing in common,  RVing.    LOVED IT.

Here are a few pics.  We didn't take many.  We were too busy.

https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/Escapade?authkey=Gv1sRgCMbMsoLRsrjxmwE

Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming

While in Sheridan, Wyoming, we took a day drive into the Big Horn Mountains.  We took route 14 A.  We would not recommend this highway for a fifth wheel or a motorhome.  However, Hwy. 14 is OK and will take you west into Yellowstone.

It was a beautiful day.  Our purpose in this drive was to try to find a Moose.  We did not succeed, but we will keep trying.  The drive is beautiful and it gives you a real feel for Wyoming.  It's a beautiful State.


https://picasaweb.google.com/103645060086585742201/BigHornMtnFlowers?authkey=Gv1sRgCJug84-r9dKz_QE#5648941628398575698