Spent the day yesterday driving west into Wyoming and the town of Lusk. No real reason to go other than I had driven through that town several times over the years, always with the trailer behind the truck, so I never had a chance to actually tour the town and see what there was to see.
   As it turns out there really isn't much of anything to see in town, not for outsiders or tourists anyway, and that is okay. I walked the 6 or so blocks of the old downtown area and looked at the building fronts where every 2nd or 3rd store front was boarded up and empty. Still a few bars, still a hardware store and a couple car parts stores as well as a couple of gas stations on the corners. So that left the 'Stagecoach Museum' as about the only thing to really visit. But first some food...
   After talking to a local it looked like the only place in town to eat was either the local 'Subway' or some place called the 'Triangle 4', or some such derivation of those words. I picked it just because I'm not enamored of Subway sandwiches, and there seemed to be a fair number of cars parked out front of the other restaurant.
    Turns out that it was a good choice as I chose the 'Mule Kicker' burger from the menu. This brought me a huge 1/2 pound cheese burger, handmade with all the fixin's, and hot french fries. A couple of glasses of ice cold tea finished up a pretty nice meal out and it was all well under $10, even with a tip.
    Walked on back to the Stagecoach Museum after that and paid my $2 fee to come in and view the exhibits. While it did have a whole room devoted to the stagecoach history in the area, most of the museum actually seemed to be more involved with the history of that area of Wyoming, including sections detailing the range war between the sheep ranchers and the cattle men, as well as the history of the railroad in the area and the impact it had on the influx of homesteaders that it brought into that little corner of the country.  There was some old farm and ranch machinery to view as well as domestic homesteading items to look at, so the price to get in was quite reasonable.
    After filling the truck up with some decent Wyoming gas I was ready to head back towards the town of Crawford where I was to meet my nephew Brian and his partner Liz for dinner. I speak of "good" gas because the stuff I have been putting in my tank since arriving in this state really sucks. I have watched as the mileage has dropped all the way down to slightly more than 12 mpg, even without the trailer on, as well as the engine running rougher than it should. I would of thought it was my imagination if my brother in law hadn't told me that Nebraska was now allowing a new blend of gas to be sold, I guess because it can keep the price low, even if it is horrible stuff. Once I filled the tank with the same level of gas in Wyoming you could immediately feel and see, via the gas gauge, that this was a lot better stuff.
   I got back to Crawford a little early so I found a nice shade tree to park under and took a nice, though short nap. Brian and Liz showed up right on time and we headed to a good restaurant there in Crawford, 'The Ranch House'. They serve basic western food, burgers, steaks, chicken etc. Unfortunately I was still rather full from lunch so I stuck with a reuben sandwich instead of taking on the fully loaded chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy that the other two had. It looked good too.
     From dinner we headed on out to the Post Playhouse for that nights play, Guys and Doll's. Even though it was the second time for me to see this play, it was still a wonderful couple of hours sitting and watching these actors ply their trade to good effect. It is a long play, nearly two and a half hours, but it still seemed to go by way to fast.
   Back home to the trailer after that and a nice cool few hours of sleep. My allergies have really been kicking up these past few days. It may be all the flowers and weeds out there that are having a field day this year because of all the rain in the area. It may also have to do with the wind that has been blowing constantly, though not too hard, for the past two weeks. Or it might be that there are more wildfires out west, or north or south of me, that are blowing their load of particle filled smoke my way. What ever the reason I have been downing over the counter allergy drugs like candy these past few days, all without much relief. Indeed, the only thing it seems to of done is make my pee really, really expensive. So last night, since it was cool, I closed the windows and vents on the trailer and went to bed like that. Amazingly, that seemed to work. I woke up hot, but my sinuses were much clearer and I had nearly stopped coughing this annoyingly little cough that often develops along with other allergy symptoms. My ribs are still a bit sore from all the coughing but I am now feeling much better. I decided not to take another road trip today, this time to the east and the town of Valentine, because I was feeling puny enough that I just didn't want to sit in my truck for 4-5 hours. Instead I have been holed up at McDonald's trying to up grade some software and try to figure out why the computer keeps bombing out and giving me the 'Blue Screen of Death'. It seems to be working better now.
   Getting ready to head back out to the trailer in a few more moments. Need to stop and do some grocery shopping, but otherwise it seems like it will be a pretty quiet evening.


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