On the Tounge River

I stayed last night a campground off HWY 14 north of Sheridan in some little town, Rayson maybe. I was pretty frustrated after trying for hours to get close to the bird point that I was suppose to do off the side of a sharp mountain in the Big Horns. It was 4k away from the nearest road, and then down a step rocky slope put there to build the road. This point seems impossible to get to. I gave up and found a campground in town I was so tired. I looked at the cabins they had, but they reminded me too much of the crappy motel me and my co-worker lived in for two months in Coulee City, WA while mammal trapping. The lovely Blue Top Motel or "Blu op M el" with all the letters missing, the walls were so thin that I would hear our neighbor watching Law and Order at night. I preferred a tent site. The owner was really excitted about the birds and we talked forever about them as we walked around her property, she knew most of them but asked what a few were, like the yellow warbler that was happily singing along the raging Tounge River. I asked her if the river ever flooded the place, and she said that it did sometimes and told me which sites to avoid for that.

I set up my tent across from some people from Oregon who in a beat up van that had a few orange doors that were not rusted like the rest of the van. Someone else had a rusty suburban, and then there was a new looking sedan. They all started getting dressed up in nice clothes, the women spread out in the bathroom with curlers in their hair, complaining about their men to each other. I walked back outside and the men were putting on ties. Maybe it was a wedding or a graduation, so unexpected though.

I saw a grassy RV site with a plug in and got a good idea. I asked my new friend, the campground lady, if I could move to the RV site and she agreed. So I dragged my tent over there and plugged in my laptop from my tent, and the internet was excellent! It was the best luxury. I called my friend in Canada while looking on the internet for barn houses and cabins. My Oregon neighbors returned from...wherever they went. A teenage girl got out of the multi-colored van yelling at her boyfriend calling him a few names as she slammed the door and stormed into the bathroom, he sped off out of the campground and I chuckled to myself.

I tried reading but fell asleep in the middle of it. My eyes are way too heavy these days to stay awake past 10pm. I really took advantage of the internet today at that campground till check out time. I got some much needed coffee from the gas station and made it back to Buffalo.

Last night I had a text message asking me to pay my phone bill, and this morning they shut off my phone! I've never had it shut off in the five something years I've had it, but chasing birds around Wyoming doesn't pay very well. It put me in a really bad mood, increased by sugar, coffee, and lack of sleep no doubt. I had a hard time finding a pay phone, then the T-mobile office was closed for the day. I paid through the computer and my phone still didn't work. I was so mad! Then I realized that it was Memorial Day and I couldn't go through with my plans of getting a new bank, a new passport, or my business license in Buffalo. I'm in an old soda fountain in downtown now, using their free internet in exchange of shakes and pretzels, because the libraries across the state have been closed since Friday. Living in my tent in Wyoming is isolating enough without loosing my phone. I did pay for the rest of my banjo at CeCe's antique shop though, her sweet face helping me to bring me out of the bad mood.