Tuesday October 7 through October 8, 2025
We are back on Interstate 80 heading west. Just over the Nebraska/Wyoming border is Pine Bluffs (1102 souls). Coming into town the Our Lady of Peace Shrine is very prominent with a statue of Mary standing 30 feet tall. Included in the complex with Mary are religious sculptures, and prayer areas. The Shrine hosts an annual pilgrimage.
The trip from Sydney NE to Rawlins WY is unremarkable. However, the highest point on transcontinental I-80 route is the summit between Cheyenne (65,704 souls) the state’s capitol, and Laramie (32,957). And guess where it snowed today.
We’ve been to Rawlins WY (8221 souls) in the past so we knew what we would find there. The city is the seat of Carbon County. Rawlins is known for its history as a Union Pacific Railroad stop, the Wyoming Frontier Prison (a former state penitentiary and now a historic site) and its role as a transportation and supply center for the state’s industries. It also has connections to the discovery of “Rawlins Red” pigment for the Brooklyn Bridge and has served as a major shipping point for uranium.
We stay at the KOA this time. It’s pretty nice considering we are in high desert. It’s right off of the interstate so a good location for business. A lot of one nighters come and go here but do a pretty good job of filling the place up at night.
We are pretty much home bodies our first day as the Major League Baseball playoffs have begun. Some days have two games on and others 4 games. Four games is a little hard to handle for me. We look for parks to walk the matzos and find a very nice one not a quarter mile away.
The second day in the morning we head to Walmart. Yep, Rawlins has a Walmart. And an oil refinery which was locally owned, sold to non-local company which promptly changed the order of things and a hundred truck drivers lost their jobs.
We took the groceries back to the RV, stowed them away, then went downtown. The first time here Jil loved the quaint, vibrant downtown. All the shops were doing a good business. Well things are not the same. Downtown is now dead. Two major shops closed because the owners retired and no one bought their business. People started losing their jobs which affected businesses so most started to close, never to open again. Almost all of the businesses in the old business district were closed. What a shame! The one store that was open sold clothes and curios. The proprietor was a wealth of knowledge. She stated that her husband used to work construction at the refinery but there was no work there anymore so he picks up odd jobs. She also said the hospital closed its maternity unit so ladies now have to go 45 miles away to Laramie to give birth to their children. Traveling to Laramie in the dead of winter is not so good- they close the interstates during inclement weather…… so some babies are born in an ambulance or private vehicle on their way to Laramie, or Casper. She’s not sure that the hospital will stay open. That would be devastating for this small town.. This is a nice little community that is not doing well.
We drove around town for a while. We went by the historic penetentiary. It looked closed yet a school bus sat out front. A tour of the “pen” is a must when visiting Rawlins.
We enjoyed our stay here. All but four rigs pulled out of the KOA this morning and now at 1900 hours the place is packed. I gonna try to watch four Major League Baseball playoff games tonight. Wish me luck!
We are moving on tomorrow trying to follow the “250” rule
Travel With Jil and Mike 