Back at Mountain View RV Park in Sandance, Wyoming for a while because it is a great place to stay and close to where the View’s new awning will show up, eventually. The awning was supposed to be replaced 2 weeks ago; however, it was crushed in transit by an uncaring freight company worker. This resulted in another one being built and shipped which is due to arrive today. With any we will have the new awning installed Thursday. We shall see.

Close by us is a little BLM campground that I took a bike trip to see. It is about two and a half miles north on gravel roads sitting on the Sundance trail head at the entrance to the open range. To my discredit, I have not ridden the bike much this summer and it showed. There is some way that all my bike trips start out the same, down hill and down wind. As I was coasting down the hill at the start of my trip, my thoughts turned to my previous biking experiences, down hill with the wind at my back seems to be a recurrent theme. The wind at my back made the first climb easier and the miles pass by swiftly as I cruised on by the Sundance BLM campground into the open range. It was on this long downhill that it occurred to me that it would be a long uphill into the (not inconsequential) wind. Already huffing and puffing, I turned around about half way down and began the arduous trip back up the hill to the BLM campground. The starting out is good and the returning is sometimes challenging.

This part of Wyoming consists of large rolling hills. The elevation of Sundance is around 4700 feet with the tops of the hills ranging up to over 6000 feet. It is wonderful country with wide open expanses of grass land in the valleys and pine trees on the side of the hills. The Sundance BLM campground is a good example of all this. It has campsites with picnic tables and fire pits with lots of horse pens. I imagine it gets a lot of use at points in time where horses are used on the adjacent open range. The view is super.

Other odds and ends.

The Global Supply Chain and parts inventory. A lot of you will sympathize with me on the fact that there are never the parts you need on the day you need them. Having been a worker in supply chains for decades, I know all the value propositions that are made regarding inventory, delivery and supply. Financially, no business gets paid for keeping inventory, in particular at the retail level. Next day delivery by robust freight delivery systems facilitates operating with little or no inventory. I understand all this, but still it is a pain in the ass when you are stuck someplace for a day or two because a business doesn’t inventory a $20 part. Now it appears the US Air Force is forging ahead with a solution to this problem. It was announced yesterday that a contract has been awarded to produce B 52 engine parts by 3D printing on site. Hopefully this technology will come to a local NAPA near you. Something to watch.

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally proceeds on and it has been fun to see all the riders in this park. They come from all over the country and it is interesting to talk with them about their journey and see their rides. Traffic is down a little bit and arrests are running at the same rate as last year. No fatal crashes so far this year. Of note, no face masks for these folks which is disappointing. Just from observation this is an older crowd, 50’s and up, who at risk for Covid. Here in the Rapid City area Covid is running at over 8% positive which means a lot of these folks are going to get sick starting next week when they are home.

A note from the Missouri River a couple of weeks ago. I am guessing that those of you who viewed the images missed the woman, dog and Osprey. When I was taking these images starting at the north end of the canyon, someone up river was shouting and gesturing toward the shore. I thought maybe someone was in trouble and trained my camera in the direction of the noise. As it turned out, the lady was on a paddle board with a dog making an effort to get her floating friends to paddle over to her location to look at the biggest Osprey I have ever seen. This Osprey was feeding on something and clearly not impressed with this lady or her dog.

Undaunted by common sense, she edged the paddle board closer to the bird. The dog was nervous and I was waiting for it to abandon ship for safer waters. Her friends were of the same mind as her dog and ignored her entreaties. I think because the Osprey considered himself the King of the River and felt comfortable that the dog, woman and paddle board could be handled in due course, all ended well as the paddle boarder yielded to the current and continued downstream. I continue to marvel at how much danger people themselves in regarding wild life.

Thursday we return to Dakota RV for the awning installation in the morning with the afternoon being half the trip to Jackson. Friday will find us visiting Pia for a while. It will be good to see the Jackson crew. After that we have no plans. Suggestions are welcome. Take care,

Sjh