Early in the morning on day 21, I was awoken by an unusual sound. Mooing. Close by. And lots of it. I nudged Kevin awake and asked him to listen. He rolled over muttering something about seeing cows in a field across the bridge at the end of the lake the night before. So, I closed my eyes and tried to fall back to sleep.
But the mooing continued and increased in volume until both of us jumped out of bed to see what was happening. Turns out, some Cowboys were on a cattle drive right past our campsite. At least 150 cows and several Cowboys paraded on by as we watched.
It was a strange wake-up call, but since we were wide awake by the time it was all finished, we started packing up to move on to our next destination.
Kevin was feeling a little better after a good night's sleep, so we all piled back into the truck and set out for a new state! Utah!
Along the way, we stopped in Evanston, Wyoming to wash the truck and Scamp. Both were covered in dust from our adventures. Then, we decided to grab a bite to eat at Suds Brother's Brewery for lunch. After chatting with the waitress for a bit, we got back into the truck and set out for one of the prettiest drives of our trip so far--Route 150 through the Uinta Mountains.
The road winds through the mountain range, and national forest campgrounds are abundant throughout the drive. We drove through several and even discovered that snow was still on the ground in some of the sites and some at the very top of the mountains still hadn't even opened yet for the season!!!
We eventually settled upon an isolated site in the Shingle Creek campground and set up camp for the night. As the name suggests, a creek meanders alongside the campground, and once again Scout enjoyed wearing himself out in the water after a long day in the truck.
Once we got settled, Kevin got to work making some steak fajitas. It was then that I noticed that Scout was sniffing the air, but Kevin and I both just thought he was smelling the food. A few seconds later, though, I went into panic mode when Kevin tensed up and whispered, "What is that?"
In the field behind our site, he saw a large brown object and heard some breathing. I instinctively went for the bear spray, but then we both exhaled a sigh of relief when we saw that it was just a cow. Whew! In fact, there were about five cows (2 adults and 3 babies) grazing in the field.
We didn't think too much of seeing cows roaming through the field since so much of the areas we drive through are open ranges, but when an angry cowboy came riding through the field on his horse shouting obscenities at the cows we realized that they were actually runaway cows! All we could do as the cows and cowboy ran by was stand and stare--stunned that our day began with cows and was ending with cows.
After the excitement was over, we sat down to enjoy our meal in peace. As we were cleaning up, the cowboy came riding by once again--this time on the road by our site--and sans cows. He said that he caught them and wished us a good night, but not before riding through our campsite to wrangle his dog who was reluctant to leave Scout behind.
I'm telling you--you haven't lived until a cowboy calls you "honey" and rides his horse right through your campsite.
You never know what each day on the road will bring. Today brought gorgeous views, Cowboys, and cows. Lots and lots of cows.
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