Museum of the Mountain Man - Pinedale, Wyoming

Another museum which had been on my must see list for some time is the Museum of the Mountain Man. It's worth a side trip to see it if you're headed to Grand Teton. It actually has Jim Bridger's rifle !  There have been many books and movies about the mountain man and most are not based on fact. In reality, the era of the mountain man only lasted about twenty years and was made possible primarily because of the popularity of the beaver hat. As soon as that style of hat died out, so did the mountain man. Movies portray the mountain man as a bearded illiterate. In reality, most were very well educated and often sat around reading Shakespeare. Few had beards. The reason they did not grow beards : They wanted to marry an Indian woman to feel safer traveling and living among the various tribes. Just north of Pinedale is a small BLM campground where we parked for $5.00 a night. In the morning two moose were grazing just outside the park. This is a great place to park.

Mesa Verde National Park

I don't know why we waited so long to visit Mesa Verde National Park. However, it was on our 2013 travel list and we really enjoyed it. It is a well preserved historical site. Congratulations to the National Park Service for keeping this treasure in such fine condition.

Our trip West this year had it's down days. 70 miles south of Albuquerque on I-25, my alternator went out. I was able to coast in to a rest stop, literally could not have traveled another 100 yards. After talking to some mechanic friends, concluded it was the alternator and called Coach-Net. An hour or so later, a wrecker that seemed larger than my coach showed up and a short while later my coach went for a fast ride up I-25 to Rocky Mountains Cummins. The wrecker driver backed us into a site on the Cummins lot and we had hook-ups. The next morning, the Cummins staff concluded it was indeed a bad alternator, located one in town and had it installed by the afternoon along with all the belts I asked them to replace while they were in there. Cummins invited us to stay until the next morning. Great service at Cummins and a great wrecker service. Coach-Net did a quick and professional job and the wrecker service cost me nothing. Lesson learned: What the alternator guage and if it looks weak......check it out. These big coaches just will not shift or run without plenty of battery power.