Travel from Wheatland, Wyoming to Longmont, Colorado

We drove our coach 155 miles, about 2 hour of driving, from Wheatland, Wyoming to Longmont, Colorado, with a stop to repair a leaking tire.

The map route, heading south:

Map route

Heading south on I-25:

I-25

Green hills and cell towers (I appreciate the good cell reception down the freeway):

Green hills

Domes:

Domes

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Interesting rocks

Interesting rocks

Man, horse, dog artwork on a hill:

Man, horse, dog artwork

Mowing ahead:

Mowing ahead

Rain:

Rain

Expect fog… yep indeed:

Expect fog

We stopped at Little America of Cheyenne:

Little America

To visit Rocky Mountain Truck Center, to diagnose and repair a slowly leaking tire on our coach:

Rocky Mountain Truck Center

Rocky Mountain Truck Center

Rocky Mountain Truck Center

While they looked at it, we headed up to the Little America resort for lunch, passing a Sinclair Oil dinosaur dressed as a cowboy:

Sinclair cowboy dinosaur

Little America buffet restaurant:

Little America restaurant

Little America restaurant

We cut lunch a bit short, as they needed us to jack up our coach, using the leveling jacks. We raised only the driver side, to keep the passenger side wheels on the ground — raising all of the rear wheels off the ground is dangerous, as that’s the parking brake:

Jacked up coach

They found and marked the location of a nail in the tire, and worked on removing the tire:

Removing tire

Removing tire

Removing tire

Removing tire

I didn’t get a close-up picture of the nail in the tire, but here’s a zoomed crop:

Nail in tire

The inner tire of the dual pair, and the rear jack:

Inner tire

Inner tire

Paladin sitting on the driver seat:

Paladin

The repaired tire re-installed:

Repaired tire

After getting that repaired ($70 total), we fueled up at the slowest truck stop ever. Usually truck stops have high-speed pumps, but this one was not. It was taking so long, we decided to fuel from both sides for the first time ever:

Fueling both sides

The main pump, as usual:

Fueling both sides

The secondary pump, on the passenger side; it is activated by the main pump:

Fueling both sides

Continuing south, some hilltop buffalo artwork:

Buffalo artwork

Buffalo artwork

Budweiser factory:

Budweiser factory

Paladin in the steps:

Paladin

Roadworks:

Roadworks

A fascinating concrete-laying machine (concrete freeways are the worst):

Roadworks

Our destination, St Vrain State Park:

St Vrain State Park

Entrance station:

St Vrain State Park

Due to the tire excursion, we arrived later than usual, so the entrance station was closed. We used the “iron ranger” (as the rangers call it) to purchase a couple of Colorado state park annual passes (one for the coach, one for the truck):

Iron ranger

Though when we talked with the ranger the next day to exchange the temporary ones, it turned out that we should have bought one, with a half-price add-on for the second vehicle. So we did that, and submitted a form for a refund for the second one. Oops. (We decided to get annual passes as we’re staying just enough days at Colorado state parks to offset the cost. Ironically, next year we don’t expect to visit Colorado at all. Still worthwhile, though.)

This is a rather nice park; stay tuned for more pics from our stay:

Entrance road and pond