"WYOMING OVERLANDING" And other life expeditions!

[mikeindustries]

About me,

I am originally from San Diego, born and raised. Love it, But....Just too expensive!
I have been a Union PipeFitter/Welder for over 20 years now. So, I travel the US, a lot, for work.
Because of this we, (me, wife, and 12 year old son, and Luteni the Ridgeback) decided to leave CA. We had purchased 10 acres in Wyoming 12 years ago, and finally decided it was time to get out of CA and move to Wyoming.
10 acres, no house, no running water, NO Mortgage! Just tomorrow...

The Vehicle,
2015 RAM 2500 Cummins Diesel
I have owned my Ram since May of 2015. I purchased it new from Dave Smith Motors. This came as a result of totaling my 1976 International Scout. The old expo rig.
I have never been able to leave stock alone. So.....slowly, like most builds, I will transform this truck into a solid "Wyoming Overlanding" Rig!
Some has been done for a while now, but this is how it sits today....

 

[mikeindustries]

So backing up to the beginning of our Wyoming adventure,

To start a journey, one must take the first step, sometimes that is the toughest one.

When we decided to leave it was December 2015, aka "Middle of Winter". However, we could hardly tell, it was 80* and we lived 8 miles from the Pacific Ocean. "What winter!"

Within 4 weeks, we were loaded up, everything we owned was in these vehicles, headed North!
This was somewhere in Utah.

 

[mikeindustries]

We had made this trip many times before, but this time was very different! Life was changing...

My road buddy was not very good company!

 

[mikeindustries]

Traveled to Pennsylvanya

Not long after getting to Wyoming, I received a call for work, in Pennsylvania. Back in the truck!
We didn't take to many pictures on the trip to PA, but once we got there it didn't take long to find nature.

Seven Tubs Scranton, PA

A couple miles from where we were staying was the site of an old amusement park from the early 1900's
This is what it looked like back in its hay day, pre-depression

And now there is not much left. This was the entrance to the park.

 

[mikeindustries]

I apologize for the blirp type of entries, as I am trying to go back through photos and piece history together.

We arrived back in Wyoming, eager to get started building, and to explore.
We started building a small cabin. This would be home base until the main house could be built. We are doing all of this on a tight budget. This will allow us to work less, and DO more!

 

[mikeindustries]

Fast forward a few months into this past summer.
We discovered, about 25 miles from our property, Anchor Dam. The history is pretty interesting. It was an Army Corps of Engineers project back in the 50's. Never held water, first time they tried to let it fill...well it flushed!

Owl Creek flows into the broken reservoir, and make a nice private summer retreat.

 

[mikeindustries]

Kayaking the Big Horn River

The Big Horn River runs just a couple miles from our place.

 

[mikeindustries]

As summer starts to come to an end it became time to start thinking about work again. My next assignment would take us to southern Michigan. Typically we would jump on the interstate (I80 or I90) and get to our destination asap. Not this time. I was inspired by Kennyj here on Expo. He had just traveled US RT 20 and the whole time I was reading about his travels I was telling myself, I gotta see that. So...we did.
Loaded up ready to go!

 

[JJMAC]

awesome

 

[Fatty]

Looks great. More specs/pics on cabin.

 

[mikeindustries]

Our Cabin...

When finished, our cabin will be 12' x 32' with an 8' porch. It will have a sleeping loft for my wife and I and a small single bedroom for our son.
We will have a single bathroom, 6' x 8' with shower, sink, and a dry composting toilet (urine diverting). Hot water will be supplied by an RV demand pump through a LP instant water heater. Power will be created by the sun and wind. We currently have a 2000W solar system that we bought second hand from a dude ranch in Idaho. We will attach a wind generator in the future. Heat in the winter will be supplied by our craigslist wood burning stove.
This is a small budget build. Our goat is to have it completed for $10k. So we reclaim a lot of materials, and use creative ideas to build.

Loft...

Pallet board walls and plywood floors and reclaimed (FREE) Styrofoam insulation...


Kitchen and dining room, and future doorway to bathroom...

Nights sitting on the porch...

Our morning view to wake up to...through our $30 reclaimed window..

 

[mikeindustries]

Our Cabin...

There is a guy in the nearby town that owns a saw mill. We try to buy all of our lumber from him. I like supporting local small businesses. He sells me the trim pieces from logs by the trailer load. This fence and goat pen cost me about $35....and a lot of sweat!

 

[mikeindustries]

1998 XR600R...Plated!

So my secondary rig is this Honda XR600r. I was able to get it plated for on highway use.
Before the end of summer, I was able to do some exploring around South eastern Montana back country.

 

[RPhil]

There is a guy in the nearby town that owns a saw mill. We try to buy all of our lumber from him. I like supporting local small businesses. He sells me the trim pieces from logs by the trailer load. This fence and goat pen cost me about $35....and a lot of sweat!

...

This is great and inspirational. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Nullifier]

Looking forward to spending a month in Wyoming next summer with our fam. I will be driving the Cruiser out from Florida. Pickup up wife and kids in Idaho falls and work our way over to the Blackhills. Route planning now.