Monument Hopping

We set aside a day to see several sites that luckily are close together. First thing in the morning, we drove back to take a spectacular hike up to Devil's Tower, which is truly impressive in size and structure. We chose not to hike all the way around the base since we had plans to see several more sites that day. I enjoyed seeing all the prairie dogs that live at the base of the tower as well. The geology of the place is unreal, with red rocks at the base and then these huge grey boulders at the base of the actual tower.


Next on our "must see" list was Mount Rushmore, but on our way there, we would take detours to see the land of Mel's childhood: Spearfish, Deadwood, and Sturgis, South Dakota. This was a fun drive through yet more changing scenery. It was amazing to me to watch the landscape change and unfold as we drove across the miles. No one scene was "typical" of a particular state, but all were beautiful and intriguing. Little did I know the sorts of geological wonderlands I would see later in the trip.





Mount Rushmore is nothing shy of impressive. The size of the monument is awe-inspiring, but the detail and artistic talent that went into it are even more inspiring. I marveled at the carving, but also was intrigued by the displays inside showing how the models were planned and then reworked to fit the actual structure of the granite being carved. I loved watching the movie showing the monument through the seasons in different angles of light. I was so glad I had a decent camera so I could take close-ups of the faces to really see the detail for myself. It was a hot day with thunderheads forming as we left to drive to Crazy Horse.



By the time we got to Crazy Horse, a phenomenal cloud had formed that created a backdrop for the monument. It is good that we had seen Rushmore first, since it helped me understand the scale of Crazy Horse. Rushmore can fit in the area under the arm of the pointing figure of Crazy Horse -- wow! We picked up rocks that had been blasted off the mountain to take home and saw the progress that has been made on the mountain. I'm sure that it will be finished one day, but it will be a long, hard process. It truly feels like a labor of love started by one man but then carried on by his family. Mel has spent much of his life visiting periodically since he was a boy and watching the memorial take shape.




Since we planned to arrive in Colorado the next day (June 22), we had to tear ourselves away and head south -- back into Wyoming. As we travelled south from Newcastle, Wyo., we ran across weather that could definitely spawn tornadoes. It was an angry sky with lightning and a dark curtain of rain to the west of us, so we sped down the highway trying to get out from under the boiling black clouds. Just after we felt we were in the clear, we came to an area of road construction and had to stop for a flagger. The crew was keeping a close eye on the clouds to the north as well. They said there was a tornado watch on for the area and they were ready to pack up at a moment's notice. We were just glad to get further south and stopped for dinner in Lusk. This town had no cell phone reception and only one little motel, so CJ persuaded us to head on into the night so we could get to somewhere that at least had cell service where we would stay. He drove about an hour and a half to Wheatland, Wyo., where we found a nice Best Western and spent the night there.


Next: Family Time!!

Gillette: Energy Capital of the World?

We arrived for supper on Saturday at Rocky and Judy's house. They live in Gillette, which reminds me of an old-time "company town" because there doesn't seem to be a lot going on there that isn't related to the gas/oil/coal industry. We spent Sunday (which was Father's Day, so we had a nice brunch at a local eatery) driving around looking at open pit coal mines (they used to call them strip mines but that doesn't sound as PC and they do put everything back like they found it -- or better). I marveled at the amount of energy spent taking coal and other fuels out of the ground. We saw LOTS of pronghorn sheep, deer and other wildlife. The wind seems to always blow here, too -- which made me wonder why not put up wind generators too?

Here's a photo of Mel and me standing by a tire from one of the HUGE coal hauling trucks at the Black Thunder mine. Not many photos got taken on this leg of the trip, for some reason. I have to admit, Gillette is not what I'd call picturesque. CJ did manage to spot a good-size herd of deer and snap a few pictures.

We also saw Rocky's two horses, which are pretty nice pasture ornaments at this stage of the game. Since Rocky and Judy have to go to work in the pre-dawn hours, we chose to leave them on Sunday evening and drive to Devil's Tower. As we were leaving, a huge thunderstorm was brewing. It followed us all the way to Devil's Tower, so when we saw it that evening, there was lightening and thunder to go along with the surreal landscape. We found a gorgeous hotel to stay at not far from the tower and rested up for a busy day on Monday.

Continuing adventures

My intention is to post every day until I cover the entire trip, but I had more pressing matters (a job interview!!! yay!!) yesterday and I know I'll be away to a dog trial this weekend, so I'll have to cover more ground somehow...

Chap. 3: Big Sky and Battlefields

Our second day on the road took us through more beautiful vistas in Montana. We could see lots of snow-covered mountains around us -- the Absaroka, Bozeman and Crazy mountains, to name a few. We mused about Lewis and Clark and where they passed through this part of the country.

I had borrowed an audiobook from the library called "The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History" by a Lakota historian, told from the Native American's view. We listened to the book as we crossed much of Montana, preparing for the visit we would make to Little Bighorn Battlefield. Mel has read and studied much about the battle, Custer, and topics surrounding the historic event, but this book gave a much better appreciation for what really took place on June 25 & 26, 1876.

Actually walking and driving around the site gave us even more appreciation for how the whole thing unfolded, where soldiers and natives were, etc. I was especially glad to see that a memorial to the Native Americans involved had been built in recent years.

We spent several hours just taking in the spot, walking around, driving down to Reno-Benteen hill, taking lots of pictures. Then we headed south, past Sheridan to Gillette, Wyoming, where Mel's brother, Rocky, lives. We'd stay a day or two with them before heading on with our journey.

Vacation continues

Chap. 2: On the Road

Our journey began on Friday morning (June 18) as we drove to I-90 and pointed the van east. We drove through Ellensburg and Spokane, then left our Evergreen State behind. Idaho has beautiful scenery, as we saw Lake Couer d'Alene, plus a little bit of potato farmland in our brief drive through and then it was on to Montana. The Big Sky State is magnificent: lots of rolling ranchland. We drove past Missoula and made it to Butte that night.


Mel's not fond of Butte because it's a huge copper mining town and the stripped hillside isn't too picturesque, but we really didn't want to push on to Bozeman. We had a quick dinner and hit the bunks. (OK, they were really hotel beds.)

In the morning, during our search for coffee (we ARE from the coffee capital of the world and the free stuff at the hotel's continental breakfast just wasn't cutting it -- this would be a continuing theme during our trip) CJ saw this interesting place, where you can do just about everything but get "real" espresso (as they advertised).

Ah well, Butte does have a few espresso stands and we managed to track one down. Properly fueled, we headed for Billings and beyond.

As we left Butte, I took this picture, saying "Our favorite view of Butte: in our rear-view mirror."



Next: Walking through history

Our Vacation

Chapter 1: The Journey

Odyssey (noun): A long series of travels and adventures.

That's the perfect term for our journey from Washington to Colorado and back. There were several reasons for the trip: visit family, see parts of the country I hadn't ever seen, take a break between college and being employed again, spend time with my husband and son doing something adventurous, and probably more that I couldn't really put my finger on.

It was the perfect time. I'd just finished a fairly intense 18-month school term to earn an Associate's degree in Library & Information Services, I was looking for a new job but hadn't gotten to even the interview stage yet, and my son was on summer break. My daughter, I should point out, was also out of school, but chose to stay home and be house/pet sitter for us. THAT was a huge relief to have the dogs and home taken care of by someone I could trust.

We plotted a course that would take us through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado. We have family in Gillette, Wyoming as well as all over the Northeastern quadrant of Colorado, so rough plans were made for stops to see as many of them as possible. I also wanted to see sites like Little Bighorn, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, etc. The guys had already seen most of that on a separate trip years ago.

So we packed up the trusty van (which had been transformed from dog-hauler to people-hauler) with luggage, some food, maps, and all the technogear we'd need to survive two weeks on the road (cameras, iPods, laptop, Nook books, cell phones -- you name it). We even decided to take some prezzies to the peeps we'd be staying/partying with and chose yummy stuff from Johnson Berry Farm.

Next: We hit the road.

Back at the keyboard

After two weeks of road trip vacation, I took a day yesterday to just rest up. One of the things I was inspired to do was to change the look of the blog. I like this look because one of my favorite mantras is to "be the river." Rivers flow around and through challenges, making their own channels when necessary. I do like to "go with the flow" sometimes, but rivers have power and grace, too.
Anyway, the vacation was amazing and we saw so much of the 6 states we traveled through, as well as seeing LOTS of family members along the way. I'll be writing posts and posting pictures here soon, I just have to get it all organized.