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.
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