The Western Adventure - Day 3 - Wyoming

Before even the first of our travel plans was made, I told Cowboy, "One thing I want to do out west is stand under the beautiful night sky and gaze up at the multitudes of stars."

I assumed he didn't hear me...or perhaps I didn't say it aloud.  That happens sometimes.

Anyway...Day 3.  Awoke in Rapid City, South Dakota...which is good since that's where we were when we went to sleep the night before.   This day marked a true disappointment for the Cowboy:  the hotel does not serve a continental breakfast!  What?!  'Oh, but the adjoining restaurant has a wonderful breakfast menu.'  Even with that valuable nugget of information, we went to a restaurant across the street.

Let me break off here to tell you that I had hoped to find little diners in each town where we could eat with the local gentry.  Maybe that'll happen on my next trip out west.

The staff at the restaurant must have come from Neverland: Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys.  I fixed my gaze on the man across the table from me...yeah, the Cowboy.  He had apparently gone through some sort of  amazing transformation:  as slow and unprepared as our young waitress was...as apparently inexperienced as the kitchen crew was...as long as our meal took to come out of that kitchen, he was not ...NOT... even slightly agitated.

Wow!  I sat in amazement.   He even comforted our waitress who apologized profusely.  I've known him to discreetly ask a waitress to have the restaurant manager stop by our table during similar circumstances and demand satisfaction...usually in the form of a free meal.  That obviously wasn't gonna happen that morning.  He probably realized that the manager, who may have still been in his footie pajamas, hadn't quite finished his morning bottle.

As long as breakfast took, we still managed to make it to Cabela's before they opened their doors.  Remember when he said something about going to Cabela's first thing?

In Cabela's parking lot we met a couple of guys from South Dakota.  The Cowboy and the young men discussed all things hunting till the store opened --thirty minutes of hunting talk!  Wow.  The doors were unlocked, we shopped.   I bought nothing...he bought ammo.

As we were leaving the store, he said, "Let's drive up to Deadwood."    But I saw him glance over to the Toyota dealership.

"Yes.  Let's go to Deadwood,"  I interjected.  I had to think of something quick to keep him from being sucked in by Toyota's graviton force beam.  It worked.  Whew.

I took NO pictures of Deadwood...I'm so mad at myself.   Here, though, is the summary:  what a fantastic town tucked into the Black Hills!  What began as a mining town with saloons, brothels, and gaming, Deadwood nearly became a ghost town.  When gambling was legalized in 1989, the town saw a rebirth!  Lots of gaming casinos.  Lots of history.  *No, we didn't go into one of the casinos....seen one, seen 'em all.*

We headed back to Rapid City for lunch...and to buy a new Cowboy hat for the Cowboy.  On the way to Taco Bell (you've heard of that quaint little diner), I saw this lovely building....

This would make a cozy cottage...let's get the plans!

After lunch we found the only custom cowboy hat maker in the Dakotas.  We exchanged pleasantries with the proprietor....who just happens to be a huge Colts fan!  Cowboy fell in love with a gorgeous hat....and bought it.  "Where are you headed next?"  hatmaker asked.
"Mt. Rushmore....since we're here!"

The highway down to Mt. Rushmore was lined with interesting rock formations and beautiful scenery.  My anticipation was growing exponentially.  I've seen pictures of Mt. Rushmore my whole life.  The pictures didn't prepare me adequately....

My first reaction:  Wow!  They're so much smaller than I thought they'd be.

Yeah...I am sorry to admit that I was disappointed.  I know they're huge!   I know it took Borglum some 14 years to sculpt it!  I know it's a national treasure!  I just thought their faces would have been bigger.  That's all I'm saying.  The park was PACKED with tourists.....a deal-breaker for the Cowboy.  We didn't see anything else in the park....why?  Because we left...but not before we asked a fellow tourist haling from Wisconsin to take a picture of us under George's profile (I promised Cowboy that I'd have no pictures of him on this blog, sorry).   Oh, I nearly forgot to mention....I checked off a bunch of states on my state game page.  Winning!

Beautiful rock formations!

We headed over to the Crazy Horse Memorial after Rushmore.  We waited in a lonngggg line of traffic just to enter the park.  We studied the monument during our wait.  When we reached the hut where the worker held out a hand and asked for cash, Cowboy morphed back into his old self.

"Eleven dollars apiece?!  What are you on?!  How do I get out of here?!"

Without missing a beat the worker said, "Go straight. About halfway down the hill you'll see a turnaround point.  Take that, and head out of the park."

I wonder how many times he's had to say that.  It seemed very rehearsed.

On to Wyoming!  Well, eventually.   Road construction mixed with heavy traffic was just the relaxing combination the Cowboy needed.   He truly was being a good sport about it all -- which was a pleasant surprise.  Once we were out of the construction zone, our view turned into this:

Just us...and miles and miles and miles of grass

It was my idea to drive through the Thunder Basin National Grassland.  At one point though, I was overcome with apprehension.  In the middle of the grassland, surrounded on all sides by a sea of grass, I felt miniscule....honey, I shrunk myself.  I had a sense of overwhelming fear.  The GPS was registering our little arrow .... but not on the highway....out in the middle of nothingness.  I feared that we were suddenly in some parallel universe.  Beyond reason I wondered if we really were driving on a highway in Wyoming or if we just thought we were.  Similar discussions occurred in college .... after way too much...uhh.......studying.  The atlas showed the highway -  right on page 116.  I was silent.

"This is just beautiful.  I could move here," Cowboy's voice broke the silence.

All I could do was let out a nervous laugh.  I thought maybe there was something he was seeing that I wasn't, so I looked around without moving my head.  Nope.  Just grass.

"No people,"  he said -- I don't think he was even talking to me.

I personally like people.  I like to talk to them, laugh with them, be around them.  I just need to take an occasional break from them -- to re-energize.  I sincerely feel that I'm one of them.  Could I live where there are so few?  He thinks he could.

We marveled at the long coal trains pulled by double and triple engines; and at cute pronghorn antelope; and at the big wooden snow fences; and at the signs with crossbars warning that in the event of some emergency - like a snowstorm - to head back to the nearest town.

We finally made it to our destination:  The hotel in Douglas, Wyoming (with a continental breakfast).  Douglas is the home of the Wyoming State Fair and, more importantly, of the jackalope.  I kept my eyes peeled for one or two jackalopes hopping along, or maybe even a nest of them somewhere.  No luck.

The view from our hotel room:  Mt. Laramie in the distance

We had supper in a diner called KFC and called it a night.  When I was almost asleep, Cowboy said, "Slip on your jacket.  Let's go out so you can look up at the stars."

"No, I don't want to.  I'm in my pajamas."

What had I turned in to?  An old lady?!

I would have caved in to his persistence....but he gave up too soon.  I blame him.

So I didn't see the stars.  But what a day!!