Forever West (a novel...almost)

Scenery-wise, this has been the most exciting day so far of our trip. We departed our campsite at about 8:30 this morning and began driving on I-90. For quite some time, we have been seeing signs for Wall Drug where you can get free ice water, five cent coffee, jewelry, T-shirts, etc, etc, etc. The signs are very vague but intriguing (good advertising). We decided that if it fit into our route, we would have to stop and see for ourselves what was worth a sign that said “Wall Drug, Free Ice Water, 355 miles.” (I’m not kidding, this is a direct quote).

First, though, came the Badlands. Nothing could have prepared me for this place! I have seen some pictures of it from my mother’s trip years ago, but it was so exciting in person! We pulled into the park and immediately pulled over for some pictures. From there, we drove along a windy road until we came upon a place where there were only three people and we pulled over to have a climb. It was like climbing up gravely stairs. They warned us in the guidebook to be on the look out for rattlesnakes. I read that they like to hang out in the tall grass and the crevices. I obviously had a very hard time even placing one foot in front of the other all the way to the rock formation we were going to climb. I made it, however, and didn’t see or hear any rattles in the process. Phew. It was exhilarating to climb that high even though it was a little terrifying, especially coming back down. After that we stayed in the car, stopping only one other time for pictures. Otis had to be included, after all.

As we headed back to route 90 west, the signs for Wall Drug became more and more insistent. So, we went ahead and found the place. According to the visitors guide, over 20,000 people come through there on any given summer day. Luckily, we didn’t see all 20, 000 but it WAS crowded! We stayed for a few minutes and picked out a couple of things for some special children we know to let them know we were thinking of them today. But, we put a time limit of 20 minutes on our stay because one of us (here’s a hint: it’s the one who isn’t in the Navy) gets distracted and overwhelmed in places like this and sometimes has a hard time knowing when to call it quits! When the time limit was up, out we went only forgetting to get our free ice water. Oh well, we left for the Black Hills anyway.

Until this point, we had been having another beautiful day. Unfortunately, as we arrived at the Black Hills it was beginning to get cloudy. As we drove around the final curve to the point where we could see Mount Rushmore for the first time, I was able to get two clear pictures out of my window. We paid, parked the car (next to another Massachusetts plate, what are the chances!), and walked up the stairs to the monument. By the time we got there, the fog was so thick that we couldn’t see the monument at all. I took a picture just to show our bad luck!

We felt pretty deflated and I suggested that we take the Presidents Path, which is a nice walk underneath the monument. As we walked, the fog would blow through periodically and we would get a glimpse of a face or two. We both felt much better after moving around for our walk and, lo and behold, by the time we got back to the top we were able to take such gems as these!

The plan had been then to follow a road through the Black Hills looking for wildlife, pretty views, and other interesting sights. However, due to the fog and the drizzle that had started during our walk, we decided just to head back to I-90. We almost took Otis on a wildlife tour, but the three-mile tour was taking two hours to complete and we decided we might get frustrated and regret our choice. Judging by his reaction to a cow on the side of the road later in the day, I think we made the right choice anyway!

A defining moment of today was crossing the Missouri River early this morning and seeing the beautiful riverbank and surrounding hills. Another defining moment was hitting Wyoming. Almost instantly the terrain changed into flat but with magnificent red dirt hills rising out of nothing. The welcome sign was the fitting and nicely poetic “Forever West” that we used for the title of the post. (I should stop her and give credit to Rich who has either helped me come up with or given me the blog titles so far).

We decided somewhere along the way not to camp tonight because it was so beautiful here that we wanted to drive farther than our campsite at Devils Tower in order to have a shorter ride tomorrow and more time at the ranch where we are meeting my first cousin once removed on my mothers side, Debby. We continued to drive marveling at the new kind of beauty presented by Wyoming and finally reached Devils Tower. As we past our cancelled campsite, we realized that we had just skipped out on the best campsite yet by far! We even considered changing our minds. It was right at the base of Devils Tower and, unlike the other two campsites, it was nowhere near a trafficky road, but settled inside a beautiful valley with great views all around. Sigh. But we stuck to our decision. We took about half an hour marveling at Devils Tower. Apparently, it was formed underground and is made of solidified magma. The rock around it was softer and was worn away over many years by the passing water and the Tower slowly emerged. As we approached it, it was dark enough (the clouds had returned unfortunately) that I couldn’t really see it in detail and I was disappointed. We thought we couldn’t get close to it and that it was just a lump. Then, when we realized we could get closer and did, it suddenly became its magnificent self. I am having trouble describing the texture except to say that it reminds me of corrugated cardboard, leading me to believe I could say that it is corrugated. As we approached on the path, there was a boulder field. We had to climb on that to get some good pictures! Then we noticed people were pointing and discussing people on the tower. Sure enough, climbing up one of the smaller columns was a man attached to a rock climbing rope and a woman was down below him. I don’t know all these details because I could see them. They were so high that they were tiny specs on the side of the monument. But, we could hear their voices echoing as they called back and forth to each other. We kept walking around the path and reading the information signs (and looking out for rattlesnakes…at least I was!) and suddenly, in addition to the beautiful monument on one side, there was a sweeping vista of green hills, red dirt, dark trees, and cows. I love the cows! Although, they keep tricking me into thinking they might be buffalo until I get close enough to see that they are still cows. Anyway, after a wonderful walk in the crisp air with breathtaking scenery, we pulled out on our way to our new destination for the night: Econo Lodge Buffalo (WY).