On The Road - Day 4

Has it really been four days? Its all starting to blur together in my mind. Even though it was a good day, I'm feeling a bit tired and grumpy right now. I guess four days on the road will do that to you. Here is today's recap.....

Woke up this morning in Cody, Wy. at the Super 8 Motel. Got out of bed to take a shower only to discover that there was no hot water. T-Bone's not very happy. I mean, c'mon! This is the Super 8....the lap of luxury! I mean, why else would you put the word 'super' in your name? Anyway, at least we had water pressure. Pat and Sarah had none, so I guess I will stop complaining. Well, I was glad to leave the rodeo town of Cody, which was actually founded by Buffalo Bill Cody. In fact, there was a rodeo going on when we got into town last night. We left town at 8:30 AM to head out to Devil's Tower National Monument, which is in the northwest corner of the state. I was fully prepared to completely trash the state of Wyoming (except for the part that contains Yellowstone) in this post. Just look at that picture above....it was a whole lot of that for a while. I looked out the window and kept expecting Kevin Costner to come walking over the hill with that wolf of his as they looked for totonka. Yep, wasn't very impressed with the state until we got to Big Horn National Forest in the Big Horn Mountains. AWESOME. This mountain range just rose out of the plains and looked like it was the home of some mythical Greek god. We hit the highest point of our journey when we reached a summit of around 9000 feet. You could almost touch the clouds.

Later in the afternoon, we reached Devil's Tower National Monument. I have always wanted to see this place in person after watching CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. It was cool getting to the site as you could spy the tower in the distance rising out of the forest. We decided to make a picnic lunch at the monument which was nice. We then made the 1.3 mile hike around the tower and then observed a prairie dog colony before leaving. It was a very enjoyable stop. I have only one complaint....where are all the UFOs?? I wanted to see me some flyin' saucers. Stupid aliens......

We arrived in Rapid City, SD. around 7 PM. Much to our delight, our hotel had a indoor swimming pool! Joy! I had been promising to take the kids swimming, only problem was that none of our hotels has had a swimming pool so far. I guess I should check in advance next time. We had pizza delivered to our room and then went swimming. A good time was had by all. Tomorrow we are going to see Mount Rushmore as my family and I recreate the climax to NORTH BY NORTHWEST. I get to be Cary Grant! YAY!