Apparently when I set my watch to Mountain time in the tent last night I hit an extra button and put it ahead one day. So when I woke up this morning I thought it was Saturday for a moment (and when I say “moment” I mean half the morning). Eventually I figured it out. We’ve crossed two time zones already but Paul assures me we won’t be crossing the International Date Line on this trip.
Mt. Rushmore under the stars was beautiful last night. And I was encouraged to hear that many people in the crowd still knew the words to the National Anthem. Seems like we’ve become a nation of people that listen to, but rarely sing along with, the national anthem. Instead we stand by and endure singer after singer doing a hatchet job on a song that’s pretty hard to sing straight, let alone to embellish. Anyhoo, I’ll hop off my soap box for now. The Four Presidents looked great up there last night, and were still there when we went back for a quick photo op this morning (our pass to the park is good till December 31, so we’re just trying to get our money’s worth).
After that it was almost literally around the bend to the Crazy Horse monument, which is a colossal but very cool work in progress. When done it will dwarf Mt. Rushmore (which would fit on Crazy Horse’s head according to them – forget about the horse). It’s going to be a while till they are done, but what a cool monument!
The weather turned a bit yucky this morning, with cool temps and some drizzle (it was nice and cool in the tent last night). From Crazy Horse we headed towards Wyoming. The plan is to cross Wyoming today and spend the night in Cody, which will be our launching pad for Yellowstone tomorrow. Eastern Wyoming is almost lunar in appearance – rolling hills and buttes with grass and scrub bushes but very few trees. Come to think of it there are very few people, too, which also lends to the lunar feel. It has a certain rugged beauty. I’m hoping we see some cool wildlife at some point. We had hoped to catch a glimpse of Devil’s Tower this morning, but the crappy weather cut visibility and we never got a clear shot. Next time. The weather has cleared in the past hour again, though, and it was 92 degrees when we had lunch in Gillette.
Just rounded a bend and caught our first glimpse of the Big Horn mountain range. It looks like a few of the peaks still have some snow on them! Things should start greening up a bit soon (we’re currently on top of a rise on the Interstate with pretty good visibility, and looking around I can’t see one tree! Anywhere!). Oh! We just crossed over Crazy Woman Creek. This trip is the gift that keeps on giving!
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