We've travelled about 1000 miles, as the crow flies. But we've done much more driving than that. We arrived in Spearfish at 1:00 AM yesterday (or I guess it's today), got the cat settled and headed for the bar for a well deserved drink. Bridgete and I were the only ladies in the bar and they were all making eyes at her. Considering that we had been in the truck for about 14 hours, we didn't feel particularly sexy and just wanted to finish our drink and hit the sack.
It should be noted that this is the weekend of the annual Sturgis gathering for Harley Davidson. Every hotel within a hundred miles or so is booked. The entrance to our hotel looks like a dealer lot. Some beautiful bikes are here.
So - pictures will be coming later. In the meantime, allow me to say that I have seeen some of the most glorious country ever. In brief, I'm not sure why anyone lives in Idaho. Yellowstone is amazing, gorgeous, stunning, every superlative description you can imagine - and then they don't do it justice. We saw herds of elk, falcons, and the most stunning, perfect specimen of Bull Elk - not 50 ft from the road. He was magnificient.
From there we went to the Grand Tetons and down into Wyoming. This surpassed all my expectations.
I'm an Oregon girl, born and bred. I consider Oregon to be the best place to live - beautiful, clean, moderate climate, etc. But what I saw yesterday took my breath away. Every turn in the road gave another stunning vista. Colors that aren't in any box of crayons. Air so clean and crisp it makes you want to breath deeply. I can't even describe it. You just have to see it for yourself.
The drive itself was long, very long. We took the southern exit from Yellowstone thinking we might save time, only to find ourselves in the midst of road construction. And when I say construction, I mean construction. The road had been completely torn up and we were on dust and dirts and "rough road" for about 60 miles off and on. We stopped and got a quick bite to eat, gassed up the truck and set out for Spearfish. We wound our way through the hills, even through Big Horn, and finally got onto I-90. 75 miles an hour didn't seem fast enough.
SIDEBAR: We've learned via the roadside signs that 75MPH equal 1 mile every 48 seconds.
But we're here now. Severus has learned to love the truck. He sleeps as long as he's drugged and being held. We're still working on the hotel sleep time. He likes to jump from bed to bed and doesn't always make it. He gets to rest today as we are off to see Deadwood and will be back in Spearfish tonight. (as long as those road agents don't get us.)
Later HOOPLEHEADS!
