2016 Road Trip - Day 13 & 14

Day 13: This Walmart sleep was actually good, quiet town and the air cooled off enough to give a little comfort through the night.

Lucy is burning oil now so we are keeping an eye on that. Wish we could find some music to go along with the beat she gives us. Country stations are a huge hit in the areas we have been driving and Lucy just has too fast a beat for a two-step.

Ethel is holding up well, added some air to her tires this morning and that helped with her pull. We have learned a ton on this trip and can/will make slow changes that we know we want in the future.

Driving only today as we headed West. We could go miles and not see another vehicle either direction. And I know it was for miles because I could see that fair at times. Ha!

The kids kept to themselves, Jo reading her books and Cole playing baseball on his phone. Both looking up when Oma or I would point something interesting out to them.

Doug has really done well on this trip also. A ton of truck time and he has figured out ways to lets us know when he needs water or needs out to do his business.

Jill with her maps, phone and more maps directs us and gives us many facts.

Me? As I stated in an earlier post, I failed at navigating so I drive....and drive...and drive.

But I do like to drive.

Oregon Trail: A little stop at the Devils Gap, to see the pioneer's path to Oregon, California and for the Mormons. (Per this areas information)

Neat to see this so far from our Oregon home.

Independence Rock: We missed the turn off for this site and we should have just turned around and went back but didn't. Our understanding is that this was a landmark rock for travelers heading West and they also carved their names into this rock. I would have liked to touch this rock and give thanks.

Stopped for the night early (4pm ish) in Rawlins, WY.

OMG, they roll up what little sidewalks they have at 5pm. They do have an old depot station that is neat. But that's about it. I will rate this town: 1.2 out of 5 possible. Our camp ground had a small homemade mini golf that the kids and I had fun on and laughed a lot with. The twins found other young adults to play with and stayed out for quite a while to just be kids. They were happy.


Day 14: We drove from 9am till 9pm...yuck!

We headed into Colorado and stopped at another Walmart for a few more supplies. Oma was able to grab a geocach close by as well, so bonus!

Another gas stop in Dinosaur, CO and headed to Dinosaur Museum. We hit the turn for this land mark and read a sign "Dinosaur Information" along with a building. We didn't stop because we were headed to the museum, no information needed.

We took this beautiful drive along the ridges of Dinosaur National Forest and the views were gorgeous!

Wait, I thought we had already been to the center of the universe in Idaho? Now we are confused.

Ok, this drive was the WRONG way and just looped around. So we had at least an hour and a half drive that didn't take us to where we wanted to go. That informational building at the beginning came in handy after this long drive to nowhere. But as previously mentioned, pretty views.

We finally made the Dinosaur grounds and had about an hour and a half left of the day before everything closed up. I stayed with Doug in Ethel and rested my leg while the family took the tour.

Dinosaur bones in mountain wall! Many of the most complete dinosaurs of the era have been excavated here and are now on display at many museums throughout the U.S. and Canada. Because of shifting and uplift of the Rocky Mountains, this little ridge of sand with bones became exposed as a vertical boneyard.

Drove until we hit Heber City, UT and it's Walmart parking lot for the night.
Grabbed some Dickeys BBQ for dinner and did a little walking around the parking lot to stretch our legs. Jo had been begging for ribs for a few days, ever since going through cow country, we finally found a spot near us and it was worth the wait. Jo wants a Dickeys in Eugene, it smelled heavenly when we walked in and it was pretty good eating too.

14 sleeps on the road, WOW! Another 3 or 4 more sleeps until we get home. What an incredible trip so far. And we all seem to still like each other. But in the interest of still liking each other, we let the kids sleep in a bit this morning..... ;-)

2016 Road Trip - Day 11 & 12

Day 11: Big Plans today so we headed out of our Devils Tower campsite but first we had two things we needed to do.

One, take a family photo in our Mariner's gear.

My side of the family will appreciate this photo, I tried to use my timer so I could join in the photo. (We have many family photos of my father looking the same way as me.)

Two to stop by "Prairie Dog Town" so Jo could get up close and snap a few photos.

(This is the ground at the base of Devils Tower, Prairie Dogs everywhere!)
No zooming in to get a close up as some of those little dogs came running right up to Jo and posed for her.

Headed to the stone faces today but first stop would be North Dakota. Why do we want to go to North Dakota?
1. To get a geocach.
2. So we can all say we have been there.
Is there any other reason to go to North Dakota?

But then the conversation turned:
Jill: You know we are going to be very close to Sturgis?
Me: What? REALLY?
Jill: Yes, what if we set up camp near Sturgis, drive into town and then jet up and back to North Dakota in just Lucy?
Me: REALLY? We can go to Sturgis?

Yes we can and yes we did.

We took the kids to eat at One Eyed Jack's

Both kids were quite uncomfortable sitting at the outside bar with the ladies dressed in not much other than leather, fish nets. More skin showing than clothes.
 
But they powered through and the food was good.
And WE GOT TO GO TO STURGIS!

The town was/is setting up for the 76th annual event so everyone in town was quite busy. Jo bought a shirt and Mom got a new hat.
AWESOME!

Back to the town of Spearfish to set up camp and head North. The temperature was quite high and no one was really moving quickly after getting Ethel set up for the night.

Oma took the kids to the stream that was close to camp so they could cool off and even Doug got in the water. Did I say it was hot?

We decided to pass on N.Dakota and just "be". So we did a little laundry, got some fresh produce at a market and tasted some local ice-cream, showered and called it a night.

It's Hot...I really mean it's HOT! (Although Jill ins't suffering too much)

Stone Faces on day 12 I guess and no North Dakota this trip.

Day 12: All refreshed and ready for a very long day, as it did turn out to be.

Stone Faces here we are!

Again, Doug was not allowed to enter so Oma stayed with him in Ethel while the rest went to see our Fathers.


I have heard others state that they were not impressed with this as they thought they might be, but I was extremely impressed as was Cole. With the technology of the time to measure, blast and sculpture this is very impressive.

And I have heard for days and days now that we must get ice-cream at Mt. Rushmore.

So these two did.

Conversation has turned a little to "is this all we are going to do? See that tree, see that rock and ooooh and ahhhh?" A little force behind this conversation. The confinement of the truck has caught up to us.

We did a turn off at Crazy Horse, was given a pamphlet for the history and did the "Ooooo....Ahhhh" and kept driving without getting out of the car.

What is Wall Drug?
Well after seeing all the billboards Oma finally said, "We must stop".

Life is grand when you see something and it makes you think of someone special in your life. It has happened often on this trip. This one however is for Connie. Jackalope, baby!!


Fun place to get out and stretch legs and they let Doug in all the stores but the cafe which was great! The kids seem much happier as well.

Badlands were neat. It's amazing to see how different terrain can be from one mile to the next.

We drove through a good chunk of this but only made a few stops for viewing.

Big Horn Sheep! We have kept our eyes open this whole trip to see one of these and we finally found two grazing on grass in the Badlands.

Happy people in Lucy, this was not a rock or tree to look at!

West = Home.
Not many places or any to pulloffs for dinner so we pushed onto Wounded Knee knowing we could grab a little history and eat dinner.

It was not a comfortable spot to stop at 8:30pm as we were immediately approached by locals asking to buy dream catchers or just donate to them (over and over). We quickly ate and left without truly appreciating what this area was about.

Nebraska! Another state and another Walmart for the night in Chadron, NE.
Cooler weather helped with sleep along with it being almost midnight when we were in bed.

2016 Road Trip - Day 10

Day 10: Oma and Jo grab their geocaches this morning and did you know that these statues are in every state?

We are going to have to do a little research on this of course but this is what the sign indicated.

Started our day earlier to get a jump on the driving and any stops we happen to come across along the way that we might not know we wanted to stop at.

The town of Ten Sleep.
Passed this sign and turned around so Oma could jump out and grab a geocache and a photo of the sign to read to us as we kept driving.

Bet you didn't know you would learn a  little history from the BS Family Blog?

And then there would be this stop.

One must always stop for Crazy Lady.
It's really a sad story about a family traveling during in the frontier days when they were attacked by Indians, all were killed but the mother. She managed to kill four Indians in a return attack before they left. A mountain man soon found her and buried her family for her. She refused to leave them so this man built a cabin for her and left a warning for other Indians to leave her alone, using the heads of the Indians she had killed. The man who helped her found her at some point deceased in her cabin from malnutrition.

And there you go, a little more history you never thought you might know.

The highways here have pull out parking areas every so often with large dumpsters and nothing more. We used one today for our lunch stop just East of Buffalo, WY. And yes, we managed this stop before any crankiness bubbled over.

So using the "Ten Sleep" travel index we traveled about Six Sleeps to get to one of Mom's bucket list stops (based off a start in Yakima).

Ever since the Close Encounter movie I have always wanted to stand at this site and see it with my own eyes.

We tortured the kids with this movie before we left home over Ten Sleeps ago. They appreciated it for what it was and loved the ending.

Nerd Allert! Do you see it?
I love that my family plays with me.

Oma and Jo hiked a little around the base.

What an incredible site this is. Absolutely amazing and beautiful.

Storm came in as we were heading down the hill and so we decided to stay in the campground at the bottom for the night.

It was a cool storm, lots of rolling thunder and lightning that streaked or filled the clouds with light and then very large rain drops that came down in buckets. It didn't last too long and moved through quickly, plus it cooled down the evening nicely.

Mom is in heaven seeing this image.

Happy Mom and Happy Family.

2016 Road Trip - Day 9

Day 9: Packed up and headed through Yellowstone with Ethel in tow.

First stop would be Lower Geyser Basin and the Fountain Paint Pot.

Oma and the kids took the walk around as Doug and I hung out in Ethel and waited.

What we have learned is that taking a dog with you on vacation isn't always the best idea as no dogs allowed on the walk ways. And it's just too hot to leave him in the truck or Ethel. Live and learn.

Next stop Midway Geyser.

This parking lot was SO FULL that I couldn't even park, I just drove with the flow of traffic in the parking lot circle until the family got back.

Black Sand Basin seemed quiet so we pulled in there and even parked!

I was able to get out and take my first look at these bubbling pools of water and color. Incredible. It's like we are not even on planet earth. So glad I was able to walk these paths and see this wonder! (Walking is getting easier each day as the pain becomes less.)

Bison? We want to see a bison!
Got our wish!
Oma took Doug outside for a quick pee when a bison walked out of the bushes next to her. She quickly came and got us so we could also view this magnificent beast, while Oma had to changed her shorts! ;-)

Cole was able to get this photo as I tried but the camera was on a selfie and I couldn't find the reverse button quick enough. I guess I could have snapped a photo of myself "seeing" the bison but it just wouldn't have done the bison justice.

OH NO!
As we were standing there admiring the bison who had just walked away another bison walked out of the bushes right behind...directly behind Jo and Cole. We all jumped back quickly and this time I had the camera correct.

This is how close we were...well, Jo was probably closer at the time the bison was first spotted. Talk about an adrenaline rush!

The bison didn't seem to care one way or the other that we were standing there, he was on his way to the river for a drink and a sauna I guess.

Continental Divide = COOL!

OK, I understand what this place is but I had zero clue that there was a river that flowed both directions (really, its a pond, but the point is about water flow...)

What an incredible thing. Mother Earth is just awesome!!!

Stopped Traffic? Must mean some sort of animal to photograph.

What a rack on this dude!!!

Mud Volcano...is stinky.

A stranger told me to go stick my foot in the mud bath as it would probably heal me faster. I love people, they make me laugh often.

Dragon Mouth is also stinky but cool looking. It did remind me of a dragon breathing out of the mouth of the cave. The sound of the water and steam also helped this effect.

Time to move out of Yellowstone, or so Mom thought.

Jo: "Can we swim?"

So we stopped at Yellowstone Lake and the kids swam and skipped rocks for about a half hour. Water was cold and according to the kids it was colder the deeper they moved in the water.

It was a nice end to visiting the park.

NOW it's time to head out of Yellowstone.

Cody, WY: Oma ran into the Visitor center to grab a Wyoming map and also got some good information on the roads best travel. We changed our road choice to stay away from some of the higher elevations and steeper grades as Lucy is sounding worse each day.

Greybull, WY: for dinner in Ethel.
Again we drove too long and it was hot and we were cranky.
I'd say live and learn but we probably will do this again.

Fascinating weather. Left Greybull and it was in the low 80's when we hit rain and sideways wind gusts. The temp dropped to 63 and I really had to hold onto the steering wheel. After about five minutes of this we drove out of the rain and the temp again jumped back to the low 80's. Fascinating...like I said.

Worland, WY: for the night.

This is our view from the kitchen table at 6 a.m.
Nice town and nice store manager to let us park for the night. We purchased a few items from his store in thanks. Jo and Oma went for a walk to a park one block away, there was a farmer's market! Tamales for dinner!!! Oh, and Oma got her geocache.