Before leaving Casper and heading towards Rapid City, we made a couple of stops. First, we drove past the Casper Temple site. The temple is currently under construction so there really wasn't much to see, but we stopped anyway.
We next went to the Tate Geological Museum on the campus of Casper College. Although it is a small museum, it houses a wide variety of fossils, rocks, and minerals from Wyoming and elsewhere. Our favorite exhibit was of Dee the Mammoth a 11,600 year old Columbian Mammoth who lived in the American West during the Pleistocene, or Ice Age. Dee was discovered in 2006 by a backhoe operator who was preparing an oil drilling site when he uncovered bone. Over 300 bones were discovered so putting the skeleton together was easier than other projects. He is huge and towers over onlookers. We liked him. There were lots of other fun exhibits and we enjoyed roaming around the fossils and other stuff.
We left Casper and continued our drive, heading towards Devil's Tower about three hours away. Devil's Tower is a National Monument largely in the middle of nowhere. It's off the beaten path, but it's incredibly interesting. It looks sort of like a volcano rising up over the Wyoming countryside, but recent data suggests it is an igneous intrusion for those geologists leading along. It's really pretty cool looking. There is a path that circles the Tower and we walked all around. We took lots of pictures and wanted to push over lots of dead trees. In the end, Brandt did push over one, and then we walked quickly away so as not to be arrested. There were people on the Tower, climbing, which didn't look particularly fun to us.
There was a prairie dog colony near Devil's Tower.
Hundreds of prairie dogs roamed around and chirped at each other.
An intrepid pine tree growing out of a rock.
This one wouldn't fall over.
Red squirrel on black log
Brandt looking out over the landscape below.
A nice couple came by where we were standing, looking,
and I offered to take their picture.
Then the woman offered to take ours.
I was going to explain the camera but her husband said,
"She's a photographer."
I just let her do her thing.
She did a pretty good job.
See the red dot?
That's the climbers.
Another shot of the climbers
Devil's Tower is a sacred spot for several Native American tribes
and surrounding areas are spots for religious ceremonies.
I knew we would be driving through Sturgis, South Dakota, home of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. While this means little or nothing to me or Kent or Brandt personally, my dad had a Harley and, I think, once went to Sturgis. We wanted to stop by the Harley store and get a t-shirt. We were pushing time and I hoped that the Harley store would be open until 6:00 because as time was, we were going to get there just about 5:00pm.
They close at 5:00. We drove as fast as we safely could and got into Sturgis at 4:50pm. We couldn't find the store for several minutes, so we pulled up to Harley at 4:55pm. Brandt and I leapt out of the car and dashed in. I said, "We need some t-shirts. I promise we'll be fast!" The women working there were very kind, but we ran around looking at designs, grabbing shirts, and in no way dawdling. We were at the cash register at 4:59pm. Phew!
We asked where we might eat in Sturgis and were told the Knuckle Saloon would be a great choice. Hmmm. We decided we would just carry on to Rapid City, only half an hour away, and find something a little less alcoholic for dinner. We ate at a tasty Thai restaurant then continued on to our hotel.
When I was looking for places to stay, I was fairly confident I had booked a place at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites - Rushmore, on the southeast side of Rapid City, closest to Mount Rushmore. Turns out there are two Holiday Inn Express and Suites in Rapid City, and I made a reservation at the other, farther away hotel. We arrived to check in at our hotel, the one I thought we were staying at, only to be told we had no reservation and were in the wrong place. I was terribly disappointed, but in the end, it didn't make much difference. The other Holiday Inn was completely acceptable and only about ten minutes difference in travel time. At the end of a long day of driving and site seeing, we were happy to be able to stretch out and Brandt and I went down to the hot tub for a soak.
All in all, a good day.
Quotes of the day:
Brandt: "Look at all those dead trees!"
Talking about having the sex talk, I reminded Brandt we'd had the talk while hiking in Moab. "How did that start?" asked Brandt.
Katherine replying, "When a mommy and a daddy love each other . . . "
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