Westward Wyoming and Salt Lake City Utah

I have to say, now that this trip has turned around, literally, the feeling has changed entirely. On my way east, I had places I wanted to visit. For example, Boise Idaho, Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore. All the things you've already seen in his blog. I had no plans for the way back, other than to travel a different path then I had gone east.

I have no particular sites in mind for the return trip home, however, I would like to avoid highway 80 (which I am currently on). While traveling east, the road got better and better for me. There were fewer and fewer cars, I could focus on the scenery, the landscape. I could travel at 70 or 80 miles an hour, depending on the speed limit, and focus on what was out the side windows. While I was traveling west in Wyoming, there were still only a few cars and, though the scenery was a little monotonous, it was very nice traveling.

At some point, I ended up on Highway 80. Highway 80 travels across the country from coast to coast which means any trucker or civilian trying to make good time is on Highway 80, a two-lane Highway. Instead of scenery, I have to look at traffic and adjust my speed according to the truckers who are playing a slow game of leap frog.

This is not very fun, not as enjoyable as it has been. And the dread of knowing that Highway 80 could take me straight home (the quickest route possible) makes me a little bummed out. I would love to be home sooner than later but more than that I really want this to be an enjoyable three days. So, yesterday I went online to figure alternative routes. My plan is to take Highway 50, The Loneliest Road in America, to South Lake Tahoe. I contemplated driving to Yosemite but the length of time in the car was long and the hotel prices were too high. Even though I was just in South Lake Tahoe recently...the farther west I go the fewer new places there are for me to visit.

Speaking of which, I am now in Salt Lake City Utah.

I'd like to talk about the state line situation. I have crossed quite a few state lines on this trip and what baffles me every time is that the landscape, the climate, seems to change at the state line. I drove in Wyoming for 5 hours yesterday with the feeling of prairie and plains but as soon as I crossed into Utah everything became lush green, hilly, frankly beautiful. This happened when heading into Idaho, out of Idaho, into South Dakota. It happened more than I was expecting. I wonder if it was intentional when breaking up the states.

Anyway, I am in SLC. I came here once in my early twenties for a long weekend and communicated with locals and ex-Mormons. I learned a lot about the area and the culture. I walked around Temple Square and drove to local mountains to see how beautiful Utah is. I drank the low percentage beer and feel like I have a good understanding of the area. So, rather than look at the sights of where I am, I decided to sleep in, watch TV (a Star Trek The Next Generation marathon) and generally spoil myself. It feels so luxurious to just sit on a couch in my hotel room and not rush out the door.

Last night I booked my final two hotel rooms for this trip so I know exactly where I'm going and how long it will take me to get there. This means I can relax in the morning and not worry about getting on the road super early. I know it's going to take me 4 1/2 hours to get to Ely, Nevada. I will probably leave at noon.

I feel like this blog is going to peter out over the next couple of days because my focus has changed. I'm not taking as many pictures and I'm not as excited about what I'm seeing. This is not to say that what I'm traveling through isn't beautiful. I just think that each person has a certain capacity for what they can take in, how many hours or days in a row they can maintain excitement about scenery. When I was in Europe last year, I burnt out on it. I didn't care if I ever saw another castle or church or famous painting of Jesus. It was how I felt at the end of Yellowstone when I didn't stop at Mammoth Hot Springs. I am a little overloaded and just want to focus on the drive. The goal is to get to the next hotel, so I can lay down and recover from the drive itself.

Mount Rushmore, Devil's Tower and...fire?

I woke up in Deadwood, South Dakota and enjoyed that claw foot tub before getting in the car and driving down to Mount Rushmore. Note: Mark, from the hotel bar/restaurant in Livingston, Wyoming told me, "Mount Rushmore is like seeing a postcard. Just buy the postcard and don't go." He then told me how to get to a waterfall in the area, "Follow the kids, they know where to jump in from." I decided to go to Mount Rushmore.

The drive itself was gorgeous. Winding through the Black Hills, there were very few cars on the road with me. I did see motorcyclists because it was Saturday, warm, beautiful and this was motorcycle country. 

As I approached Mount Rushmore, there was a pull off where you could take pictures from the side of the road. I did so and was impressed. That is a crazy amount of work and a crazy idea. And it does look amazing. But the idea of paying to park and walking into a visitor center to learn more about the guy with the crazy idea did not appeal to me in any way, so I kept driving...past the parking lot. Around the corner, there was another pull off where you could take a profile picture of George Washington. I did this too. And that was the extent of my trip to Mount Rushmore. 

From the road (on my iPhone...a little too far for the zoom)

 

Getting to Mount Rushmore was my big, extended goal for this trip overall. I had managed to achieve it within a week and now it was time to drive west rather than east. Homeward bound!

When I was in the hotel in Deadwood, the manager came to my room to change a light bulb. She was very nice and started talking to me about how she raised her daughter to be a traveler. She said her daughter currently lives in Sydney, so we had something to talk about for a little bit. She asked me if I went to Devil's Tower and I said, "What's that?" She explained that it was the spot from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I looked it up, realized it wasn't far and in a westerly direction, so I made a point to hit it up on the way back. 

As I was driving Highway 90 towards 14, I saw smoke ahead of me. The day before, I heard on the radio that there would be some terrible weather coming in. Very dry and highly prone to fires. Well the night before, when I was watching the Calamity Jane Shootout in the streets of Deadwood, a thunderstorm came through. Lightning from this storm started a massive (5,000 acre) fire in Wyoming / South Dakota. 

I saw the smoke and kept driving on Highway 90. It got a little thicker and a little thicker and I reached out to Krista. My internet was spotty, so Krista helped me out. She told me exactly where the fires were, that I would be okay to go to Devil's Tower. 

The smoke was getting so thick I had thought about turning around. I'm so glad Krista helped me because 10 minutes later the sky was bright blue, clear and the rest of the drive to Devil's Tower was a breeze. 

Who feels like mashed potatoes?

At Devil's Tower, I had lunch. A buffalo burger. I also shopped in their gift shop which was very cute and had many Huckleberry flavored things. I bought my parents a little something and walked across the parking lot to the Devil's Tower Wyoming Post Office where I mailed the gift to them. 

I walked around and took more pictures before heading east. Again back to Highway 90 but on the other side of the fire. My route was smooth sailing and clear all the way to Casper, Wyoming. 

Rather than drive the quickest route to Casper from Devil's Tower I decided to take a 25-minute detour through grasslands because TripAdvisor said there were a lot of antelope there. Boy were there! 

Where the deer and the antelope play!

I had such a great time keeping an eye out for antelope and deer. It was a long day of driving, so I stopped at a pull off to have a nap before heading on. As the Aussies say: Stop, Revive, Survive.

Not 20 seconds down the road I saw this.  

A mama and two babies!

Aw babies!

Um, excuse me...a little privacy please.

When I finally made it to Casper, I checked into my hotel, dropped off my stuff and walked to Outback Steakhouse because the other choice was Applebee's and I knew Outback would at least have vegetables. 

After a large glass of wine and yesterday's blog, I ended up sleeping for 10 hours. It was amazing. The best night's sleep I've had on this trip yet and I needed it, because the next day's travel would also be a long one...

Two quick side notes:
1) While driving through the grasslands, I was next to a train. I passed him and while ahead of him, I stopped to take photos of antelope. As I started driving again, I saw that I was next to the train. I pointed my video camera at him and he tooted his SUPER LOUD train horn at me! It was so fun and lovely. I put down my camera and waved a thank you. The conductor gave me a "toot toot" in response and off I drove with a huge smile on my face.

2)  One of the best parts about being on the open road for so long is that you see random stuff. Like the Open Range...or a Flinstone Themed Hotel?

Montana and South Dakota

When I entered Montana, I quickly grabbed a bite to eat and then drove to my hotel about an hour away. I got settled and had a shower (to rinse off the camping). I blogged a little and then I went down to the hotel bar at happy hour for dinner and a drink. 

Next to me sat a local man who clearly knew the bartender and who had obviously been to work that day. His white shirt, taught over his big belly, was covered in grease and dirt, as were his hands. 

He started talking to me and I realized that I hadn't talked to anyone else on this trip. His name was Mark and he worked on the power lines for years. He even went to Katrina, which was an interesting story. 

He said when a natural disaster happens "they" call the power company and say, "Send everyone". They even bend the rules for trucking. So, you can drive straight from Livingston, Montana all the way to New Orleans without a break and then go to work on high voltage power lines.(!!!!) 

He said a 25 year old kid came with him as part of the team. By the end of the few weeks they were down there, the kid had $100,000 in the bank. He wanted to fly home but there were no flights, so he went into a car dealership to buy a car and drive home. They didn't believe that he had the money, so he went to the bank. The next day he paid for a brand new truck with cash and drove back to Livingston Montana. 

Mark was a very nice guy. He told me many stories, but after two shots and two beers (at least after I got there) he was pretty loopy and needed to go home, which was literally across the street. 

After he left, I talked to some tourists who came from Illinois. They drove to Yreka, California to pick up their grandkids and were driving back to Illinois. Their grandkids were 14 and 10. They were having a few drinks while the kids were up in the room.

They said, "I don't think they appreciate the drive. They're always on their phones." I said my parents drove me across country when I was 10 and I didn't appreciate it at the time either, but I sure do now. 

After dinner, I went up to my room and blogged for hours. And that was pretty much my entire experience in Montana. The next day, I drove straight to South Dakota. The route I took in Montana was very boring and there is nothing to say about it, except that I stopped at a taxedermy shop to stretch my legs. The little dog (Pepper) was a very good guard dog and barked at me until I left.

South Dakota, what little I saw of it, was beautiful. I went to Sturgis, which is where the motorcycle rally happens every year. I went to the Harley-Davidson store expecting to buy something, but nothing fit, and I'm not a motorcycle rider anymore, so I decided not to buy anything from there. 

I ended up buying a mug from the Sturgis coffee shop, since I am still a coffee drinker.

Then I drove to Deadwood, South Dakota through the Black Hills. The Black Hills were more beautiful than the black forest in Germany. The drive was perfect (windy with lots of twists and turns) for a motorcycle and I did see many of them. 

Deadwood is such a cute place. It's very wild west and, as my friend Amanda would say, it is faux-dorable. 

I went into all the souvenir shops and a couple restaurants and bars just to see what they were like. For the most part, it felt like a Sturgis run off. It was full of motorcycle men (bikers) and their motorcycle mamas and it made me feel generally uncomfortable. I might write more about this later but for now I'd like to move on. 

My hotel room in Deadwood made it feel like it was 1890. There were push button lights and a clawfoot tub, a water closet and no phone. The place was adorable and I loved every minute of it. It was within walking distance to downtown and I managed to catch a shoot-out show with Calamity Jane just before a thunderstorm came in. 

My room even had KEYS. Actual keys!

Calamity Jane

I even went to Saloon Number 10 which is the site that Wild Bill Hickok was shot. 

Deadwood was great and the Black Hills of South Dakota are gorgeous to drive through. My hotel was lovely, my time driving in South Dakota was lovely. Even though I was promised Bighorn Sheep, I didn't actually see any which was a little disappointing.