The Long and Not So Winding Road

Cumulative miles  3,158

Number of speeding tickets:  1

Lesson Learned #1 More people live in Bucks County than in the state of Wyoming

Lesson Learned #2 Do not step on seemingly familiar weeds without shoes on

Number of States Visited: 10

So I reached Cody Wyoming today. I'm going to go out to dinner after I finish this post and enjoyed a nice steak somewhere. Cody is the home of wild Bill, so they take their cowboying seriously. I saw a banner when I entered the town advertising a rodeo at 8pm and got pretty psyched to check it out. Unfortunately, last night was the last night, so no rodeo for me. Here's the long and not so winding road:

My GPS was showing this. Tell me when you get it...

I started the day going to the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota, not too far from Mt. Rushmore. This epic sculpture was begun in 1949 by a self-taught Polish immigrant sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, and it's still a work in progress. When complete, it will be bigger than Rushmore. The face of the famous warrior has been completed, but they are still working on his arms, hands, and the head of the horse he is riding. It's a family project. Ziolkowski's grandchildren continue the work and it is all privately funded. Ziolkowski was twice offered ten million dollar grants from the US Government but he turned them down. Turns out he doesn't trust the government when it comes its track record of keeping promises to or about Native Americans. Imagine that.

From there, I headed to Custer, a few miles away, to do some more laundry. I found "The Lost Sock" laundromat and it was perfect. They have a few other lines of business, so you can also use their tanning facilities and rent videos while your laundry spins. I left two shades browner, freshly laundered, and up on the latest X-men movie. Custer was really cute and I walked the small downtown while my clothes were tumbling dry. They had a Studebaker car show downtown. I did not know that Studebaker made trucks, but there were some real beauties.

From there I hit the road headed for Cody, Wyoming. That's where the title "Long and Not So Winding Road" comes in. The roads in Wyoming are wide, flat, and stretch out endlessly. Why does ever other state in the Union have better roads than Pennsylvania? I posted on facebook the sign below. We're not in PA anymore, Toto.

There were some really empty stretches of highway. At one point the exits were 30 miles apart and I did not see a single home or business between exits. A few cows, yes, and some oil rigs and pumping equipment, but no other humans outside of the cars on the road. It looks like they recently had some prairie fires, as there were large blackened sections of land along the highway. It's very dry here and so I could easily see how a lit cigarette dropped out of a car window could ignite the grass.

The long road then actually turned winding when I finally hit where the Rockies begin. I went from an elevation of 4,000 feet and 90 degrees of heat, to 10,000 feet and 75 degrees, then back down to 4,200 feet and 94 degrees. I learned how to use my car's low gears to help with engine braking. Fun.

Once back down the mountains, I sprinted on to Cody. I kept stopping to snap pictures, the frequent stopping was actually good for my sore back. At one point I stopped at a scenic overlook at the Gooseberry Badlands. Unfortunately I was driving barefoot and decided, since it was only going to a quick photo op, that I wouldn't bother reshoeing myself. I hopped out of the car and promptly stepped on some type of groundcover cactus. Ouch! It took me ten minutes, but I got those little spines out. Lesson learned.

I'm now in Cody, within striking distance of Yellowstone, where I will stay three nights. I'm looking forward to doing some real hiking. Tonight I chose to stay in a small, family-owned hotel. My back is hurting and I think a hot bath and a real bed, instead of a blow-up mattress, is in order.

Love to all!