Home again

We are back from our trip! I'll write about it in two or three blog posts -- one now and maybe the other(s) tomorrow or the next day. Overall I think it was a successful trip, but it was (of course) not without challenges. It amuses me to look at the post I wrote right before we left, with all our plans, and compare it to what really happened. We did a LOT less than we planned to.

Monday morning I'd hoped to leave by 9:30 am, but instead it was 11. Rocket Boy and I had gone to bed too late the night before... one of the boos woke me up at 6 am with a problem... anyway, we ended up getting up later than planned and getting on the road later than planned. It was OK. We always leave late. No big problem.

The problems began with lunch in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We'd planned to go to Little America, where Rocket Boy and I used to hang out a lot in the old days. It used to be so kitschy, so deliciously old-fashioned, with its highway billboards advertising 25-cent ice cream cones, or whatever. I did notice, as we approached it, that there were almost no billboards anymore. Turns out it's been remodeled and reimagined -- no more kitsch, no more attempts to appeal to tired traveling families with kids -- it's gone upscale. There was a business meeting going on -- people in suits and ties -- and the restaurant looked way too fancy for our boys. So after using the restroom we beat a quick exit and went to Village Inn instead.

OK, no big deal, Village Inn was fine, and onward we go up I-25. So green and pretty, with pronghorn dotting the meadows. Except that as I drove, we started seeing electronic signs warning us of road closures. Every time we drove by one, I was going 75 mph and the twins were screaming about something, so it was hard to focus on what the sign was saying. But it mentioned Lusk and Highway 18/20, and I knew we were planning to take Highway 18/20 to Lusk. Finally, just before our turnoff, we stopped at a rest area and a custodian explained what was going on. Like Colorado, Wyoming had heavy rain and flooding throughout April and May, and the stretch of highway that we were going to take was closed due to flood damage.

OK, fine, there was a detour -- Highway 59 -- so we took that. It was probably smaller and slower than 18/20, but it was OK... until I passed a truck carrying gravel and a rock flew out and smashed into my windshield.

I should take a better photo -- this doesn't show the scale at all, just the shape, like a bullet hole. The rock didn't come all the way through the glass, but it was so scary to have it hit like that. If it HAD gone through the windshield, it would have continued on to my face. The rock even silenced the twins for a while, and that's hard to do.

We were driving through Wyoming because we were on our way to see Devil's Tower, which is quite a sight -- but in retrospect I kind of wish we'd skipped it. We drove 450 miles on Monday, after leaving at 11 am. Ghastly. Anyway, we finally reached the tower around 6 pm or so, and here it is:

There were lots of people there, even though it was so late in the day (stays light very late in June way up north, of course). We hiked around it -- Rocket Boy went all the way around, but the kids and I were lazier. It was 84 degrees at 7 pm and I'd been driving all day. The kids were most interested in a caterpillar they found on a bush.

Kid A carried it around with him for a while, but I made him put it back (on the same bush) eventually. I really didn't want a caterpillar coming with us on our trip (and eventually dying in the car).

Finally we got back in the car and drove on to Spearfish, South Dakota, where we found our first motel.

It was very cheap ($66/night, including breakfast) and we liked it -- nice big spacious room, comfortable beds, plus the ability to park right in front (Rocket Boy's #1 criterion for motels).

We were in the center of Spearfish, not the outskirts, so we had our choice of restaurants to walk to in what seemed like a pleasant, safe neighborhood. We went to Killians (recommended by the desk clerk), and liked it pretty well, but Kid B didn't want to eat his grilled cheese. Back at the motel, the kids got into pajamas and I went to take my shower... but while I was in there, Kid B suddenly threw up in the sink (fortunately the sink was separate from the toilet & shower). Kid A banged on the bathroom door to tell me what was going on. We weren't sure if it was the dinner -- or the lunch at Village Inn in Cheyenne -- or all the potato chips he'd eaten in the car -- or he had a bug -- or he was just tired. He said he felt better after throwing up.

So he rinsed out his mouth, I read both boos a story, and they settled down to sleep. Unfortunately, the air conditioner in the room was very noisy and it kept cycling on and off all night -- waking me up every time it cycled on, or so it seemed.

When it comes to motels, sometimes you get what you pay for.