Recap

My sister posted a super sweet status on Facebook that included something about not remembering how many states I passed through: So here's the recap, with a little summary of what happened in that state. 

Virginia: The start and finish of the journey, and home, of course. We won't count this one. 

1. Maryland: Met up with Mea and Co. for the first part of the trip to Niagara, New York. 

2. Pennsylvania: Drove through on the way to New York.  Went through it again between New York and Ohio and visited the Erie Maritime Museum. 

3. New York: Stayed through the weekend for the re-enactment of the Siege of Fort Niagara. Visited Niagara Falls.

4. Ohio: Visited the Kent State University Costume Museum. 

5. Indiana: I did absolutely nothing but drive across I-90, stopping only for guess and a milkshake at a Dairy Queen on the Interstate.

6. Illinois: Chicago!  Water Taxi, deep-dish pizza, and visiting my friend DJ. Passed through it again on the way home, but Charles was driving and I was asleep through most of the state. 

7. Wisconsin: I stopped at a Culver's for lunch. Culver's is a Wisconsin-based chain, and they claimed to use local beef and cheese. They also had frozen custard.  

8. Minnesota: Pretty much the same as Indiana.

9. South Dakota: Sioux Falls, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore (from a distance), Mammoth Site, Wind Cave National Park. 

10. Wyoming: Yellowstone

11. Montana: The tiny part that's in Yellowstone, and a horseback ride in the National Forest. 

12. Idaho: Crossed the skinny part. Had lunch in Couer D'Alene...with no potatoes, there were none on the menu!

13. Washington: Seattle (Space Needle and Pike Place) and Whidbey Island.

14.  Oregon: Portland and Multnomah Falls

15. California: The entire coast? San Francisco, Muir Woods, Big Sur, Disneyland, Legoland, Coronodo Island. 

16. Nevada: Vegas, Baby. 

17. Arizona: Grand Canyon. 

18. Utah: Zion National Park. 

19. Colorado: Boulder! Hiking and eating, and seeing Cowboys and Aliens. 

20. Kansas: Another Indiana. Not sure if Charles even stopped for gas. 

21. Oklahoma: Stayed with very extended family in Tulsa.

22. Arkansas: Ozark Medieval Fortress, Historical Arkansas Museum, saw the Little Rock. 

23. Missouri: St. Louis Science Museum and more eating. 

24. Kentucky: Doesn't really count as it was dark and I was sleeping for a large portion of our driving. 

25. West Virginia: See above.

So, I wouldn't necessarily say I visited 25 states, but I did pass through that many!  

Last Stop

It's hard to believe it, but we've actually made it to the last stop on this far more than seven thousand mile adventure.  We're in St. Louis, Missouri, which we will explore tomorrow before heading home at last on Wednesday morning. It's somewhat fitting to end our journey here. I saw sights visited by Lewis and Clark, saw landmarks from the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Trail.  I saw the grandest sights in the West, and here I am, making my way home from the Gateway to the West.  Maybe a little backwards, but still, fitting.

The adventure is not quite over...we still have the City Museum and some cadavers on our schedule before we drive the 12 hours home.

Before we get too reflective, let's talk about what we've been up to.  We had a nice visit with relatives/friends in Tulsa, for the two hours that we were both there and awake, before heading to visit the Ozark Medieval Fortress, a 14th century-style castle being built in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.  It has a lot of promise, but the staff was a little absent because of it being a Sunday. I did get bitten by a horse for the first time, but we decided we needed to come back in about five years.

Then it was time to head down to Little Rock to visit my sis-in-law.  She made us a delicious dinner of chicken and dumplings, and then today we visited the Little Rock that the city is named after.  We also paid a visit to the Historical Arkansas Museum (HAM), which is a reconstruction/preservation of a block of LR from the 1820s-40s. It was pretty neat, and the museum itself was great. There was an exhibit comparing the Civil War/Old South as shown in Gone With the Wind (movie) and actual history in Arkansas. There was more on the making of GWTW than film analysis, but since I've been re-reading the novel on this trip, it was especially interesting. After lunch, it was time to hit the road again to St. Louis.

Here in St. Louis, we went straight to the Schlafly Bottleworks, an awesome brew-pub that I visited when I was here in the spring.  They have a lot of great local food, and of course, awesome beer.  We shared the goat cheese dip, which was amazing, and I had a beer cheese soup which was almost as delicious.  Now, here we are, blogging and catching up on internet stuff.

619 and Counting

Charles is driving right now, and we've been on the road for almost nine hours, stopping only for gas and necessary breaks. The title refers to the mileage when I started this post.

The morning got off to a good start, when we met my dear friend Liza and her fiance at Denver airport for tea and coffee. They were just flying in for vacation with her family as we were departing the area. Although the timing for meeting up was good, her vacation dates conflict with our arrival in St. Louis, where they actually live.

As you might expect, there has not been too much excitement today. Eastern Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma all pretty much look the same: flat grasslands and cornfields. Kansas was so deserted that we stopped at a completely automated gas station with just pumps and nothing else for miles.

All the sameness of view and our voracious consumption of This American Life episodes led to a feeling that time had stopped...not that it felt slow exactly. The hours passed without our noticing because one episode ran into another with soothing public radio voices as seamless as the landscape.  All of a sudden I realized we'd been driving for six hours with only two brief stops.

We have about an hour to go, crashing in Tulsa tonight before heading to Arkansas tomorrow for castles and family!

Boulder, Cowboys, and Aliens

This morning we took a lovely drive up Colorado 219, up into the Rockies, and on our way down, went on a very short hike to Boulder Falls, a magnificent rushing of water.  Then we had lunch at the Dushanbe Tea House here in Boulder.  It's late, so pictures will have to wait.

Then, we took a break from sightseeing so that I could do the very exciting task of applying for teaching jobs before heading out for our first Ethiopian meal ever.  I surreptitiously eyed the family next to us, trying to see how they used the bread to dip up from the large platter in front of them. I need not have worried. One of the sisters that seemed to own the place tore off a piece of the flatbread when she brought the plate, wrapping up small tidbits of the various vegetarian dishes, and then feeding me as if I was a baby bird, then walking off, nodding as if she were satisfied with my pleased murmurs.  We polished off the meal, and then took our full bellies just down the street to the movie theater to see "Cowboys and Aliens."

Wait, just hold on a moment before you judge.

Remember, we just spent days driving through the American West.  We saw all the desert scenes that we expected to see in the movie. And were we ever satisfied.  We had several hopes for the movie:

• Good western genre cliches
• Daniel Craig kicking ass (pardon my French, but that was my wish)
• Olivia Wilde looking...well....like Olivia Wilde, if you get my drift. (My husband's wish)
• Explosions
• Western scenery

We were satisfied on all counts.  Daniel Craig wakes up in the desert, looking just like the territory we just drove through. Within the first five minutes of the movie, he has beaten up a gang of tough Westerners.  Olivia Wilde's clothing gets soaked through not once, but twice, and then there's another scene...There is a shootout that results in large explosions.  And oh, the cliches. They hit them all: the town bully, the loner who seems tough but has a heart of gold, the sheriff, the pretty girl, a gang of outlaws, robberies, Indian ambushes, a saloon brawl, and the hero, riding off alone. 

Not to mention, chaps are flattering to any man with a nice posterior, but Daniel Craig as a rugged cowboy in chaps...well let's just say I couldn't be too jealous of Charles' crush on Olivia. 

Thoughts on Travels

I've done a lot of writing about what I've actually done, but I wanted to share a few of my thoughts about what I've been seeing and doing.

1. Sleeping in the car seemed easier than camping.  Never again will that be my choice, unless the alternative is getting soaked to the skin.

2. Taking a nap in a tent might be a hot, sticky business in a desert canyon. But somehow, it's worth it, to look up through the mesh at the top of the tent and see blue skies and sandstone cliffs.

3. Standing in the spray of a waterfall is one of the most simply refreshing experiences I've ever had.

4. I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to even take this trip.  This gratitude is increased by the fact that in four weeks of travel, hardly any of the days have been oppressively hot and humid.

5. I have discovered that I can be more outgoing than I ever imagined. I've talked to all kinds of people on my trip, despite those childhood warnings not to talk to strangers. Whether it was the shared experience of Harry Potter, or swapping tales with fellow hikers, there is a whole friendly world out there.

6. I love this country more and more as I travel through it. I am utterly fascinated by the quick changes that can occur in the landscape and the utter variety of terrain that I have covered in my 7,000 miles of driving.  It's incredible to go from barren desert sands to lush forests and rivers within a single day.

7.  I took this road trip not because I loved driving or thought I would enjoy life on the road, but out of a desire to see as much of the country as possible without spending a fortune on airfare. Not to mention, many of the places I've visited have not been exactly convenient to fly to. Along the way, I have learned to love this rather crazy life on the road. I enjoyed some of the long hours on the road, taking in the landscape, listening to music, and occasionally just thinking. All the way, I've been thinking of other road trip routes, other places or ways to travel.

8. I'll be home in less than a week, which hardly seems real. In a way, this has become my life. I'm looking forward to being home, not having to lug suitcases to a different place every night, seeing my puppy, and my family and friends. But at the same time, I'm going to miss my travels. There are so many things I would have liked to see, so many suggestions I would have loved to have taken, but there were always choices.

9. I'm developing a deep love for the West/Pacific Northwest.  Seattle, Portland, Boulder.  I love the mountains and feel like I could stare at them all day. I love all the amazing vegetarian food, and the independent spirit that seems to infuse the air. The casual atmosphere, without the frenetic energy of DC and so many other places on the East Coast.  Hiking. Wildlife.  Nature.  It's utterly majestic, and humanity feels like a speck rather than a tumor.  Ok, so it brings out my inner hippy a little bit and makes me feel super guilty if I don't recycle my water bottle.  Small businesses. Horses and trail rides. I think I was in Boulder five minutes before I decided I wanted to move here, despite long winters and massive amounts of snow. Maybe I should experience winter here first.

10. Vegetarian food is amazing. I'm not vegetarian, or planning on becoming one. I like meat, and feel that my body needs it. But my friend DJ in Chicago has this theory that vegetarian food is actually better...and I think there's something to it. To entice people to give up their evolutionary desire for meat, something tasty needs to be offered in return. I have not had a single disappointing vegetarian meal on this trip, but I've had quite a few disappointing burgers. I'm feeling inspired to cook more vegetarian meals when I get home, and choose vegetarian options more often when I eat out. Don't worry though, I won't be giving up bacon anytime soon. (Which is probably the only pork I've eaten on my entire trip).

No Longer Seven K Stephanie

So, I may have miscalculated my mileage slightly...we've passed the 7.000 mile mark, and are only as far as Boulder, Colorado.  Oh well, I only teach math to young children after all.

Apologies for my long absence. It's been partially lack of reliable internet and partially spending time with sisters.  Here's the skinny on what we've been up to.

Los Angeles:  We stayed just down the street from my amazing sister Lahle and her wonderful family.  We visited her walled paradise with its citrus trees, beautiful flowers, and astounding lavender and rosemary bushes, and spent time catching up.  The day after our arrival, we took one niece and one nephew to Disneyland for the day. We enjoyed their company as they are very pleasant for teenagers, and returned home in time for one more dinner with sister and company.

On a boat ride at Disneyland

Legoland and Coronado Island: From LA, we headed out to Legoland to meet my other sister, Jessica, and her family for the day. Miniland was the highlight of the day: Lego recreations of famous American cities as well as scenes from Star Wars.  We had a delightful picnic on Coronado Island while listening to some live salsa music, then walked on the beach and watched the sunset as dolphins frolicked in the waves.

Lego DC

Las Vegas:  The whirlwind continued as the very next day we departed for Las Vegas.  We stayed at the Bellagio, by far the most extravagant lodgings of our trip.  We'd tell you what happened, but you know what they say. What happens in Vegas...suffice to say that the Wynn lives up to its reputation for having the best buffet in town, we both learned that slots can be addictive, and New York, New York's roller coaster is either amazing or terrifying depending on which of us you ask.

One of the views from our hotel room at the Bellagio...we were in a corner room, with floor to ceiling windows

In front of the Bellagio

New York, New York

The Strip

Arizona and Utah: We hit the road in late afternoon, and ended up sleeping in our car in a national forest near the Grand Canyon. From the ritziness of the Bellagio to struggling to find a comfortable position in the front seat of a Honda CR-V was quite a transition.  We woke on the tail end of dawn and hightailed it to the Canyon to catch some beautiful views, make some breakfast, and take some pictures along the canyon. The Grand Canyon was beautiful, and awe-inspiring, but not all that exciting in terms of things to do unless you are prepared to hike down into the canyon.  So we made our way out to Zion National Park in Utah, making it there by mid afternoon.  Now there's some serious natural beauty.  I haven't counted up how many pictures I took there, but probably hundreds.  We made camp and headed out for a couple of hikes.

Grand Canyon, just after dawn

The Watchtower at the Grand Canyon

Zion

View from our campsite

And then...this morning we broke camp and drove eleven hours to Boulder, where we are currently located.  Tomorrow we will do some hiking and some touring of Boulder.

More photos here and here. Enjoy!

Arrival in San Simeon

Wow!  A lot has happened. You got a brief update from San Francisco, but I skipped a very important part of my trip by writing that entry!

After Seattle, I drove down to Portland to meet up with my friend Ellie, who just moved out there after a cross-country drive of her own (with her husband, Chad). We met up at Powell's City of Books, which is a bookstore covering an entire city block, several stories tall, and in which I easily could have spent the rest of my life browsing books. But instead of being antisocial by burying my face between two covers, we all went out to lunch and then went out to Maltomah Falls to do a bit of hiking.

After hiking, we went into a fun shopping/dining section of Portland and explored shops before catching a bit to eat at an awesome Thai place.  Mostly, it was just fun catching up with Ellie and getting to know Chad, since we are such kindred spirits. The next day was the 10-hour drive to San Francisco.

Not much to say there.

You already ready mostly about my first day in San Francisco. That night, I picked up Charles, at long last, and we managed to find a Mexican place open late enough for us to have dinner together before collapsing from exhaustion.

The next morning, we headed out for Muir Woods. This would be a good time to mention the stowaway in Charles' luggage:

Meet Roosevelt T. Bear.  He was a gift several years ago, and decided that he wanted to come along for the ride.  He was very excited for his first National Park visit (he's also interested in blogging and might do a guest post). After Muir Woods, we headed back to Pier 39 for lunch, a bay cruise, and a visit to the aquarium. I have recurring dreams about visiting aquariums, so the last was very important.

After spending the day on the Pier, we had a delightful seafood dinner followed up by creme brulee. Yum!

Today, we hit the road to San Jose to visit the Winchester Mystery House before heading out to the caost to follow California 1 down as far as San Simeon. On the way, we stopped to see the redwoods at Big Sur and visited some elephant seals. I'd post pictures, but it's getting late, and the internet is slow.  But if you click here you can check out the ones that I posted on Facebook (I know, I'm getting lazy).

Tomorrow, I finally get to see my sister and her fabulous family in the L.A. area!

Down By The Bay

Sorry for the lack of updating. It's been a couple days since I've had a good wireless connection. Even now, I'm blogging from my phone. Three cheers for technology!

I'm sitting on Pier 39 in San Francisco, looking out over San Francisco Bay. I can see Alacatraz, and the feet of the Golden Gate Bridge, just below the fog. (See picture). I've been watching the fog slowly creep across the Bay as sea lions bask in the sun, one occasionally lifting his head to lazily examine gawking tourists on passing boats.

The great thing about road trips is that they completely change your ideas of time. I'm staying about an hour away, but that felt like nothing this morning.

You can't tell reading this after the fact, but there was just a long pause as I lifted my face up to the sun, then watched the thousandth boat pass by. It's breezy and smells of water and boats and food. Good thing I already ate lunch...

Back to the story. I came down to the Pier mostly to kill time today. I've been relaxing, wandering in and out of shops and drinking coffee on a bench next to the Bay. Tonight I pick up Charles at the airport, and we'll do the serious sightseeing tomorrow. Right now, it's just downtime from the frenzy of traversing the country.

Seattle

The souvenir photo taken at the Space Needle

Whew! Today was a busy day, as I wandered all over Seattle.  I slept in (much needed after HP7), so I didn't get into the city until around 11:30. I headed straight for Seattle Center and the Space Needle.  I found a deal where I could get a pass to a bunch of attractions for thirty-nine bucks, and I took full advantage of it.  Up into the tower I went...took some pictures...and came back down. Then I headed over to Experience Music Project (EMP), a music and sci-fi museum.  I jammed in the sound lab and checked out the Battlestar Galactica exhibits, and generally wandered around.

Then, I hopped on the monorail and headed downtown to visit Pike Place Market, where I spent a good deal of the day just wandering.  It was my kind of place: bustling, filled with produce stands and fish mongers, street musicians and performers, tiny hole-in-the-wall used bookstores, and a general cheeriness.  I got a crumpet at The Crumpet Shop and oysters at Emmett Watson's, both recommended in the food book I bought yesterday. Both lived up to the recommendation. I got coffee at the first Starbucks, and mostly, just wandered as my whims took me. It was perfect.

Tonight, I'm too sleepy to double-post pictures here and on Facebook, so here's the album.

Tomorrow: Portland!

Am I Crazy?

The answer to that is clearly: yes. I'm living out of my car for five weeks by choice. But that wasn't why I was asking.

Last night, when I got into my hotel, I debated whether or not to go see the final installment of Harry Potter.  On the one hand, I already made plans to go see it with Dear Husband and some of my nieces and nephews in LA next week. On the other hand...it was the last premiere, the last midnight showing.

Although I couldn't get tickets to the midnight showing. So I saw the last 3am showing! In 3D! In IMAX!  And yes, it deserved that many exclamation points. I won't write a movie review here, because that's not what the blog is about.  I will say that I laughed, cried, cheered, and clutched my purse in the lack of anything better to hold onto. While waiting in line to go in, I started chatting with the two guys right in front of me in line.  We got on, and I ended up sitting with them and sharing popcorn. Yes, I took food from strangers.   That's the crazy part. Not...going to a movie so late that I got back to the hotel just in time for continental breakfast, then spent the day sightseeing on one hour of sleep...

I took the ferry over to Whidbey Island to visit my friend Paul. Paul and Larry picked me up at the ferry on the south end of the island, and drove north to start our tour.  We posed for pictures on Deception Pass (what an awesome name!) and then drove a little bit south for lunch in Coupeville, at Mosquito Fleet Chili.  The restaurant overlooked Penn Cove, famous for its mussels.  So of course I opted for the mussel chowder, served with grilled bread baked in store. Delicious!  And then we followed it up with some delicious ice cream, enjoyed as we walked on the pier.

 Then we stopped at a thrift store, where I found a copy of Road Food to help me pick out my dining destinations for the rest of the trip ($1.50).  We also took a walk on the beach of Puget Sound.

After a stop to see Paul's bookbinding set up (go to his site, it's awesome!), we went to Langley for coffee.

Then, exhausted, I hopped on the ferry and came back to the hotel and am now attempting to stay awake til a reasonable hour so I can get back on track. It was a wonderful day in the company of friends!

Visiting Yellowstone

The sun rose, bright and early, and straight into my window. I woke up, snapped this picture, and then went back to sleep for another hour before heading into town. I stopped at the first place that offered trail rides, and signed up for a two hour ride in Gallatin National Forest, which is right there next to Yellowstone. I had a bit of time to kill before I needed to head up to the ranch, Specimen Creek Ranch, so I walked around the little town of Gardiner, Montana, that sits right at the northern (original) entrance to Yellowstone. There was a saddlery, ready to outfit all the cowboys and cowgirls. And I don't mean tourists. I mean rodeo performers and working cowpokes. It made me wish I was still on the equestrian team at St. Mary's and doing western events (which I never actually got to do) because I would have been able to put together a divine outfit. I settled for the one piece of western gear that I have wanted for years: boots. Not touristy boots. But working girl boots: decorative and functional. Nothing made me happier than, about forty-five minutes later, to walk through mud and horse manure to hop on a horse and break them in. The cowboy who helped me mount even complimented them.

We rode up into the mountains along narrow trails, and I had to swallow my fear of heights more than once.

I brought up the rear, behind our guide and a family of four, with two daughters who were on horses for the first time. Although the father had apparently ridden before, their horses took shameless advantage of inexperienced riders, eating along the way, and stopping whenever they felt like it, so it was slow going up the mountain. I enjoyed the view, and didn't mind as long as I was on a horse. "This isn't your first time on a horse," the cowboy had observed, which tickled me. I'm no expert, but I can at least mount and keep control of a dude horse. And keep my horse from eating, thanks to threats of having to clean all the tack at camp. I kept my heels down, and admired my boots a little vainly while I rode. Mostly, though, I just enjoyed feeling the rhythm of the horse beneath me as we went up and down, and hatched schemes of going in with my sisters to buy a horse.

As you can see, we had some fabulous views. Babe was a pretty good horse, although she kept turning to look at me like she wanted to bite me for not letting her eat.

After my ride, I headed down into the park to visit Mammoth Hot Springs. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few thousand words for you.

I started to drive up to Old Faithful, which was about 50 miles away. Then I realized that 50 miles through Yellowstone is more like a 2 hour drive. Each way. And I realized that more than anything else, I wanted to experience Yellowstone with Dear Husband. I called him, and told him that I wanted to leave the area, and what did he think about me heading up to Philipsburg that night.  Looking at the map, he warned that I would be driving through treacherous mountains after dark.  Weighing my options, I decided I should spend an extra day in the Seattle area, to allow more time for visiting a friend and hitting the tourist spots. So, I headed out to Helena, Montana, for the night.

This morning, I got up and hit the road for Seattle, stopping in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho for lunch.  Other than that, it was only stops for gas and potty breaks, and I got into Everett, Washington just before seven.  My hotel here has a kitchenette, so I made up a bowl of rice, sausage, peppers, and onions, and am currently preparing to drink copious amounts of coffee to go to a ridiculously late showing of Harry Potter 7.  In other words, today was less than exciting. Tomorrow: Whidbey Island.

Post from July 12

(I didn't have internet when I was in Montana)

Today, I drove 600 miles. That was not entirely the plan, as it is not directly 600 miles from the Black Hills to Gardiner, Montana. However, I took two detours. The first was to the Devil's Tower, but alas, my encounters were not as close as I would have wished, since there were about 30 cars ahead of me to get into the park, and I was on a schedule.  The detour had already cost me an hour, since it was not as close to the highway as the state of Wyoming would have you believe. 

On the way to Montana, to the very northwestern entrance of Yellowstone, signs for a more scenic route than I-90 kept tantalizing me. Now, I've been on I-90 since New York. I'm rather sick of her, of her construction, and of endless views of sameness.  So, I gave into temptation, and took the scenic route through Yellowstone. Not just through Yellowstone, but through two national forests as well: Big Horn and Shoshone.  I'm getting well acquainted with national forests, since I just camped in Black Hills National Forest.  Big Horn was filled with meadows of purple and yellow flowers, and felt so alpine that I almost burst into songs about hills being alive with the sound of music. Shoshone felt much more wild, with the Shoshone River swelling at its banks, just ready to burst.  And finally, I came to the gate of Yellowstone. My national parks pass is definitely giving me my money's worth: Yellowstone alone is $25, and the pass only cost $80. This is the third time I've used the pass.  The ranger asked me if I had a place to stay (I later understood her response of "good" to my "yes" when I passed full campground after full campground and hotels with no vacancy signs) and handed me a map and flyer along with my vehicle permit. The bright yellow permit has a warning about bison on one side (visitors have been gored!) and a rather disturbing warning on the other side about thermal crusts being thin and covering boiling water. The image is of a boy falling through, a look of pained surprise on his face as his baseball cap flies into the air. The ranger warned me to watch for animals on the road at this time of night, and sent me on my way.  

Melting snow send cascading streams down sheer rock walls that bordered the road, and the various rivers and streams were all as raging as the Shoshone.  I drove higher and higher, into snowcapped peaks, through forests decimated by fire, past shimmering lakes, and yes, bison. I smelled the sulfur and saw the steam that makes Yellowstone so famous. I'd kind of expected the whole park to feel like a wasteland, with the images of hell conjured by sulfur and heat, but it is one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen. I added at least 30 minutes to my trip because I kept pulling over to take pictures.  

Several hours later, I was through the park and pulling into the 4 mile long driveway of the house that I'm staying at.  I can see nothing but mountains, all around me, as I look out the windows.  It's utterly isolated, heartbreakingly beautiful, and has a washer and dryer and a place to dry out the tent that I packed up in the misty Black Hills this morning. 

I can't wait to go explore the park more fully tomorrow!

Black Hills Day 2

This morning was quite chilly when I first woke up...so I rolled over and went back to sleep in my snug little bag.  When I finally got up, I ate delicious leftovers from last night...and just now realized that I didn't share about my awesome meal last night.

I looked around on Yelp, not feeling like cooking in camp, and found the Powder House Lodge in Keystone to be highly recommended.  I ordered the game sampler and a glass of Red Ass Rhubarb Wine. The wine was tart and juicy, and went well with the game, although I'm no sommelier.  The game sampler included elk medallions with brandied apples, game sausage (venison, bison, elk, and boar), and bison short ribs.  Everything was fabulous, and I followed it up with a cherry rhubarb crisp. Yum yum yum!

So, back to today.  I decided to head to Wind Cave National Park, making sure to bring a sweatshirt and hiking boots.  I spent about an hour and a half on tour with a fabulous ranger as our guide, and two other visiting rangers bringing up the rear with me.  I mentioned at the beginning of the tour that I was a former ranger, and got a little extra attention as a result. He showed me some formations when the rest of the group got ahead, and the visiting rangers, from Jewel Cave National Park just down the road, told me stories about their cave.

This is boxwork, the type of formation for which the cave is famous. It's formed as water seeps through the limestone, and then the limestone crumbles away.  So it's the filling in of cracks, basically.

Then, on Ranger Mike's suggestion, I headed over to Mammoth Site.  Mammoth Site is the site of a sinkhole from back in the day. As in, the Ice Age.  Mammoths and other animals fell into the sinkhole pond that formed, and got stuck, sank to the bottom, and their skeletons were preserved. Not even fossilized. I'm talking actual bone and ivory here. The dig, which is ongoing, is housed in a permanent building.

All but three of the mammoths found at the site have been Columbian Mammoths, as seen on the right. Much larger than the wooly mammoths (left), of which only three have been found. A modern elephant can walk under the chin of these mammoths without even brushing against them!

Mammoth molars

The second most complete skeleton, only missing its head. 

A perfectly preserved skull

After Mammoth Site, I noticed some dark clouds and rushed back to camp to make sure all the hatches were battened down.  When the thunderstorm started, I snuggled down in my tent to read, listening to train whistles and thunder.  It's been a quiet evening of relaxation since then, as I prepare for a long drive to Yellowstone tomorrow.