Moving Day

(Barry filling in again today.)

Just like the third round of the Masters golf tournament, today was "Moving Day". We didn't do very much but better position ourselves for tomorrow.

When I made the plans for this trip, I failed to fully investigate the travel conditions along our route. When you combine that with the fact that we were traveling over 400 miles, I began to worry about how long the day would be. Therefore, last night, I reluctantly asked my family for permission to leave the hotel at 7:00. They agreed and by 7:00, we were leaving Rapid City, South Dakota and heading west.

Our first (and really only) stop of the day was at Devil's Tower National Monument. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being able to get out of the van. We got our National Parks Passport stamped (of course) and then set out on the 1.3 mile hike around the entire monument. Because we left the hotel so early, it was only about 9:15 in the morning when we started our hike. Therefore, it was nice and cool under a completely clear and blue sky. We really had a lot of fun.

Our lunch consisted of ham/cheese sandwiches made from contents in our cooler. We had a few pieces of pizza left from last night's dinner, so Jacob left it in the Ziploc bag and set it up in the dashboard for about 15 minutes under the direct sun. Believe it or not, it did heat up the pizza. At least well enough for Jacob to power down about three slices.

For the next 3-4 hours we drove through the beautiful landscape of central Wyoming. The view of the Big Horn Mountain Range getting closer and closer was beautiful. Until I remembered that I would need to drive up into it.

We left Interstate 90 and travelled along Highway 14 and went straight up into the mountain range. At the top, you had the option of descending the mountain range via Highway 14 or Highway 14A. I had earlier decided that I would take the more scenic of the two options, Highway 14A. About a 100 yards after making the turn on Highway 14A, there was a huge yellow sign. The sign had a map on it showing you the two choices (14 vs 14A) and used phrases such as "10% grade", "very steep switchbacks" and "you've made the wrong decision". (Okay, I made that last one up, but that was the message the sign was portraying.) Consequently, we backtracked and went down Highway 14. It was a difficult descent, but I'm glad that we went that way. I'm sure that 14A would have been even worse.

After all of that, we made it to Cody, Wyoming around 4:30. We've been really impressed with Cody. It's a small town and is easy to get around. And, the town is very clean. All in all, it's been a good place to stop. We ate at a local dive and then stopped at a local laundromat to wash some clothes.

Tomorrow, we begin two days of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It should be a lot of fun. There is a possibility that we might not have Internet access tomorrow night. So, don't panic if you don't hear from us. We're having fun.