Driving Back From Rapid City

I took this picture because there were trees on both sides next to the interstate. That is a rarity around here.

On July 23, 1874, during the Black Hills expedition, Custer and a group of his men climbed the steep slopes of Inyan Kara. This outcropping is located in the Black Hills region of northeastern Wyoming and was a sacred place to the Native Americans (Sioux) in that area. The name Inyan Kara was probably derived from the white man's interpretation of the Native American term for the mountain: Heeng-ya Ka-ga.

According to one Sioux legend the Black Hills region was the dwelling place of the ''Great Spirit'' who had set aside the area as a temporary resting place for the spirits of the departed braves so that they would not become blinded by the splendors of the final happy hunting ground upon arriving there. The outlying mountains of Devil's Tower, Inyan Kara and Bear Buttes were also considered sacred places and were often visited, not only by the Sioux, but by many other tribes as well. It is also said that when Indians entered the vicinity of Inyan Kara, they would hang offerings on the rocks and trees to appease the thunder gods who were responsible for the mysterious rumblings heard during the calmest days and nights.


The Bighorn Mountains in the distance. We've not been able to visit them this year due to all the rain, snow and washed out roads.

Fall Snow in the Bighorn Mountains

To go to Shell, we decided to drive into the Bighorns one more time before the winter snows closed the roads and we were rewarded with lots of beautiful snow and scenery.

You might notice Flat Riley lying down in the snow trying to make a snow angel (it was his first time)...


At least the roads were clear of snow...

This stream was covered in ice and snow next to a toilet facility along the side of the road. For some reason, it seemed to increase my need for a toilet. They were hard to come by as most of the campgrounds were closed in the park for the winter.

503 Miles - 8/22/09

This particular "Making Memories" day was awful! On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best, it was probably a 5! The only thing that salvaged it was most likely the prayer we had before we left and the one that we had to have halfway through it before things got worse. And, you know the old saying about "God looks after fools and children"?, well, that probably helped out alot too.

What was so bad? In a nutshell:

• I swallowed a flippin bug while putting things in the car and though I spit it out, it felt like it was still lodged in my throat and this was BeFORe we left our street;


• Joe and I had stupid, silly disagreements throughout the day;


• We got stuck on a "scenic country backway" that became the road from hell (more on that in another blog);


• I ripped out some plastic piece of my front bumper when attempting to turn around on a very narrow dirt road and managed to pull out a portion of the back bumper the same way. I've found another use for duct tape people! It ain't pretty, but it's holding everything together for the time being. I'll plan on having that taken care of when I take my car to the shop to have the hood repaired from where the horse we met on an earlier "Making Memories" day tried to eat my hood paint and left teeth marks. (Try explaining that one to your insurance agent!);


• A container of water. that we had frozen, sprung a leak in our Igloo lunch bag and created a small pond in the bottom. Luckily our sandwiches and goodies didn't get wet. Then Joe decided to put it back in the bag without my knowledge. When I opened it again to take out the remaining sandwiches - there was another small pond. When questioned, he said "I put it in upside down since the hole was in the bottom". (Ever hear about overhead items shifting during flight? Same principle when riding down bumpy roads);


• We paid $2.69 a gallon for gas in a small town to insure we'd have enough to get home after all, the last thing we needed was to run out of gas out here. No one would find you for days!;


• My ankles are swelled, I'm sweaty and most likely stink and am covered with a fine dusting of red sand; and lastly since I do want to go get a shower and go to bed...


• It was as though the day would never end as we arrived at home aGAin after dark and some 13+ hours later.

Wait!!! Wait!!! There is another good thing that happened today which was that I passed three Wyoming State Troopers and not one stopped me. That's great news considering I was stopped the last two weekends for not having my front license plate attached and I received a speeding citation last month. (Speaking of duct tape, I even tried, though temporarily, duct taping my front license plate to the front of my car so I wouldn't get into trouble today. I decided against that though and opted for sticking it in my front windshield. You see, my car is not equipped to handle a front license plate and I can't seem to find anyone willing to attach it. They don't want to accept responsibility in case it messes up the front bumper. And, I've gone for 8 months without any problems until the last two weekends.) I seem to be accumulating a nice stack of blue citations and trooper business cards. (I've found that feigned ignorance of Wyoming automobile laws and a thick southern accent have served me well thus far. But I don't speed over the posted 75 mph now and I did attach my license plate to my car tonight upon our return using those "zip ties" until someone can do it more professionally.

I'm sure there is a lot of great things that did transpire this date, but I'll just have to go to bed and think on them and I'm sure that once I review my pics, then I'll start smiling and thinking it couldn't have been that bad, right? So, it's off to the shower (waa hoo) especially since it's already 12:18 A.M.!!! and I am already imagining how great my sleep will be zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

551 MILES!!! 14 HOURS!!!

This was our longest day ever on our "Making Memories" exploring, but we saw so many things. We headed north, almost to the Montana state line, and then headed west through the Bighorn Mountains. The return trip home took us back through another route of the Bighorns, but we didn't see much as it had already turned dark. So, we'll have to check that area out again one day in the daylight.

The weather forecast had called for afternoon rain showers, but all we got was a small patch of rain. The rest of the time the rain had already quit when we arrived.

Stay tuned for pictures and details on our Making Memory Day.

Buffalo and The Bighorn Mountains

Though it was raining most of the day Friday, it was still a beautiful day in the Bighorn Mountains. Neither Joe nor I had ever been here before and we looked forward to spending a portion of the day in this new mountain setting. We were not disappointed. We saw incredible snow-covered mountain peaks and field where there were so many flowers that you could almost not even see the grass.

We saw mountains that were marked as billions of years old - so many years old it was hard to imagine how old they actually are.

Joe kept saying all day he really wanted to see a moose and finally near the end of our day, he was rewarded. We were driving down the road in the forest, when I saw several cars pulled over on the side with people standing looking at something. That's a sure sign that something is up and so we stopped to investigate. Joe finally got to see his moose! In fact, he got to see THREE!

We spent most of our time in the forest exploring the Crazy Woman Canyon Road. Yes, they named a road after me! It was a wet, gravel/dirt road that descended into the bottom of a canyon next to a roaring creek and pine-covered forest. There were several times that we just turned the car off and just listened and all you could hear was the sound of the water and the screeching birds. Times like this make me feel very small and blessed to experience opportunities like this. It makes me realize how large the world is and how even though there are millions and millions of people, I can have some part of the world all to myself to share with my husband.

What an incredible sight...the snow capped mountains, the flower covered field and the deer.