June Trip-part 2

Day 3 - South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana

On the morning of day 3, I figured we were a little ahead of schedule being as we had already been down to Mount Rushmore and seen the sights there. That activity had originally been scheduled for the morning of day 3, so I felt good as we left the hotel early that morning headed west on I-90. In a very short time, we got off to visit our next scheduled attraction, Sturgis, South Dakota.

It was my belief that this would be a brief picture taking stop, but I was mistaken. It seems Jim, Melody and Kathy were all fans of the Full Throttle Saloon reality show on TruTV. So again I sat in the car while they explored every inch of the place. Not alone mind you, I did have some company while I sat there. It seems the mascot of the show, Emmit the donkey had taken notice of whatever it was that I was eating at the time and decided to check me out. It didn't take too long for the lady who runs the bar to come out and retrieve the wayward jack ass.

Eventually we made our way to the next stop which is basically across I-90 on the south side, Deadwood, South Dakota. This old west town is a great place to visit and see the sights. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to spend there as we stayed too long in Sturgis. We did get to eat lunch at Mustang Sally's and went into the Saloon number 10, where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. Unfortunately, this was not the original site of the murder as that establishment burned down in 1879. It is still a very interesting town and I hope to go back some day for a more detailed visit.

Once all the sight seeing and shopping was complete in Deadwood, we made our way back towards I-90 and were once again westbound. Our next scheduled stop was supposed to be Devil's Tower, but the consensus was that it was getting late and no one really wanted another detour from our route of travel. Just as Mount Rushmore, I had already seen this sight, up close and personal, so no objection from me.

We did make a couple more stops, once at Buffalo Ridge, South Dakota and again to stop and see the prairie dogs at the prairie dog ranch. The latter was something I had not experienced on my previous trip out west so it was very interesting for me as well as the others in our group. Even though the ranch was closed, we saw many of the little creatures poking their heads out in search of a handout from the tourists.

We decided to forego our next scheduled stop at the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn due to the late hour, so we continued on into Montana. We stopped and had supper at a DQ in Billings and ultimately ended up at a Super 8 in Columbus, Montana. We were originally supposed to stop in Big Timber, but a mix up with the GPS put us here for the night.

Day 4 - Montana, Wyoming, Idaho

After another restful night, we once again continued our journey fairly early. We quickly discovered the GPS error on the way when we passed by Big Timber, but the distance was not that great and in no time at all we crossed back into Wyoming and found ourselves at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. After a brief bathroom and ice cream break, along with a few pictures taken, we were on our way to the main attraction of this park, Old Faithful geyser.

Of course you know how it is with plans, they never seem to work out the way they should. There were simply too many picture taking opportunities along the route, from the wildlife (Elk and Buffalo), to the mountains and streams so breathtaking to behold. We did eventually find our way to the geyser and had a rest while we waited for it's eruption.

Took about 45 minutes, but it finally went off. Once that occurred and the pictures and video were captured, we decided to quickly make our way to the south entrance as we had spent far too much time (6 hours) in Yellowstone. But as usual, you can only go as fast as traffic patterns allow and we quickly found ourselves behind a line of cars near the south entrance. We noticed many people out taking pictures and were quickly informed there was a grizzly bear near the side of the road.

The correct and safe thing to do in this case is to roll up the windows and stay in the car until the crowd  is either eaten or gets back into their vehicles, but that was not the case with my companions, who were quickly out of the car as well leaving me there to fend for myself. The last time this happened I was quickly discovered by the local wildlife (Emmit), and I hoped I didn't meet the same fate this time as no one had bothered to roll up their windows.

Luckily, that was not the case, and pretty soon Jim came back to the car announcing that the bear was getting angry so he decided to come back to the car. Of course Melody and Kathy didn't sense the eminent danger and continued to take photos until the last possible moment. But all good things must come to an end and soon they too were back in the safe confines of the car.

Soon afterwards we found ourselves out of Yellowstone and into Grand Teton National Park, where many more pictures were taken on our way to Jackson, Wyoming. The trip went by quickly and we stopped in Jackson to have a bite to eat at a Wendy's there. Once we ate, we stopped nearby to fill up with gas and I made a horrible discovery. I had lost my phone. So we quickly went back to the restaurant to search through the garbage. Long story short, Jim found my phone in a dumpster out back. Thanks Jim, I really appreciate your fast action and disregard for getting icky stuff all over you while digging through the trash.

Once back on the road again, we realized that we were not going to make our scheduled destination of Ogden, Utah, so I quickly reprogrammed the GPS for the quickest route to our next day destination of Reno, Nevada, in hopes that we could split the time lost over two days and hopefully get back on schedule the next day. With the GPS reprogrammed, we found ourselves on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere, not uncommon in Wyoming. Eventually we made our way to Idaho Falls and ended up staying in Chubbuck, Idaho for the night.