Saturday, July 17, 2004
After Deadwood, Angelo and I made our way to Devil's Tower, a huge volcanic core, in Wyoming. It was a little bit out of the way, off of the Interstate, but well worth the view. Devil's Tower is widely recognized by its stellar performance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I loved the Devil's Tower souvenir shop where you could purchase keychains with the tower on it paired with a green alien face, classy beer named Devil's Tower Lager and Fat Tire Amber Ale, and Devil's Tower pottery (hard to describe). It was raining, so we decided to skip the hiking opportunities there and pushed on, into Montana.
Upon leaving Wyoming we debriefed, safely out of shooting range, about the Wyoming folk. It was impressed on me that Wyoming is a true cow-town. The amount of gun racks in pick-up trucks with old fellas in cowboy hats is phenomenal. Our little civic was quite an anomaly there. Wyoming is something we are going to explore again, as Yellowstone, Cheyenne, and Jackson Hole are on the list of 'places yet to be discovered'.
While driving Montana, we passed the field where the battle for Little Bighorn happened and enjoyed the rolling hills that gave passage to the Continental Divide.
We started to get hungry for some food that didn't have the label Hardees, McDonalds, and Taco Bell. So we stopped in Billings, Montana for some quality grub. At Perkins, a quality stop when it comes to rating road-trip food. We saw a billboard in town with a salad on it, so we decided it was a safe bet. We parked ourselves in a booth for eight and perused the feature menu to discover that the lovely feature salads all had a huge slab of meat laid on top of them. One could order a steak, shrimp, chicken or bacon salad. Sure, they were named catchy names like Mediterranean Delight or Teriyaki Surprise, but they all had meat! We looked in the regular menu and found the regular salad options were also meatified. Nice. I inquired with the waitress as to whether or not I could order a salad without meat and she uncomfortably giggled and walked away. Am I that much of a freak? I guess it is Montana, the Alberta of the USA. She eventually understood my bizarre meat-free request, after offering me beef gravy for my fries, and I got a wonderful green meal.
The time was 10PM and we were wondering if a night under the stars might be nice. We drove into a beautifully groomed KOA campground, with the intent of setting up a tent, and shuddered at the thought of paying $29 + tax (US dollars) for no hook-ups. Back in the car with fresh coffee brewed, we drove on.
At a rest stop somewhere in Montana, we pulled over and ate up yummy sleep in our car. I, in front, and Angelo in the back, on top of the luggage under a quiet sky with intermittent rain.
End day 2.
Upon leaving Wyoming we debriefed, safely out of shooting range, about the Wyoming folk. It was impressed on me that Wyoming is a true cow-town. The amount of gun racks in pick-up trucks with old fellas in cowboy hats is phenomenal. Our little civic was quite an anomaly there. Wyoming is something we are going to explore again, as Yellowstone, Cheyenne, and Jackson Hole are on the list of 'places yet to be discovered'.
While driving Montana, we passed the field where the battle for Little Bighorn happened and enjoyed the rolling hills that gave passage to the Continental Divide.
We started to get hungry for some food that didn't have the label Hardees, McDonalds, and Taco Bell. So we stopped in Billings, Montana for some quality grub. At Perkins, a quality stop when it comes to rating road-trip food. We saw a billboard in town with a salad on it, so we decided it was a safe bet. We parked ourselves in a booth for eight and perused the feature menu to discover that the lovely feature salads all had a huge slab of meat laid on top of them. One could order a steak, shrimp, chicken or bacon salad. Sure, they were named catchy names like Mediterranean Delight or Teriyaki Surprise, but they all had meat! We looked in the regular menu and found the regular salad options were also meatified. Nice. I inquired with the waitress as to whether or not I could order a salad without meat and she uncomfortably giggled and walked away. Am I that much of a freak? I guess it is Montana, the Alberta of the USA. She eventually understood my bizarre meat-free request, after offering me beef gravy for my fries, and I got a wonderful green meal.
The time was 10PM and we were wondering if a night under the stars might be nice. We drove into a beautifully groomed KOA campground, with the intent of setting up a tent, and shuddered at the thought of paying $29 + tax (US dollars) for no hook-ups. Back in the car with fresh coffee brewed, we drove on.
At a rest stop somewhere in Montana, we pulled over and ate up yummy sleep in our car. I, in front, and Angelo in the back, on top of the luggage under a quiet sky with intermittent rain.
End day 2.
