The Pacific Northwest (Michele)

Well hello there ladies and gentlemen. I have been a little absent lately so I thought I would drop you a line to say hello and given you a bit of an update.

So the Pacific Northwest has not been my favorite place. I enjoyed Seattle including the original starbucks, Pike Place Market, and dinner with good friends, but other than that I wouldn’t come back. We did go to one of the old port towns, Port Townsend, which was quaint and cute. We also picked fresh lavender on the way home—which was by far the most fun we had.

I do think that part of our disappointment was the realization that we had gone as far west as we possibly could. There is something so tantalizing about “going West.” It’s an inspiration ingrained in us from a young age through stories of manifest destiny. Jack Kerouac further enraptured the feeling in On The Road, but I don’t think you can fully appreciate the feeling until you actually get on the highway. Arriving in Seattle meant an end to that part of our journey and I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye.

City men vs. cowboys 7/5/07

So michele and I have decided that men in cities like NYC, Chicago, and Seattle can be compared to fine china or silver that you take out at chrismas time. Once a year. And that the men in the west like Wyoming and South Dakota are like that fabulous leather bag you bought 6 years ago; still beautiful, still sturdy, and still rugged.

Teton National Park & Jackson, WY (1)

So we finally reached the Grand Tetons around 11:30 at night Mountain time (1:30 am eastern time) and realized this was probably not the smartest idea in the world since there are so many wile animals around here that come out at night. We will call this “Lindsay and Michele on Safari in the Tetons” Drive at a snails speed through the mountains we saw a ton of deer and antelope. It was very cool, but seemed like forever. Michele was getting a little nervous thinking we were lost in the Teton Mountains and decided we should seek out a ranger. We pulled over on the side of the road for shel to use the facilities and low and behold a ranger drove right past us. She jumped back in the truck, pants still unbuttoned and said Follow that Ranger! Hunting down this ranger we flashed out brights at him about a thousand times. He finally pulled over and came to our car. He was like what’s the problem ladies. We quickly told him that we thought we were lost and that we were looking for a site. He pointed us in the right direction and went of with the rangerly duties of the night. We Shel and I went the way he said, and because it was so dark and so late we couldn’t find the damn site! While in search of the site we can across a group of animals the size of a clidsdale horse! It was herd of elk! Very cool. Allowing these lovely but huge animals to cross the road we drove on only to be stopped once more by deer crossing the street. Now deer are pretty docile creatures, but once we stopped and watched for a while we noticed there were some other animals in the grasses as well. We waited and watched. There were two grey wolves stalking and hunting these deer. We actually got to see these wolves lunge at the deer, but unfortunately for the wolves we spooked the deer and scared them away, so I guess we saved a few dear and made the wolves work a little harder for dinner. Michele and I finally got so tired that we just pulled off the road into a turnout and stayed the night there. We woke up at 6:00 am to find our campsite. We were lucky we went to the Jenny Lake campgrounds first, this is the most popular site at the Tetons because it is right on the lake. We just happened to pull in when a family was leaving! Go Us! So we are staying in the Tetons for a few days, thank god we were getting a little tired of the “go go go” thing we had going on.
Exciting sightings:
Grey Wolf: 3
Elk: close to 30
Deer: A dozen or so
Magpie: 2
Bison: 6
Moose: 1
Bald Eagle: 3
Grizzly Bear: 1
Cowboys: Hundreds (Complete with Belt buckle, Hat, boots, and colorful printed shirt!)
Ground Hog: 1 (This thing was the size of a cocker spaniel)

The Black Hills and Needles Highway

Leaving the Badlands we once again set out on the road headed towards the Black Hills, Custer State Park and Needles Highway, the Crazy Horse monument and Mount Rushmore. Making it to Custer State Park first we realized about halfway through the drive on Needles highway which was really cool, that we were almost out of gas. Trying not to step on the gas pedal in order to preserve our reserves we finally made it to the bottom of the mountain. From there we had to find a gas station. You see out here there is no grantee of gas it was could be 1 mile it could be 50 who knows. But we did find one about 5 miles down the road thanks goodness to because we were running on fumes. We ate dinner in this great town called Hill City. Shel and I finally got to try some Buffalo meat. We both had a buffalo steak wrapped in bacon with veggies and a potato for on $8.00 each. Awesome! We could totally do our own $40.00 a day! Look out Rachel Ray. After dinner we went on out quest for a campsite. It was little difficult seeing as though we had no idea where we were going, and got a little detoured in the Black Hills of South Dakota, but hey it all ended up working out in the end. We stayed at a campsite in the Nation Forest called Horse Thief (awesome name). And go figure we ended up staying at the same campsite that George Bush stayed at while he was in office. They called it their presidential site. Haha we thought that was funny. Waking up early, we ate a fabulous all you could eat breakfast in Hill City at this local dive and we on our way to Wyoming.

The Badlands National Park

Where do we start? After driving through absolutely the flattest terrain ever, we began to see a change in the landscape the closer we got to the park. From totally flat, to rolling plains, to hilly, to HOLY SHIT! These gigantic mountains made entirely of rock were am absolutely amazing sight. Michele and I pulled over once we entered the park (FREE! Because we were smart and bought a Park Pass for the National Park Service for all of the national parks). We starred up at these amazing monsters before us and were speechless. Yes for once I had not words. Any sentence, group of disruptive words strung together can’t describe this place. The best word that comes to mind is hypnotic. We were drawn to the pinks, oranges, reds, tans, and browns’ moving in what seems like a dance from one mountain to the other. They were swirls of colors moving from very muted and pale to extremely bright and loud. What made it even better was the sunlight. The way the sun gently meandered over the smooth, crumbly, sharp wall and illuminated huge crags in the side of these walls was inspirational. I swear it can almost be described as a religious experience; it was out of this world. Leaving the Badlands National Park we headed to the infamous Wall Drug in Wall, SD. It was very difficult
Bison: 2
Prairie Dogs: 17
Cows: It seems like millions
Jackalope: 1 (it was stuffed in Wall)

1880 Town: SD

Driving along I-90 west there is little to look at besides the countless signs for Wall Drug in Wall, SD and for 1880 Town. We happen to have a brochure for 1880 Town and decided that it was worth a pit stop. The town a comprised of building from the 1800’s all put together to create this neat little tourist trap. It was worth the $8.00 entrance. It was a very neat place there was a hotel from the late 1800’s that still had the scratch marks from when cowboys bumped them with their spurs. It had a real saloon with the staff dressed in period garb. The town was home of Cisco, the horse that played Kevin Costner’s horse in dances with wolves, as well as a whole exhibit of Dances’ with Wolves movie paraphernalia. It was really cool; I didn’t know that the movie was filmed out there. Leaving 1880 Town we headed to the Badlands National Park.

South Dakota to Wyoming: June 27 and 28

Pierre, SD, Pronounced, “peer” as the locals would call it turned out to be quite a cute town. The Lewis and Clark trail runs through the town and its biggest claim to fame is that it’s the capital of the state! Rock on Pierre! After driving around for a while from the central time zone to the Mountain Time zone a few times we finally found the farm island recreation area campsites. Once Shel and I registered and set of the site we looked at each other, reading the others mind said BEER and went on a quest to fine some before everything closed. Success! Not only did me manage to get some brew, in the West they sell Bud Light 16 oz. cans in packs of 8! Score! We returned thirsty little travelers, combating the mosquito’s with bug spray, our Off! Candle and our iron fists we planned out our next day of traveling. The conversation turned from our trip to several other colorful topics like boyfriends, relationships, cozy’s (You know those insulation sleeves shaped like a beer bottle) and headlamps! Don’t ask, ok. We woke up condensed, more commonly known as covered in condensation, and got ready to leave Pierre, SD and head to the Badlands. Looking at our campsite I thought to myself I’ve never seen campsites like these, the grass was perfectly manicured and it was beautiful, although the bathrooms were disgusting ultimately resulting in another day of Michele and I not taking a shower. Days without bathing: 2. With the time saved from not showering we were on the road by 7:45 am central time, shortly there after we crossed the Missouri river into the Mountain Time zone gaining another hour of playtime.