How the West was.... (Everything I ever wanted from the West!)

Wow, I can't believe we've only been on the road for a week. It feels longer than that, only because we have seen SO MUCH in the past week. America is chock-a-block full of amazing sights.

Today, the morning was dedicated to State Parks and National Memorials. We packed our tent up and headed out to take a scenic drive through Custer State Park's Wildlife Loop. At first, it didn't seem very populated. Lots of beautiful views and amazing scenery, but no Wildlife. We drove past a prairie dog warren, which was cute but we had already fed those little guys up close and personal, so it was kind of eh.

But then. Oh man. We met up with a herd of burros coming the other direction on the road.

The burros were expecting to get fed, so they were super friendly.

No, seriously. Super friendly.

After we ran into the first herd of burros, it became an animal extravaganza! More burros on the road, including some super-friendly types that decided they wanted to come for a ride with us in the car; pronghorn herds that meandered across the road, waiting on the word from the alpha male to move along so that we could continue our drive; and of course last (and abso-positively not least) the bison!

We were about to leave the park without having encountered a single American buffalo, when we decided to stop at the Visitor's Center to get some postcards. Inside, a very friendly and genteel employee was informing folks that the entire herd was just over the hill and if we took the dirt trail across the way, we could see them lounging and grazing in the sun.

He was completely right. It was a breath-taking sight to come over the rise and see the massive herd of bison spread out beneath us. It was evocative of when herds of these giant animals roamed the American prairie, and I had a little pang that those days are gone, and this is the closest I will ever come to seeing something like that.

But this was everything I had hoped my first up-close view of the American buffalo would be. The majority of the parks 1300 buffalo seemed to be gathered on the big sunny field below us and little family groups were ambling back and forth across the road we were driving on.

We got some truly amazing shots, both of the herd and up close. Take a gander!

I love South Dakota. I kind of wish we had stayed longer and explored the parks more, but we had set kind of a time schedule for ourselves. Next time, though. Next time.

After the park, we swung back north to take in Mount Rushmore, which was just as large and presidential as I had hoped it would be. Not much to say about the monument, honestly. It was just as it is always pictured, and I get the feeling that it would be far more impressive if I could have seen it up close in order to truly appreciate the magnitude.

But, we got our obligatory tourist shot, bought some nifty souvenirs and then headed out again because we had a seven hour drive through Wyoming and Colorado to look forward to. We did have a little time to kill, so we decided to go a little bit farther north to Rapid City.

Rapid City is known as the city of presidents. Not only is it about a half hour from Rushmore, but they have almost life-size statues of 42 Presidents on their street corners. They are missing Barack Obama and someone else, but since they have George W, Bill, Bush Senior and the other more recent ones that I know, it must be someone farther back in the annals of history that I can't remember because he didn't do anything noteworthy enough to receive a highlight in 8th grade Social Studies.
It's going to bother me until I puzzle it out, though, so once I have done my homework, I'll let you know.

After meeting with (almost) all the Presidents, we started the drive south toward Colorado Springs and Tom's cousin Amy's house. I wanted one more stop, though, at the Cosmos Mystery Area. It is one of those silly Roadside America attractions where the gravity of the Earth is supposedly skewed and the physics that govern our universe are all a-tangle.

Tom cynically proclaimed it all an optical illusion built upon a ferrite hill that is just slightly more gravitationally significant than the surrounding landscape, thus creating some oddities in the vegetation, but to that I say PFAH! I believe in magic, and weird gravity wells and I refuse to let his craaaaazy science talk convince me otherwise!

Either way, it is a diverting and amusing little attraction.

After I had dragged Tom through another one of my silly side-trips, we began the long trek through Wyoming.

There is nothing there. No, seriously. Wyoming is empty. It is fields and sky for as far as the eye can see, broken by the occasional herd of cows. Moo.

At one point we drove into the leading edge of a prairie storm and we raced to try and get ahead of it. Scary, but also fodder for some really amazing photos.

We decided that we would stop in Cheyenne, the capital, in order to bathroom break, eat, and trade drivers since Tom had been going through all of Wyoming and needed a break. Folks, Cheyenne is not a city. Do not let its status as a "capital city" fool you. It is a very large town. The population of Cheyenne is lower than its altitude. It is barely 4 miles across. But it had a Subway that was open and a gas station and so I thank you Cheyenne, for... you know... existing.

I drove the rest of the way through Colorado to Amy's house, through wet, dark highways, trying not to be killed by the people doing 90 because the speed limit is 75.

Wyoming: Despite the fact that there is nothing in you, I love you. You are beautiful and I promise that I will come and visit again someday for something more than a long-ass drive down a back highway somewhere.

But for now, there is Colorado. I can't wait to see what you have in store for us!

(George Dubya approves this message)