Drive through Wyoming

Mt Rushmore, finally. Honestly, it’s not as grand as I thought it would be. It’s much smaller than the pictures make it look. Now don’t get me wrong, it was much better than the pictures, but there was nothing inspiring about it. I didn’t look up and think “oh my, how beautiful”. I’m not disappointed though. I would only have been disappointed if I hadn’t seen it.

On the way out, there was a steam engine. It was fabulous! And I love seeing grown men becoming like a little child on Christmas morning. It’s something I hope everyone has in them, and I hope they have something to bring it out every now and then. Where my thoughts go… Anyway, you could actually ride the train too! I wanted to, but I was more itching to get out of South Dakota. Never did I think I would spend three and a half days in South Dakota. But apparently, there’s a lot to do right off of I-90 in South Dakota. Off to Wyoming!

Yellowstone National Park is the next destination. I was almost afraid there would be a lot to do on the way too. I may need a year just to venture off and satisfy my curiosity in the northwest. I don’t think my curiously will ever be satisfied, or at least I hope not. But apparently I had nothing to worry about. Wyoming had nothing along the way. And I mean nothing. Even phone reception was scarce. This made me worry that my parents would freak out. Which they kind of did, but that’s another story for another day.

I think I needed that drive though. Sure it was long and there wasn’t much to see, but it left me to my thoughts. And boy did I think. I desperately wanted to write these thoughts down, but I feared it would stop my train of thought and leave me annoyed and wondering what I was thinking about. If anyone knew me, they’d know my train of thought is so ridiculously random. I could write pages and pages about what I thought that day. Maybe I’ll write down a few.

Free range cows. There was quite a bit out there. How would you catch them when you wanted? The fields are huge!! You’d probably have a dog. I want a dog. Hills and plains. It reminds me of Syria. Still waiting to see a citadel on a hill, like one you can see from my parent’s balcony. No citadels, just hills, and trees, and cows. Oh, Syria. I can only hope for the best. The lady at Wind Cave. The nerve she has, telling me that the air was blowing out of the original cave entrance in that matter-of-fact voice. You don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m in HVAC boytch. I actually explained it to her, and even demonstrated. Idiot. Let’s see if my car can go over 100 mph. Nope. Too high of an altitude. My poor car. My poor 4-cylinder car. Is it going to survive the mountains? It’ll be ok. It’s a good car. Better be, I just put a load of money in maintaining it. What do people do in small towns? What do they think? What are field trips like and high school sports? Who do they play? Does everyone know everyone else? Could I ever live like that or make my children live like that? I’m sure no one comes here for job prospects. The past few days have been awesome. Just awesome. I don’t understand why I haven’t done this before. Nothing planned, so nothing can go wrong. Have I become more relaxed? We’ll see. I can’t believe I broke my camera flap. Really? I need to get some electrical tape to keep it shut. I can’t believe I did that. Oh well, at least it still works. I don’t want to leave this trip. I do miss everyone though. One day at a time. All those thoughts probably happened in a span of 30 seconds.

Never made it to Yellowstone, a longer drive than anticipated. Stopped in a cute town named Cody. Now I feel like all the towns along the way were cute. There was one town that had a population of 10. And it had a post office. Anyway, Cody was pretty cool, rodeo capital of the world. They had one almost every night. Unfortunately, stayed at the only campsite there, KOA. Not bad though. Showers, laundry, internet, pool, and free pancakes in the morning! Mmmm… pancakes.


07/28/11