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Trip Day 13
Pics for the day
Spent much of the day driving across Wyoming. Went through one mountain pass where there were signs pointing out the age of the exposed rock by the roadside. Hundreds of millions of years, over a billion in one case. That was really cool to see, even if the rock looked (to my untrained eye moving at highway speed) like pretty much any other mountainside.
Stopped at a rest stop with this sign on the men's room (and the reverse on the women's):
Decided to stop for lunch at a place I'd found in the AAA guide. It was pretty far off the road, though. By the time I got there, it was getting a little late to eat... and it turns out the restaurant closed. It's now just a grocery store. Got back on the highway, stopped off at the next town, where there was an old historic hotel I was interested in seeing. Got a quick walk through, which was cool, but their restaurant was closed. It was too late for lunch, and too early for dinner. In fact, all the restaurants in town were closed. All of them, that is, except for the few closer to the highway. Where they were doing construction, of course. Not only did this slow down traffic, but it made it very hard to cross the road to get to the restaurants. Ended up grabbing a burger at a Hardee's before managing to get back on the road.
As I went through another mountain pass, I passed yet more construction. In fact, they were rebuilding the entire road. There was a warning not to go too fast, or else you could risk breaking your windshield on kicked-up gravel. The highway degenerated into gravel and then dirt and pebbles. For a stretch, I had to wait and follow a pilot car down which was shuttling back and forth across a couple of miles of one-lane dirt road. Another stretch warned that it was a blasting zone and travelers were advised to turn off their cell phones and anything else that might transmit a signal. How reassuring.
Made to the far side of that (and into South Dakota) and stopped for gas. A couple was traveling in the other direction on a motorcycle. The man took some of the windshield cleaning solution to wipe off his goggles. He said they'd become so bug-splattered that he couldn't see out of his left eye. I warned him of the road ahead. "Greeeat," he said. "I told you we should have gone the other way," she responded. I hope they made it okay.
Stopped for dinner in the little town of Deadwood, SD:
It was dark when I left there to go the last 30 miles or so through what was supposed to be scenic highway. Sound familiar? Ah well. Saw a good amount of it touring around the next day, at least.
Spent much of the day driving across Wyoming. Went through one mountain pass where there were signs pointing out the age of the exposed rock by the roadside. Hundreds of millions of years, over a billion in one case. That was really cool to see, even if the rock looked (to my untrained eye moving at highway speed) like pretty much any other mountainside.
Stopped at a rest stop with this sign on the men's room (and the reverse on the women's):
Decided to stop for lunch at a place I'd found in the AAA guide. It was pretty far off the road, though. By the time I got there, it was getting a little late to eat... and it turns out the restaurant closed. It's now just a grocery store. Got back on the highway, stopped off at the next town, where there was an old historic hotel I was interested in seeing. Got a quick walk through, which was cool, but their restaurant was closed. It was too late for lunch, and too early for dinner. In fact, all the restaurants in town were closed. All of them, that is, except for the few closer to the highway. Where they were doing construction, of course. Not only did this slow down traffic, but it made it very hard to cross the road to get to the restaurants. Ended up grabbing a burger at a Hardee's before managing to get back on the road.
As I went through another mountain pass, I passed yet more construction. In fact, they were rebuilding the entire road. There was a warning not to go too fast, or else you could risk breaking your windshield on kicked-up gravel. The highway degenerated into gravel and then dirt and pebbles. For a stretch, I had to wait and follow a pilot car down which was shuttling back and forth across a couple of miles of one-lane dirt road. Another stretch warned that it was a blasting zone and travelers were advised to turn off their cell phones and anything else that might transmit a signal. How reassuring.
Made to the far side of that (and into South Dakota) and stopped for gas. A couple was traveling in the other direction on a motorcycle. The man took some of the windshield cleaning solution to wipe off his goggles. He said they'd become so bug-splattered that he couldn't see out of his left eye. I warned him of the road ahead. "Greeeat," he said. "I told you we should have gone the other way," she responded. I hope they made it okay.
Stopped for dinner in the little town of Deadwood, SD:
It was dark when I left there to go the last 30 miles or so through what was supposed to be scenic highway. Sound familiar? Ah well. Saw a good amount of it touring around the next day, at least.