more catching up

This time it's not my fault that I'm catching up again. After the huge day Monday and almost not getting a room in all of Deadwood (population 1308, tourists even out of season 5000 or some ridiculous number), we decided to make a shorter day of it and just go to the "#1 Cowboy town of the West." But before we left we tried to reorganize the car so that we could drive with the top down. We simply have overpacked and with the limited trunk space with the top down, we have too much to put in the back seat. More on that later.

(I think I failed to mention in the last posting that one of the items at Pioneer Auto was an old desk that was used in the filming of "Dances with Wolves" and that it was shot in this general area.)

At any rate, Kevin Costner spent time in Deadwood, liked it so much that he bought a building downtown which he converted to a sports bar, restaurant and small casino. He then put on display some of his and others' wardrobes from almost all (maybe all) of his movies, along with pictures and other memorabilia.

It's very cool stuff, including some of my favorites: The Untouchables, No Way Out, Dances with Wolves, and much more.

With lots to see in the area, after breakfast and repacking the car (still unable to get the top down while loaded) we chose only one of them - the grave of Wild Bill Hickok.

I think I mentioned in the last post that he was killed in Deadwood (maybe I didn't, but if I navigate away from this page right now to check, I risk losing all I have written) while playing poker.

Mike and I went to the cemetery and hiked up to his resting place. Calamity Jane, his love and a very famous western woman on her own, has a grave beside him. Her dying wish was to be buried next to Wild Bill.

We made it to Sheridan by 3:30. Checked into a very nice motel. Went out to eat almost at once. Rested for a good while. And then I discovered I couldn't get on the internet with their cable connection. I called the desk. The person who I talked with simply didn't have a clue and promised to have someone who did check it out and call me when he had a chance. That never happened and I was too tired to pursue it more than I had already.

Thus one of the main reasons for making it an early day (doing the blog at a more reasonable hour and catching up some on the mileage and expense spreadsheet) never happened. In fact, I fell further behind.

At least I got some rest that night.

In the morning we went to UPS and sent out a few souvenirs and then worked for a long and frustrating time trying a new approach to packing the car. It involved storage bins for the back seat that we got from a Kmart. It may work. It looks like it might work, but we never had a chance to really road test it.

After that, off to Yellowstone!

Or not!

Oh my!

We didn't go.

Here's why.

As we were filling up at a gas station just before the interstate, we started talking with a local man with an old pickup truck. That conversation was overhead by two men about our age at the next pump.

When they heard we were heading for Yellowstone, they told us that they had just gotten back and had to have all four of their tires replaced because of construction work outside of the park. The two main entrances from our direction had miles of loosely packed and very sharp gravel that you had to cross if you approached the park from the normal highways. They also said that motorcycles were having an especially hard time, with many going down because of the gravel wasn't packed hard enough. In addition, the main east-west road through the park was closed.

Still they and the local guy tried to tell us of a complicated route that would avoid the construction. At that point, with reservations, we were still going to try to get there.

When we exited the interstate to take the road to Yellowstone, we pulled off at a dirt area just outside of a little town so that I could study the maps and the notes they had given us. We agreed that if we came to construction, there was no way we were going to risk the tires and the car and lost time by going through it.

Moments later a man on a motorcycle pulled into the same off road site, but at quite a ways away. I had a feeling that he might be headed for Yellowstone also. I hailed him from a distance. That, indeed, was where he was going (along with other motorcyclist friends who had not yet caught up with him). I told him what we had learned. We looked over his map on the trunk of our car. He called a travel advisary service which he subscribed to for more info. They didn't have any, other than another section of the interior of Yellowstone (the northwest quadrant) was likely closed. The man, Brian, from Alberta, Canada, was very thankful for the info.

Anyway, Mike and I still headed for Yellowstone (where thunderstorms were predicted ... and I should say that we've had fabulous weather throughout, with many days in the low 90's) and almost immediately came upon posted warnings for yet another long section of road construction.

That did it.

We considered going to Glacier National Park instead, but decided to head for Seattle and thus got our first glimpses of the Rockies and pushed it to a late arrival in Missoula, Montana, leaving us with less than 500 miles to go tomorrow.

We passed through amazing country, a few inadequate photos of which are here.

Lastly, I'd like to point out that it is 5:41 am right now on the computer. That's eastern time back home. Local time is 3:41 (mountain time). The time on the clock radio in our room is 4:41 (who knows?). And shortly after we leave tomorrow, we'll cross into Pacific time, so we'll gain an hour, so it's really, in effect, 2:41 right now (except of course it took me some time to type this, so none of that is accurate).

For Mr. Kelly's class:

As you probably know, there are four time zones in the 48 states from coast to coast.

But do you know that where you are located within each time zone makes a significant difference to the rising and setting times of the sun? Do you know why? And do you know where the biggest difference is within any of the time zones? And do you know that at least in one state, the time changes by going north to south instead of east to west? That can make you early or late for dinner if no one tells you about it.