Two Bills and Their Towns

On Saturday the 14^th, we departed the Mount Rushmore area and headed toward Wyoming. We could have spent another several days near Mount Rushmore (and our awesome KOA) to really get a sense of it and there were things we missed seeing, but all in all we had a nice dose of the area. And, knowing that fabulous experiences and sights awaited us, we left South Dakota intent on stopping first in Deadwood…the historic home of guns, gambling and gold that very often boiled over with the greed of it all. It is the final resting place of both Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. So, it being sort of on our way, we stopped in.

The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places. And, thanks to a change in the laws to permit gambling again, steady revenue has became available to begin restoring the city to the look of its early days. That being said, we were unimpressed. Perhaps we needed more time to become exposed to the city’s history via a guided tour. Perhaps the city should hire a different map maker than either of the two who made the maps we attempted to use to conduct ourselves on a historic walking tour. Anyway, we enjoyed looking at the chair in which Wild Bill met his demise while playing poker. Unfortunately for him he chose to sit with his back to the door, making it impossible to rely on his notoriously quick draw to save himself. At times it is those momentary mistakes and miscalculations in life which can have the most profound impact on our future. This certainly was true for Wild Bill. He met his end when he picked the chair he chose for the evening. For those of you who are poker players, you perhaps know that the poker hand he held when he was shot (2 black aces and 2 black eights) is the source of the ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ title ascribed to that hand.

Shortly after seeing Wild Bill’s final chair, we headed back to the Cozy Den and crawled in for our trek across northern Wyoming to another town named after a historical dude named Bill: Buffalo Bill Cody. Cody Wyoming is located about half way between Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone…our destination on Sunday, the 15^th.

Our drive across northern Wyoming has given me the opportunity to learn something about Bob and me. As for me, I love seeing the wide open spaces, in this case rolling hills of green with mountains far in the distance. I find no monotony in the lack of trees; rather, I love seeing the seemingly endless countryside. Bob, however, prefers the visual change provided by hills, valleys, trees and obstacles. He gets bored (and sleepy) when driving through flat-ish, straight-ish land with no trees or other visual stimuli. (I guess this means it’s good that he never did oval track car racing….)

During our 408 mile drive from the Mount Rushmore, South Dakota area to Cody, Wyoming both Bob and I concluded that if Wyoming wants to have its voice adequately heard in the Presidential election, they need to register their cattle for the vote, as we are quite certain that there are many, many, many, many more cattle than people.

Our route took us within miles of Montana...but not into it. Nadya was very bummed that she had to settle for a gaze to the north. Ah well...the good news is the girls are still at the age where they can be diverted from one topic of interest to another item they desire equally. More importantly they are really appreciative and flexible little souls.

The last portion of our trip west to Cody, took us through the the Big Horn National Forest. The vast majority of this Forest was was not up to Bob's visual interest requirements, but the last 20 minutes was SPECTACULAR with crazy, big mountains whose tops were snow covered and whose sides came in all hues of beige, yellow, orange and pink. This section of mountainous land is truly one of God's best works. After rolling through this 'eye-candy' land we finished our trek west and rolled into Cody. The girls had a divine time on the KOA jump-pillow, their new favorite activity.

The next day, Father's Day, we spent the day making our way through Yellowstone National Park. Then on Monday, we did the Teton National Park and traveled on to the Rocky Mountains of Utah. I hope to catch this blog up to 'real time' with the details of those segments on our drive tomorrow to California. (It is Tuesday, June 17 as I type and we are in Winnemucca, Nevada.)