Three Tall One Small

OK, a word about sleeping in a teepee.  If you arrive at 10.00PM in the dark and it is raining (all night long) and muddy, don’t expect everything to be perfect.  Being a camping-like experience, this might not be a 5 star location.  We were denied the chance to enjoy a summer evening sitting outside grilling our food in full view of the Shoshone river.  There were drips of water in the tent. The Andy Gumps were clean but not that close.  We’ll chalk this one up to ‘what might have been’.

Driving to and from Yellowstone yesterday took far longer than expected, due in part to underestimating the distances and the speed limits. Today we set off early from our teepee (thankfully pretty much dry) and had breakfast in Powell at a local diner.  We then hit highway 14.  Interesting that these roads have high speed limits, typically 70.

Highway Alt-14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mount Rushmore

We planned this trip to include several important landmarks, based upon the wishes of each of us.  I can’t remember who suggested Mount Rushmore, but really how could we have missed it?  It is spectacular and pays careful observation and study once there, but it is difficult to spend more than an hour looking at it.

A large collection of potato mashers

Breakfast was at the Bigelow.  It is a nice old hotel, but is certainly somewhat faded in places; it seems to have undergone a remodeling in the 1970s, judging by the odd colors and the strange false walls here and there.  Reminds us of the Eureka Inn in northern California;  lovely, but would have been really special back in 1930.  Today’s drive was only 460 miles compared to the 760 of yesterday, but time was spent on a lot of state roads going over mountains and of course in the National Parks, so progress was slow.  The potato museum in Blackfoot was great; not too big, but the displays were well done and it was just the right size.  We were given two boxes of dehydrated hash browns because we were ‘out of staters’.

In Yellowstone, we arrived only twenty minutes or so before Old Faithful blew, so good planning on our part then.  Saw a deer with huge antlers and a group of three bears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As dawn dawns, our captain, my captain, bravely heads east (on the 210). We made the Starbucks in Hesteria by 6:30am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traveling down that long lonesome highway…….

I-15 from California all the way to Ogden, UT.  Around St George it starts to get green and the red mountains are spectacular. This is familiar territory because we have driven part of this route on the way to Denver.

Looks like they’re in it for the long haul. The rented Toyota Sienna has been great; loads of space for the boxes and bags after the third row seat is put away.  First car we have driven with adaptive cruise control and a lane warning thingy (a bell goes off and the steering wheel moves you back into line).  Weird. Loads of buttons in this thing too.  Super comfortable which is what you want if you are driving 3750 miles. MPG hovers around 23 or so.

Lunch was at Centro Woodfired Pizza in Cedar City.  We have been visiting this place on our road trips since 2012 and we all agree it is the best pizza in the world.  Until that is we get to Chicago and New York…