Back Home Again in Indiana

It's been one week since our long-anticipated Wild West adventure came to its completion.  All but a few random bags have been unpacked, and we're back on Eastern time (sort of).  What follows is my attempt to document our travels in a journal, of sorts.  This may or may not be extremely boring (in stark contrast to all my other posts - haha), so read at your own risk!

The famous Wall Drug.  Of course we stopped!  5 cent coffee!!

 

...and while we were there, Joy made a friend.

 

We arrived home Friday afternoon (the 22nd) after what can only be considered a trek of epic proportions (in the 'traveling with semi-small children' category).  So, maybe we skipped the rock-climbing, bear hunting and white-water rafting.  But, for our family of 7 (which includes a 3-year-old and one child in a wheelchair) plus my parents, It was an eventful, fun, amazing 2-weeks of soaking in all the wildlife, scenery, paleontology, and history we could manage.  In other words, we did as much as our collective minds and bodies could handle, and maybe a little bit more.  Here are some highlights...

the Travelers Chapel right in the middle of Wall Drug

-Weather.  We got stopped by a blizzard, a tornado (or two), hailstorms, and pelting rain.  Basically, none of this slowed us down, except the one day we waited for the snow to melt and ended up in a really cool ancient Native American village site, which now houses an active archaeological dig.  Yeah.  Super cool.  Had we been rushing by to get to our destination, we would have missed it.   Plus, we ended up at a random hotel that had a totally awesome pool with nobody in it but us.  Rock on. 

Grandma and Crash chillin' in the fresh snow

-Wildlife.  I was hoping to see some bison, maybe a moose, but  I grossly underestimated what we would actually witness with our own 2 (actually 18) eyes:  In Custer (SD) State Park, we saw countless Bison, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs (plus babies), elk and mountain goats!!  Just outside our cabin, several mule deer plus a wild turkey or two were visible every day.  We didn't think things in this department could get any better, but when we arrived in Wyoming, we discovered fledgling Great Horned Owls nesting just down the lane from our cabin!!  We saw them plus a parent or 2 every day!  We could take a little walk down the lane just to catch a glimpse, but a certain ornithologically-inclined child among us made sure nobody got too close and risked losing an eye to the protective mama owl. 

the kids named the baby owls - Galileo, Blobster and Pete

Then, after a full day of driving through the mountains and hills to cross Wyoming, we hit Yellowstone and found indescribable natural beauty in the mountains, streams, trees, canyons, thermal features.  It's surreal to walk just inches above boiling mud, bubbling and steaming pools of bacterial decay and mineral deposits (which sounds kinda gross, but actually cause some stunning color combinations).  Old Faithful erupted right before our eyes ( just as we were about to give up and find a warm place to hang out).  We saw hundreds of Bison (and babies!), a moose, 2 bald eagles, a river pelican, and... 2 families of grizzly bears!!  No joke.  Don't worry - they were at least 1/4 mile away, and we had the bear spray ready.  All this plus the waterfalls, snow, rushing streams, and Asians going crazy over chipmunks, and we were completely satisfied with our visit. 

mama and baby bison

boiling mud volcano

yep - good ol' Old Faithful - just when we were about to give up on her

To make things even more interesting, snow-covered trees were falling down in unbeknownst places within the park and knocking out the power lines.  So, almost every visitor center, gift shop, restaurant, gas station (and there aren't many to begin with) were without electricity.  So, more outhouses for us.  But, we survived and had a spectacular day. 

see those black dots to the left of the tree?  grizzly mama and 2 active cubs

mountain goats!!

our buddies, the little fledglings.  so stinking cute.

-Museums.  We love museums.  Nerds are us.  On this voyage, we were far from disappointed.  Besides the ancient village previously mentioned, we visited an unbelievable collection of fossils (including an almost-complete T-Rex named 'Stan'),  a Mammoth archaeological dig site, the National Woodcarvers Museum (awesome - the complete personal collection of the man who helped Disney create their original animated marionettes), and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.  The last one had the nicest natural history museum we've ever seen (sorry, Pittsburgh).  It also housed a beautiful art museum and a section all about Buffalo Bill.  We went twice.  Grandma and Pada took turns feeling ill, so they each missed one day of this fun.  Finally, and I'll admit, somewhat reluctantly on my part, we ventured to an 'Old West Village' which is a collection of real cabins that have been relocated to Cody, WY, from all over Wyoming and adjacent states.  There have also been several famous roughians whose gravesites have been moved to this same location.  Their stories are crazy - gunfights, murder, saloons - just like the movies.  Crash had a great time running all around the sagebrush and old wagons.  Much more interesting than I imagined it would be.

posted in the Crazy Horse monument museum

A little, privately-owned warehouse with a bazillion fossils.  Amazing.

replica of a Norwegian church in Rapid City, SD.  The gift shop sold all manor of crazy Norwegian fiction.  2 males among us were very happy.

those are real mammoth fossils in the process of being removed.  hard to imagine the scale from this picture, but those rib cages are Large.

Lots of funny statues of early American doctors and dentists in the National Woodcarvers Museum.

-Monuments.  Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.  Vision, artistry, perseverance.  I was particularly moved by the Crazy Horse story (the story of the monument, not necessarily the man...).  I started to type out the whole story here - snore, snore -but then I remembered Google.  I highly recommend looking up the whole story.  Amazing. 

Crash refers to this site as 'the faces.'

-The Drive.  Our trusty van, as well as some capable drivers - mostly my dad and husband- got us there and back safely.  We are grateful.  And, the award for  Most-Patient-Traveler-in-a-Car-Seat goes to our resident just-turned-3 year old.  Trooper City.  And his biggest sister took no fewer than 4000 photos of him in his strapped-in predicament to prove it.

replacing our old DVD player before the trip = great idea

 

-The cabins.  Go VRBO.  Great website.  Both places we stayed were cozy, comfy, rustic, had plenty of beds and great views.  And the owners were accessible and helpful.  Makes for a great experience.

the kids had a great time 'excavating' rose quartz from all around our cabin in SD

mama grizzly profile

me in the 'way back'

this random boulder just outside Cody, WY, appears to be held in place by that little tree.  :)

 

 Other awards go to my parents for Grandparents-of-the-Century for patiently enduring us in close quarters for 2 weeks.  Also, Joy took some excellent selfies with animals (both living - through the van windows - and others in a state of taxidermy-induced preservation), so we'll give her Best Photography. 

So, to summarize, we had a splendid and spectacular time.  But, even after the best of trips, nothing feels better than coming home to your own bed.  :)