Salutations, Boo Boo

Pic-a-nic basket and so forth.

When I last wrote, I ended with the Yellowstone teaser.  In between Rapid City (where we slept in South Dakota) and Yellowstone there was almost an entire days worth of driving without many stops.  We did, however, stop at one place of general interest, if you’re into big rocks sticking out of nowhere:

Devil’s Tower is that big rock sticking out of nowhere.  When we arrived, we were chagrined to learn that it would cost us money to enter the surrounding area, as it’s apparently a National Park).  We decided that since we cannot climb it or anything fun like that, only get moderately closer to it, to forgo paying and just take pictures from just outside of the pay area.  The pictures are still pretty good, so I think we made a solid decision.  I took some pictures, Amanda took some pictures and I took a picture of Amanda taking a picture:

How very artsy.

Once we had finished up with the photo shoot, we drove for hours and hours on some hilarious roads.  I mentioned in a previous post that part of the fun of this trip so far has been seeing terrain/places I have never seen before.  Wyoming was not an exception.  This land was desolate, and since our GPS unit is taking us on the shortest possible distance trips to places, we get to go on crazy back roads and shortcuts.

We spent a few minutes driving what seemed to be through someone's ranch on a dirt road.  We literally entered the road through a break in some barbed wire fence and ended up on a poorly paved road at the other end.  I decided, after a few minutes of off-roading hilarity, to snap a few pictures to prove how crazy it actually was.  Here’s the result of said pictures:

If you look closely, you can something.  I’m sure of it.  I just can’t find anything.  If you find something, let me know.

Once we got back on the road to Yellowstone (a paved highway this time), it was time for lunch.

Info: The day previous, we stopped in the evening at a Wal-Mart to pick up some food.  It was insane inside.  Completely jam packed with everyone in there buying what seemed like a month’s worth of food/supplies.  I’ve seen busy Wal-Marts before, but this was seven to thirteen steps beyond what I’d seen before.  I guess when there is literally nothing around for a hundred or more miles, you have to plan accordingly.  It was nuts.  Also, it was full of Indians.  Not people from India, but overweight, presumably alcoholic (as that’s a stereotype), descendants of the natives of America.

Instead of stopping (as we wanted to make good time), we decided to have an in car eating experience.  Amanda was driving, so I climbed halfway into the back to open up the cooler.  I grabbed the lunch-esque food we had purchased and got to work.

hot dog buns with mustard and sliced turkey.  Doritos.  A pickle pack to share.  All served up on the backside of a dry erase board.

Not too bad…

More driving and not much else and we finally made it to the park.  Inside the park, it got really scenic really quickly.  I snapped a few pictures while Amanda drove:

Not only was the drive in Yellowstone super scenic, but it was also super dangerous.  Crazed animals everywhere:

Not really, but we did see a couple of elk.  I guess they could have charged the car, but that would only concuss them and up my insurance price.  No biggie.

We dodged all of the scenery and animals and finally, after hors and hours of driving, made it to our camp.  Yes, we were going to camp because we’re that outdoorsy.

We set up the camp, got a fire going and sat down for dinner.  A feast.

Hot dogs grilled over the fire (not pictured), Doritos from a bag of Doritos (not pictured) and pork and beans from a can cooked over the fire.  Delectable.

I quite enjoy hot dogs and beans.  It turns out that Amanda, who likes baked beans from a can, doesn’t much like pork and beans from a can.  That’s OK though, because she had dessert all lined up for us:

Mother effword S’mores.  She loves S’mores.  I’m fond of them too, so we both banged home two each.

She loved them.  Much.

After dessert, we headed into the tent for a rousing game of travel Trouble and turned in.

We turned in for the worst night of sleep we may get on this trip.  The scene of the crime:

The fire was out, but please notice the light to the right of the picture.  That was problem one.  Many problems to be written about to come.