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Sheila Burke's Column
Okay, so after a very hairy ride in the pitch blackness of South Dakota’s Black Hills with a crappy map and a car full of people who are having vivid dreams of doing bodily harm to their fellow travelers….to a wonderfully crisp cool, slow and enjoyable day of sight seeing….we’re now crossing the state line and entering Wyoming.
Yes. This sign says Wyomings Wildlife: Minnows & Mud
Ahhh, Wyoming. Truly a gem of the West. Beautiful hills, mountains, rivers and miles and miles of empty land. Notice now….I did not mention rest stops, fast food restaurants or any types of little fun sites along the highway. After driving for hours on end, hungry and bored….we finally pulled off to a rest stop. The vending machines were broken so if we were hungry we were screwed. The pic on the left is after driving for 4 hours and finally getting to pee. Notice…you see no other cars. As it was a very lonely drive. Not a truck to make blow his horn. Not another driver to get upset about. No one to flip off. Nothing. Nadda.
So we drove on in search of food. A nut, a berry…roadkill. ANYTHING! And…. OMG how on God’s green earth do people survive in Wyoming? Not one McDonald’s to be seen. Even the houses (or ranches) were few and far between. To visit your neighbor you’d need to drive. Or ride your horse. It’s VERY ‘Little House on the Prairie’ out there.
Nerves were frayed out of hunger. Taking it’s toll the kids who left their patience back in SD. I thought about the Donor party a lot and understood their need to eat each other. THEN!….We finally FINALLY found a Subway. I love you Subway. You kept me from starving many times on this trip. Of course….none of the kids ‘liked’ Subway. But….they quickly found out that if they wanted to eat at all, they’d take what they could get and stop frickin complaining. We met one other traveler in this Wyoming Subway. Turns out they were from Ohio and taking the same trip. Weird. Many more hours of driving and nit picking (the kids needed out of this car badly)….I thought I would burst a vein. I had had it. There’s nothing I hate more when I’m driving is people arguing. I put my foot on the accelerator hoping to make better time. Bad idea.
We blew through little towns here and there and then it happened……the po-po got me. The speed limit went from 75 to 35 in a split second.
At first I contemplated telling the cop to just handcuff me and take me to a nice padded jail cell….or…. possibly giving eye movements while mouthing ‘I’ve been kidnapped, please help me’…..or…better yet, frantically telling him that Dick Cheney thought we were quail and he was taking shots at us!….but then I just took my lumps and listened to his warning about not driving fast through this desolate state. He was very nice and let me go with a warning.
We s l o w l y left town and went on our way. Close one.
Wyoming is really a very beautiful place.
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And finally, finally we got to our stop for the night….Cody.
If I had it to do all over again, we would have stayed here another day or two. They had a lot to do in Cody. It was a small, quiet tourist-y town but people actually lived there. You could walk to many gift shops, restaurants, etc etc. It was very family friendly. We stayed in the Best Western Sunrise (or sunset?) and it was pretty nice. We got one of those rooms that’s like 2 rooms in one. Two bedrooms, two baths. An outdoor pool (that was like 40 degrees).
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Anyhow….in the morning? Off to Yelllllowstone! Exciting! Yea! (stay tuned!)
