Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota: Friends and Celebrations

Saturday, August 4, 2018

 Day 51

 266 miles

Colorado is one of my favorite places to drive the roads. Normally the driver misses the small scaled scenery. But here, even on the Interstates, the landscape is so large-scaled, captivating, and humbling as I steer from one awesome view into another.

This morning, we drove through several areas that are known for their ski resorts. On the mountainside in the photo above, you can see numerous challenging ski trails.

We shared the steep grades with motorized and non-motorized wheeled vehicles. Several warning signs advised us of the safer ways to travel these slopes.

If we were not going up or down the mountains we went through them.

The elevation was constantly increasing on this part of our trip, and we drove over the Vail Pass Summit (10,603 feet).

When we went through the tunnel under Loveland Pass, west of Denver, the tunnel elevation was still 11,158 feet.

Driving into Denver from the west there was a continuing downgrade to the elevation of the “mile-high city,” but there were still amazing mountain views. 

As Daisy and I continued our trip eastward, we again had an opportunity for a special meeting, this time it was in Denver with Daisy's cousins Eva Nell Paxson and Lou McDowell.  

Eva Nell Raines Paxson is Daisy's mom’s first cousin (their fathers were brothers), so she is Daisy's first cousin once removed. Her daughter Lou Paxson McDowell is Daisy's “double cousin,” because Lou's dad was Daisy's mom’s first cousin once removed on her mother’s side. Are you confused yet?  I am.  The short version is that they are both treasured members of Daisy's family, and it was great to have lunch with them on my birthday and time to catch up on events in our extended families.  

After lunch with Eva Nell and Lou, we drove north from Denver and the terrain changed quickly, with prairie scenes like this to the east. 

One of the things we enjoy about our journeys is seeing the infinitely diverse beauty of our nation.

As we travel, we like to see the natural features of our beautiful country and historical sites, but we find that some of the real highlights of our trips are always the people with whom we reconnect. Our next stop for the night allowed us to make another of these connections with special friends.

Daisy and I have each been to famous Wyoming locations such as Yellowstone National Park, but not together. We didn’t have that on our itinerary for this trip, but will definitely go there in the future.

This landmark on the interstate greets you as you approach the Wyoming state line.

We spent the night of August 4 at the Terry Bison Ranch RV Park just north of the Colorado/Wyoming state line and south of Cheyenne.

And yes, they do have a large herd of bison on the property…

…as well as dromedaries. Yes one-humpers!

This is the Senator’s Steak House at the Bison Ranch and campground...

... where we had a great prime rib buffet with Steve and Ann Story, who live in Fort Collins, Colorado.










The selections included bison short ribs and bison meatballs, both of which were delicious.

Steve and I were classmates at Virginia Tech, and both Steve and Ann are retired from the Air Force. We were honored that they traveled from Colorado to Virginia to attend our wedding 6 years ago.

The restaurant had a musician who played a variety of music, so of course Daisy and I enjoyed dancing! He also sang “Happy Birthday” to both Ann (whose birthday was Aug. 3) and me. It was fun to celebrate our birthdays together. 

The plus thing for Daisy and me was that it was only a short walk back to the campground for the night.

Sunday, August 5
Day 52
265 miles

After a short trek the next morning, we had breakfast at Denny’s in Cheyenne with Bill, one of the owners of the RV resort in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where we spend the winter. It was great to catch up with him near his “northern” home.

Our stop for that evening was in Hot Springs, South Dakota.  As we drove north through eastern Wyoming, we saw many herds of beef cattle. Some herds were only Black Angus and some were only Herefords, but this herd was integrated.

 

We turned east toward South Dakota. The highway signs warned us to watch out for motorcycles…

…because we were right in time for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Even though we were still a couple of hundred miles from Sturgis, we started seeing lots of bikes on the road.

I was quite familiar with the South Dakota motto that is on their welcome sign: “Great Faces, Great Places.” After all, it is on the license plate for our truck!

Monday, August 6
Day 53

We spent two nights at a campground in Hot Springs, SD. This gave us time to have two dinners and a great visit with Val Hirst, one of my earliest friends from the days when we both worked for the U.S. Forest Service. On August 6, Val and I played golf while Daisy did laundry and some other chores.  I am sure she was glad to have a break from me.

Monday evening we had dinner at a brew pub.

 

Naturally We had to try their “pallet” of samples of their house brews. Daisy's favorite was the one in the center, a blood orange hard cider.

As an appetizer, we shared their specialty: fried deviled eggs. This was a new flavor combination for us, and they were very good.

Daisy and I shared an apple walnut salad with dried cranberries and feta cheese and a sandwich called “the Sloppy Pig.” The description was: “If a Sloppy Joe and a BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich had a baby, it would be a Sloppy Pig.” It was topped with coleslaw and a ring of grilled pineapple and served with grilled green beans. We enjoyed the combination of flavors in both the salad and sandwich.

Tuesday, August 7
Day 54
233 miles

We drove north through Sturgis, SD, home of the famous Motorcycle Rally. The dates this year were August 3 through 12, so we shared the highway with bikers going toward Sturgis as well as those leaving.

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally began in 1938, so this is the 78^th year. They are expecting 500,000 riders over the 10 days of the rally!

In downtown Sturgis, one of the main streets was open for pedestrian traffic…

…and only motorcycle parking.

All monitored by eyes in the sky.

There are several large rally locations outside the downtown area, such as the Pappy Hoel Campground, which is one of the music venues.

We liked this metal sculpture of a chopper!

One of the primary concert facilities is called Sturgis Buffalo Chip, and this billboard listed just two of the over 30 groups performing there during the rally.

We didn’t stay for any of the music events, but we saw the symbol of the Buffalo Chip from the highway as we continued north.

Our lunch stop was at the Spur Creek Saloon, which claims to be the “Best Little Saloon in the West.”







I don’t know about that, but it was a fun and friendly place, and we had some tasty brats.

 There was even a wedding barn being prepped for an afternoon function.

The key words for this venue were posted as follows:

Of course there were lots of bikers enjoying the saloon too.

I was very careful not to run over anything!

And in addition to bison, they also had longhorn cattle in the field behind a large building used for weddings and other events. 

This Texas musician was singing Nat King Cole songs with a cowboy twang—why not? I danced with Daisy and the more I danced with her the more the performer flirted with her.   Her smiles back at him were appreciated I'm sure.  











Nothing like dancing at lunchtime before getting back on the open prairie road toward our next stop in North Dakota. 

The fun continues!

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