A Quiet Night in Gillette, Wyoming

After a few squeals of exhaustion, Declan is quietly sucking his thumb and on his way quickly to sleepy land, and Joshua and I are having a moment of down time during this adventurous week.

So... back to the departure.  We left the wedding at a reasonable hour, but after situating the last of the stuff in the truck, getting the partition wall installed, and picking up Declan, we didn't necessarily leave Napa at a reasonable hour.  And certainly didn't get to Grass Valley at one.  Actually, it was about 1:45 when we pulled up, as Declan opened his eyes and said 'Pa Pa!', once again amazing us at how aware of his surroundings he is.

Unfortunately, that was the start of a hellish night with an almost 2 year old who just decided he would rather cry, thrash around in either his, or our, bed, and even roll off the bed onto his Mama, after she came back from the bathroom to find him happily sleeping (for the moment) in her spot, and opted to lay down on the floor rather than disturb him in order to get a few winks of her own.  Long night finally over, we got a slow start to the next day.  After meeting a friend in Grass Valley for breakfast, and then turning around to pick up the camera, because it would have just been wrong to go all the way across the country without a camera, we finally hit the road towards Elko, Nevada.

On the way, we did make a pit stop at Boomtown Casino in Reno for a quick hot dog and Wheel of Fortune chance.  $50.00 dollars richer when we left, and lunch and a carousel ride down, we moved on.

Elko - A place where the lady in the fast food checkout line asked "Is that one of them E-lectric cars?"  A few older casinos in the downtown area, and a few newer ones closer to the highway, and that's about it.  By the time we got there though, a bed was a bed, and we had a quick bite at the hotel restaurant and all crashed quickly.

Day 2 - We decided that instead of heading up past Craters of the Moon, we would take the highway route, which would take us past Salt Lake, and then on to Idaho Falls from there.

Shortly after crossing into Utah (and almost missing the requisite state sign picture!),

 we started seeing signs for Bonneville Salt Flats.  Having heard of the famous time trials done there for cars, hot rods and motorcycles (highlighted in the Worlds Fastest Indian in particular), we decided to pull off the highway and check it out.  We followed the signs towards the salt flats, oohing and aahing at the surrounding area on the way.

We passed a genteleman on a moped, which seemed a little odd, but we continued on.  We came up at the end of the road, and there was a table with a few folks sitting there, and a few parked cars.  Thinking we would have to turn around, they informed us that the time trials were starting tomorrow, and if we wanted to head out on the salt flats (for free), and check out the cars that were there getting ready, that we were more than welcome.

Well, our 5 minute pull off the highway turned into a surprise visit to Bonneville and closeups with cars that we would NEVER have otherwise seen.  After about an hour of wandering and snapping pictures of the amazing cars, we had to climb back in the car and head on down the road.

About a mile and a half after we got back on the highway, we saw brake lights ahead, and started to hit the brakes to move around what appeared to be some debris in the road and a car off to the side.  Seeing that there were no emergency vehicles there, Joshua asked me to pull over so he could check to see if everyone was alright and see if there was anything he could do if they weren't.  Turns out, my dear husband may have saved a woman's life by making me pull over.  He grabbed his medic bag and headed down into the median (sunken, but just kinda sandy, so easily accessible), where an SUV had obviously rolled a couple of times.  The driver was still pinned in the car, and Joshua was able to calm her down, let her know not to try to get out of the car, and put a dressing on her head wound while we waited for the emergency folks to arrive.  When they got there, about 15 - 20 minutes later, we were told that life flight was going to be called to take the woman in, and the EMT's from the ambulance took over.  We moved on down the road, thankful that we had not been a few minutes earlier and been involved in any accident, and thankful that Joshua might have been able to make a real difference in this woman's life.  At that moment, I was extremely proud for my husband to be my husband.

Anyways, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful.  After all the unexpected stops, we ended up staying in Pocatello, Idaho for the night, instead of trying to make it to Idaho Falls.  It meant a little bit less time in Yellowstone on the way to Cooke City, but it was well worth it getting to get off the road after a long day.

Day 3 - After leaving Pocatello (a friendly and cute little town, from what we saw at the hotel and at Applebee's), we drove on, realizing that we probably made the right decision by staying there instead of Idaho Falls, and on to Yellowstone.

By the time we got to the park, we had time to make a few stops,

check out a few geothermal sites....










 get held up in a buffalo traffic jam....

and take in some amazing scenery....










before heading on to our destination for the evening, Cooke City, Montana.

Our hotel room had the smell of a winter cabin, and given that it was only about 45 degrees outside, it had that kind of chill in the air outside as well.  It was completely refreshing, and we were excited to get out and grab a bite before heading back to the hotel.  I'm now 'seriously' considering opening a restaurant there, just because the only options were just terrible.  After sitting down in one restaurant and leaving because of the rude waitress and some interesting looks because of Declan not wanting to settle right down, we opted for the restaurant at the hotel in the middle of the one street town.  It had a lobby which would have been warm and inviting in a lodge-y kind of way, had there been a fire going.  The fire was not in existence, however, and after standing by the hotel registration desk/host stand for about 5 minutes we finally got a table.  One crusty waiter, one messy bowl of soup for Declan and two pretty darn good Old Faithful Ale's from Grand Teton Brewing Company later, we were on our way back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.  Declan cooperated better than some nights but worse than others... but generally, we woke up rested and hit the road again this morning, headed for the Beartooth Scenic Byway.

Day 4 (Today) - I really wanted to make sure that the Beartooth Mountains were on our trip if we decided to head the northern route across the states.  I am so glad we did, because they were just as breathtaking as I remembered, and I loved sharing it with my family.

Declan handled the altitude change very well.  There were a few unexplained screams which we chalked up to ears popping, but this is one time that I'm thankful that my son sucks his thumb, because I'm sure it helps.  He cruised through the ascent, slept for about 5 minutes before we got to the overlook where we walked out to take some pictures of the view and play with rocks and chipmunks.  The scenery was amazing,

 and the exercise was good for the little man as well.

 He slept well on the afternoon trip and only whined a little bit before we hit Gillette, Wyoming, where we have settled for the evening.  Tomorrow will be a long drive to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on which will likely be lots of stops and scenery, and then on from there.

I hope I haven't bored anyone to death.... I realized about half way through that I'm partly writing the travel blog, and partly just writing my own journal of the trip.  

Hope you enjoy the pics.  They are unedited and just a small selection of what is to come!