Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Weather update: Yesterday it was windy and cool. It was difficult keeping the van between the lines on the interstate. This morning’s temp in Sheridan is 32.
Yesterday while on the road to Sheridan, we stopped at Devil’s Tower N.P. which is off Interstate 90 about 20 miles. For those of you that are not familiar with Devil’s Tower it is the big rock tower that was prominent in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. It’s pretty impressive up close at approx. 865 feet tall. We took the 1.3 mile hike around the base and saw three climbers on the tower even though it was cold and windy out. After the hike we high-tailed it across the parking lot to the bathrooms. It’s too bad they couldn’t have put a bathroom at the half-way point around the hiking loop. That would’ve been a good use of the new tax stimulus dollars.
Check out the tower at www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm
We arrived in Sheridan, Wyoming about 3:30 in the afternoon to our motel on North Main. Another one of those 1950’s motor court style motels and is definitely off the beaten path. The dilapidated trailer park on the side and the train tracks to the rear were a classy touch.
Earl’s and Carlos’ room’s interior looked like it was put together to resemble “Lincoln Logs” and was on the other side of the multi-building complex about as far away from our room as you can get. After dropping their luggage off I was trying to concentrate on finding our room, but was distracted as Earl had already started whining about not liking his room and why can’t our rooms be closer together? After a full day of driving that made it difficult for me to concentrate on finding my room, but also made me remember why I enjoy being retired and not going to work everyday. Not having kids of my own I always wondered what travelling with them would be like. I no longer have that wonder.
It turned out we had been given the wrong room keys and our room was actually on the side of the complex closer to Earl and Carlos. We made it over to our new room and settled in with Earl still whining about us having the better room and he doesn’t like his “log cabin” décor. After storing the luggage we headed downtown to see King’s Saddlery and leather store before closing. They had saddles for sale the price of a small compact car and I’m thinking of all the people I know who have horses and how they probably will never be able to retire. We also went to a couple of other western stores on the main drag plus a J.C. Penney’s, which they said is the 2nd oldest in the country. It looked just like the store that was in Owensboro’s downtown back in the 1960’s. Carlos purchased both a cowboy hat and a string tie. Now he DOES look like Buffalo Bill Cody.
We also went to the Mint Bar which opened in 1907 and looks pretty much unchanged since that time. Then we went to a local restaurant called “The Chop House” for dinner where Carlos ordered the nightly special which was a 24oz. Rib-eye dinner. I believe Carlos is single-handedly raising the GNP of these states by about 15% with his visit. We ended the evening going to the movies to see “Inglorious Bastards”.
AN UPDATE: It is now around 11:00pm at night as I write this, having just returned from downtown Sheridan. When we got back to the room we discovered our smoke detector is defective and has intermittent chirping about every 20-30 seconds. Actually, the noise is more like a toy machine gun going something like “BRRRAAACKKKKKK, BRRRAAACKKKKKK, BRRRAAACKKKKKK”. And remember those train tracks I mentioned earlier? Well they are now outside our back door not 50 yards away. And they are not just train tracks, it turns out it is an assembly yard for the trains… Oh, yeah, constant noise all night long. And why they put these patio doors on the back of the room I’ll never know as who wants to watch a train track? Some solid wall that was more sound proof would’ve been better. So here I lie in bed listening to the staccato of the smoke detector with its “BRRRAKKKCKKKKK, BRRRAAACCKKKKK, BRRRAAACCKKKK” and the clanging of rail cars with the occasional whistle when a train does go by, wondering just what I did to deserve this, and is it too late to drag Earl out of bed and forcibly trade rooms? I wondered what else could go wrong with this overnight stay and then remembered the van is parked on the side lot adjacent to the dilapidated trailer court and wondered if it would still be there in the morning.
Actually, we did survive the night’s stay in Sheridan and as it turns out the bed mattresses in these rooms were the most comfortable we had ever encountered, not only on this trip but any other. And the morning breakfast was also the best one we had on this trip, with hot food like bacon, sausage, eggs and waffles. Everyone agreed our rooms were not that bad and would stay here again provided we get a room with a working smoke detector.
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