Day 9

I felt like we really did not get enough good coal industry photos yesterday, so we started today with a few stops:

A BNSF coal train:

The Wyodak coal fired plant:

And adjoining Wyodak mine, the 30th largest coal producing mine in the US:

And the conveyor belt that takes coal from the mine under I-90 to the plant! I found out too late you can get tours of this entire operation:

For the more nature loving folks we also saw the Big Horn mountains:

Before we left Wyoming we made a detour to Devil's Tower. This was America's first national monument, created in 1906 by President Roosevelt.

Here is what it looks like from afar. It really is unlike anything I have ever seen before:

This was my lame attempt at an album cover at the view point:

Once we got to Devil's Tower and picnicked we decided that instead of taking the 1 mile hike that everyone else was on, we would take the 3 mile Red Beds trail. Only Heath was in decent walking shoes so it was a bit of a challenge but we got some great views.

We also had the trail pretty much to ourselves:

Mike and Andrew's matchy matchy plaid look is really giving Heath's tiger shirt a run for it's money in this shot:

I think that's Heidi's gang sign.

There were also some stunning views of the area:

Aww, I have so very few of these type of photos:

We figured out why it was called the Red Beds trail right around this point. We are a pretty sharp bunch:

The amazing thing about Devil's Tower is that it looks so different depending on which side you are facing: 

On our way out we stopped to visit the prairie dogs. It was all fun and games until I read that black widow spiders also live in those holes. I had us back in the car and out of there in under a minute:

We finally wore her out!:

We left Wyoming and are now in South Dakota. Here is our official entry:

We arrived in Keystone this afternoon and surprise, surprise went straight to the hotel pool. 

This is 50% of our vacation:

Tomorrow we plan to visit all the sights but so far our take is that this is a pretty tacky place. I am not sure why we would be surprised that a monument of four presidents carved in stone would be a tourist trap!

We got dinner right by our hotel at Barlees, a restaurant that can only be in business because of it's location. It was truly terrible. 

This is the face of a man that has driven nearly 2000* miles in the last week. Hopefully the beer should help!:

* I've done some, maybe a tenth.

Hotel water has not been kind to Heidi's hair

Day 8

I made my first huge logistical error today. I thought our drive to Sheridan Wyoming was 3.5 hours only to find out after we picked up Mike from the airport that it's actually 7 hours. No matter how many times I typed the address into the Garmin I could not make it change the driving distance. 

When I planned the trip I think I was thinking we would stop in Cody, WY rather than get all the way to Sheridan and never updated the driving time on the itinerary. This was a rookie mistake and I will be spending a good deal of tonight doing some soul searching over this. 

Before this incident, we had a very relaxed start to the day at our hotel pool. As relaxed as it gets with people like this:

Our swim was followed by lunch at Dairy Queen and then we picked up Mike to begin our rather longer than expected journey to Wyoming. 

Here are some parting shots of Montana in the Gallatin national forest: I am really going to miss this state.

This is the Billings Montana refinery run by Exxon Mobil, which uses Canadian oil sands crude. I now expect to see a number of my friends camped outside in protest: 

Our drive was not sped up by the fact that Andrew had to pee at least 8 times during the trip and all but one was along the highway. He pretty much owns I-90 in Montana now.

This was our official crossing into Wyoming:

 

We are staying in Sheridan, which is the heart of the Powder River Basin (PRB) the biggest coal producing region in the US and one of the largest coal deposits in the world. PRB coal is such a large share of US supply that 1 in 5 US homes or businesses is powered by it.

We saw a number of PRB coal trains along our drive but I really didn't get a great picture of any of them. Around 100 empty trains enter Wyoming everyday to be loaded up with coal and I am hearing what seems like almost all of them leaving while trying to get to bed.

If you are wondering why there is a fossil fuel theme to this post then may I remind you that I am in Dick Cheney country now. Also did you not see my post about where we are staying?

I just discovered this picture Heidi had taken of her Cinderella doll during our drive, I am pretty sure it will haunt my dreams now:

We kept it real tonight and got dinner at Pizza Hut to compliment the DQ lunch. We are at the stage where we want nothing to do with each other:

To round off the day Heidi and I went shopping at Kmart and passed this place on the way: Sadly I think they were closed because I am pretty sure if I am buying fireworks from a trailor in the back of Kmart's parking lot, I mean business. (Also kudos on the name):

This our shopping cart with a half eaten slice from Pizza Hut in it: It's day 8 and we are already giving Honey Boo Boo's family a run for their money. 

Tomorrow we travel (what I hope is only 4 hours) to Keystone, South Dakota. Home to Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial.

Bad timing!

I can't believe we are missing this by only 2 days! Also, isn't our hotel fancy?

Awesome car packing job while solo parenting - nailed it!

Day 7 was heaven

Today was a great day and not just relative to yesterday but also in it's own right.

As we had seen so much of the park already we didn't have as much on our to do list today, especially as the weather forecast had called for thunderstorms.

See how happy I am to be back!: it's amazing what a good night of sleep can do.

The kids were also in great moods and even wanted to stop at Gibbon falls:

Look no tears!:

Our drive into the park was loaded with amazing bison sittings including a large herd:

We even stopped by the Yellowstone Grand Canyon to see the view we had skipped in our hasty retreat yesterday, which happened to be this one:

Can you believe we almost missed that?

We went on to our first official stop of the day, sulphur caldron and mud volcano. These are some of the most active areas of the park that sit right in the caldera of the volcano:

We had lunch at West Thumb on Yellowstone Lake, where the kids were genuinely delighted to be picnicking again:

After lunch we revisited Old Faithful as Julianne had not seen it yet. We took a quick photo at the Continental Divide on the way.  Heidi wanted to take a group shot and I'll say she did a pretty good job:

Look still no tears and it's the end of the day:

As we had seen no wolves or grizzlies, we stopped by a sanctuary near our hotel:

This was Andrew introducing his stuffed wolf to it's wild brethren, which I am sure they appreciated.

At this point it did start pouring with rain and so we made it back to the hotel for a swim. 

Tomorrow I might actually let us have the morning off before we pick up Mike and make our way to Sheridan, Wyoming. Unless the weather is nice ...

Day sucks, I mean six

Normally I really enjoy blogging at the end of a day but there is something about a truly horrendous day that makes it seem even worse to put it down in to words.

We started off on shaky ground after a terrible night sleep for everyone thanks to Heidi being up for 3 hours in the night and then waking early. We also had a lot of sights on our agenda, which about six months from now I am going to be super grateful for, but today made we want to curl into a fetal position and cry. Both of which I am pretty sure I did on several occasions.

Our first stop was at the paint pots:

Heidi made a number of people awkward by telling them "My Daddy is staying in a different hotel" to which I had to explain "yes but only because he is in Salt Lake City" No one was buying that story.

That is bubbling mud! You can't tell he has been complaining the entire walk can you? Aren't photos the best!: 

We also got this view from the top, which is pretty awesome:

I mean there is only so long I can be mad at this day, especially if I keep enjoying this grocery store wine I have in front of me. 

We went onto visit Norris Geyser basin. It's one of those places that when it blows up in some huge tragedy and everyone is like "Why? Why?" There is going to be a part of me that says - we probably should have seen that one coming:

We stopped at Mammoth hot springs for lunch and because they are amazing. This filter was accidental but I liked the sci-fi look:

At this point Andrew was begging to go home and Heidi was entirely feral, but I did get a picture of Heath from the front! I'll take the small victories:

We drove along the 6 mile Blacktail Plateau Drive, which is famous for wildlife sightings of bears, bison and wolves. We saw one bunny rabbit. 

Next stop was Tower falls, where we ironically ran into an entire family of elk by the parking area:

Then finally into my favorite spot, Yellowstone Grand Canyon:

Let me sum up the mood of my children at this juncture in pictures rather than words:

Andrew let everyone at the Canyon overlook know: "I am having no fun here".

Shockingly, we decided it would be wise to head back home soon after. On our way we saw our first bison in the distance and that was very exciting:

Then we saw a bison right by the road.

After our 20th close up bison sighting we were basically like -if it's not coming up to our car, we aren't photographing it. 

We made it home for me to try to get the kids to sleep at a reasonable hour and enjoy my private wine party. I feel relatively confident that tomorrow cannot go worse.