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.