July 19 - Wyoming: Dinosaur Center

The tire shop in Buffalo, WY was fantastic.  They had us back on the road by 9 a.m.!  We headed toward Thermopolis, WY and drove through the Big Horn National Forest.  It was pretty spectacular!

Today was Caden's day.  Like any seven year old boy, he is fascinated with dinosaurs.  Thermopolis is home to the #1 Dinosaur Museum in the U.S., The Wyoming Dinosaur Center.  We have been planning to visit the center for quite awhile, and Caden hasn't stopped talking about it since Christmas.  In fact, our whole trip has been me showing the distance between wherever we were and the Dinosaur Center on the atlas.

The Center is a museum, a working laboratory, and active dig site on 7,000 acres.  In 1990, two geological surveyors found giant rib bones sticking out of a remote hillside.  Their find led to a rich discovery of dinosaur bones and fossils, and the Center was created.

Triceratops, Wyoming State Dinosaur

T-Rex

FOR OUR ALBERTAN FRIENDS:  Albertosaurus -- named for Alberta, Canada; Only Specimen on Display in the World.

Their museum housed lots of great dinosaurs and fossils, including a Supersaurus that was 106 feet long.

After visiting the museum, we went with a paleontologist up to the dig site to see if we could find anything on an afternoon dig.

Our "fancy" paleontologist tools!

We didn't find anything ourselves, but our guide was working on delicately removing a giant femur next to us.  So, it was still very cool!

After about an hour and a half, Josh and Easton decided that they didn't have the patience to be diggers.  We concluded our dig and went fossil hunting.  A nearby hillside was FULL of clamshell and ancient squid fossils called belemnites.  Apparently these arid hills were a sea at some point, the marine fossils erode out of the soil and rock, and they make their slide down the hill.  It's very weird to be on a dry hillside looking for marine fossils between the sagebrush!

After the fossil finding, they took us through the laboratory where paleontologists were cleaning bones that were found on the dig site.  A kind scientist gave each of the kids a piece of the triceratops' head that she was working on. Very Cool!

After the Center, we drove our dusty selves to Wapiti, Wyoming -- about 20 miles west of Cody -- and about 25 miles outside of the east entrance to Yellowstone!

We arrived at our camp planning to make dinner.  However, the lodge had a sign saying they had the best steak and ribs in the West.  So...change of plans!  While we were eating the western winds kicked up to about 60 miles per hour and blew in a cold front.  When we entered the restaurant, it was easily 95F.  When we left, it was 65F.

Wyoming sure does know how to make a (chilly) sunset!

We plan to spend the next three nights at Yellowstone.  We're all looking forward to it!

July 18 - Wyoming: Devil's Tower & Roadside Margs

Along our route today we saw the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery. It raises trout to stock in South Dakota's waters and educates the public in its historic facilities.

We also saw Devil's Tower National Monument. It's rock face gleams with subtle hints of copper, yellow, and green hues. It is quite striking in person. While there are various scientific theories about how the unusual rock was formed, I like the Kiowa Indians' legend the best:

A bear came upon seven sisters who were playing in the grass. Terrified, they began to run, and the bear chased after them. They came upon a stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them to climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper.

Easton insisted that the tower was a volcano.

We planned for today to be a travel day with a few stops along the way. We had routed to end the day in Thermopolis, Wyoming, but the RV had other plans.

We blew a tire outside of Buffalo, WY. We had to wait awhile for Roadside Assistance to arrived to assist in changing the tire.  So,"When Life Gives You Limes, Make MARGARITAS!"  I made a chicken enchilada casserole on the side of I-90.  We ate yummy food, watched a gorgeous sunset, and had a pomegranate margarita.

When Life Gives You Limes, Make Margaritas!

We found out that the tire broke an air line when it popped. Plus, we are using a shady spare. So, we are camped in the tire shop's parking lot tonight, awaiting their opening tomorrow morning to get things patched up.

July 17 - Lead & Deadwood, South Dakota

Today was a bit of an indulgence for Josh and I. Last year, we became hooked on a HBO series called "Deadwood". If you haven't seen it, you must buy the 3 complete seasons and settle in for a weekend! Anyway, the series revolves around characters who were pioneers and prospectors in Deadwood, South Dakota during the gold rush. I had a crush on the character Sheriff Seth Bullock. Josh was fond of the Madame, Ms. Joanie Stubbs. ;) So -- today was all about Deadwood.

Our first stop this morning was Lead, (pronounced LEED) South Dakota. Lead is a mining term, which is quite suitable given that the very existence of Lead (or lack thereof, at this point) is due to gold mining. Lead was another gold rush town in the Dakota Black Hills until George Hearst (someone you love to hate, if you have seen the series) came in and consolidated all of the mining activity, calling it the Homestake Mining Company in 1876. The mine is remarkable in several ways:

1. It operated for 126 years before closing its doors in 2002, making it the oldest mine in this hemisphere.
2. The huge mine reached 8000 feet under the town of Lead, making it the deepest, and largest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. (Today, there is one deeper in Brazil.)
3. The mine closed due to gold prices being approx. $300 USD per ounce. With the mine not profitable, the owners decided to decommission the mine -- a project that cost $70 million dollars. Now, a few years later, with gold over $1500 USD per ounce, I am sure it's a sore topic for the Homestake Mining Company! It is estimated that in the 126 years, they have only mined 1/4 of the available gold. Anyway, the mine's owners sold this mine in a bulk sale of various mines to another mining company. The Homestake was the only one that wasn't operational. The new owners have donated the mine to be re-purposed for atomic neutrino research. The mine is currently being re-fitted for its new task. This is great news for Lead. It had essentially become a ghost town after the mine's closing. The new laboratory will bring people back to the town.

Our tour was of the surface operations of the mine. They are currently working 24/7 to pump the water out that has filled the mine shafts since decommissioning in order to get the underground laboratory installed. We saw the various buildings, the large machines that lowered people and supplies into the mine, learned about how gold is actually mined from the ore, and got historical insight on the town of Lead.

Panning for Gold

Easton watching how Caden does it.

Trying his own pan.

Finding Gold.

Putting it in the vial.

Interesting Lead Factoids:

• Did you know that it takes 7 TONS of ore to get one ounce of gold, which is about the size of a Hershey Kiss??
• The workers would shower and change before leaving the mines. The water collected from the showers and laundry was processed in order to capture the gold dust that washed off the workers.
• The Homestake Mansion, the large home of the mine's manager, is for sale. Check out the 24k gold plated bath fixtures..

After Lead, it was on to Deadwood. Deadwood is home to many stories and characters in its short-lived boom. It also is a huge bone of contention in American History, as the people of Deadwood were all trespassers on territory that was given to the American Indians in a peace treaty.

Deadwood's main claim to fame is that it is the location where Wild Bill Hickok was fatally shot from behind by Jack McCall while playing poker at one of the local saloons. Calamity Jane was also in town for a few weeks and ended up dying in Deadwood from "Bad Whiskey" (i.e. alcoholism). Jane and Bill are buried next to each other, along with other famous (and not-so-famous) characters in the Mt. Moriah Cemetery.

Wild Bill Hickok Grave

Calamity Jane

We took a historical bus tour of town, which was excellent. In about an hour, we covered most of the town's highlights. Then, we bought the kids holsters and six shooters and headed to the famous Franklin Hotel. Each night they reenact a town shootout. Caden and Easton were sworn in as Deadwood Deputies.

Fixin' to have a shootout

Being Sworn in as Deadwood Deputies

Taking the Oath

Easton, with his newly holstered weapons, kept saying his was a ninja despite all best attempts to explain that A) Ninjas don't have guns and B)Those are cowboy guns. I guess you are at liberty to create your own reality when you are 3. ;)

After the shootout, we headed to the Golden Nugget and got a 20 minute tour of underground Deadwood. I found this particularly fascinating and something that isn't ever mentioned in the tourist materials that you get about Deadwood.

Deadwood was originally shanties and tents at ground level. Some of those were replaced with brick or wooden buildings. Flooding was horrific. So, they decided to fill an entire story and the second story became the new ground level of Deadwood. These first buildings have full basements, which used to be store fronts. The fill also created a system of tunnels between the former stores. It is this underground area where the Chinese Immigrants, fresh off of their labor with the railroads, lived and worked. Under the Golden Nugget, you are able to see the old original storefront, the tunnels, opium dens, and a glimpse of the underground life that existed.

We enjoyed Deadwood/Lead. Unless you are a gambler -- the town is full of casinos -- a day will pretty much cover everything you'll probably want to see. And unless you like motorcycles (Sturgis Motorcycle Rally apparel is everywhere) or cheap tourist trinkets/t-shirts, you probably won't find the shopping all that appealing either.

As an aside --- Every shop was selling Sturgis Motorcycle Rally clothing, flags, and all of the trappings. The rally isn't until August and isn't held in Deadwood (or any other of the surrounding towns that are filled with Sturgis stuff). Yet, the there are TONS of people buying the stuff that probably don't own a bike, haven't attended the rally, and potentially aren't even going to be in the same town as where the actual event is held. Is this weird to anyone else?? I compared it to buying a concert t-shirt of a group you've never seen while you happen to be at Disney. I just don't get it...


We're off to Wyoming tomorrow...