Tuesday - Hot and Tired

I think it was 1968 when I first visited the Black Hills. One thing I wanted to see was Devil's Tower, which I had read about during my pursuit of a geology minor at UW-Oshkosh. 

But I was with my husband who was concerned with mileage, at least when it was something I was interested in.

In the early 1980's I camped in the Black Hills with son Chris and figured on driving to Devil's Tower, but our VW bug developed problems and we never got that far.

On a storytelling tour in the late 1990's I came close, but had to hurry on to Nebraska for a performance.

This trip, I finally went. 

Sometimes dreamed of things turn out to be big disappointments.  Yes, it is a monumental symbol of something or other, but there it is.  Looking at a photo was just as impressive, moreso, because a photo doesn't have a bunch of tourists shoving and pushing.  I sat on a bench next to an old guy (older than me anyhow) who said, "Big deal, it's a rock."  He was waiting for his family to come back. 

I volunteered to take a photo of a nice Japanese family.  Visitors from other countries never can get their family all in one photo so they like that.  Then they insisted on using my camera to take a photo of me.  It was the highlight of that excursion.  I was there all of fifteen minutes.  But it's out of the way now. 

The rest of the day was a long drive.  I ran across a wonderful hostess at a visitors' center at Wright, WY who told me of a place to stay the night.  As good as the $3 place in North Dakota?  Better.  This was free, Ayres Natural Bridge Park between Douglas and Glenroch where I would perform the next day.  But first I had to go to Casper to meet one of Gary's friends who worked at a Menards there.  I took his photo, bought two gallons of water, and headed to the park which is indeed beautiful.

I would have taken more photos but I was so tired from driving, I put the tent up in fifteen minutes and crawled in...after throwing $5 in the park donation box.  Worth it.