Distance Travelled: 1750.1 miles
Current Location: Sturgis, South Dakota
Once again this was written last night but lacking internet is being posted today.
Left late again out of Ft. Collins after having lunch with Shaun. Thanks goes out to Shaun and Catherine for letting me crash their place for the weekend. I should probably explain a couple of the pictures in the gallery.
Shaun wanted to go camping and I was a willing victim. Also on the roster to go camping was Tom and Serena (friends of Shauns.) The only problem was the weather forcasters were saying that there was to be snow on Saturday (we were going camping on Friday) So on friday Tom and Serena chicken out and decide they don’t want to fool with the cold leaving just Shaun and I. We figure to try our luck and go camping anyway. Another semi-problem is we’re going camping in a Lexus, which if you weren’t aware does not have 4-wheel drive. We throw caution to the wind and head up to the Poudre camping area anyway.
Everything goes pretty smoothly in terms of setting everything up, we got the tent and a fire going before the sun set which was a concern as we were losing daylight. All goes well as we cook up a few steaks thrown down a few beers and yack away the evening.
Fast forward to 2am when I wake up to use the bathroom to find the ground covered in snow and my legs are freezing (that would be the last I slept that night.) Shaun wakes up soon after to use the bathroom as well and promptly goes back to sleep.
To wrap up the story Shaun later tells me that he was worried at 2am when he woke up that we might have to hike down the mountain to get help to get out as there would be no way his Lexus could make it out if the road was at all icy. Fortunately for us it looked worse than it really was early on. We made it out of there around 9am and putzed around the house as we were both fairly tired.
Anyway, on to the days drive. Wyoming… I think I now really understand what rolling hills are. Other than that it was fairly boring. I did enjoy driving on Route 85 because 90% of the time I was the only car that I saw on the road. Seeing snow on the ground also reconfirmed my decision not to go to Yellowstone right now because i’d probably freeze to death.
Driving into South Dakota was a nice change of pace in terms of scenery, getting a taste of the Black Hills though I have yet to figure out why they are named such. I’m staying with my dads cousin tonight (which i’ve been told makes her my cousin once removed (whatever that means.)) in Sturgis; home to the motor- cycle rally held each year. So far this place seems fairly tame, just a lot of Saloons in town. I’m guessing this place livens up in July when the rally is.
The plan for tommorow is to see Mt. Rushmore and drive for 4 hours as i’m hoping they have a bit of hiking I can do there so we’ll see where I end up.