Well, this stretch of the trip is looking promising... If we get up at 11, Winter gets up at noon.
Deadwood. Watch out for spontaneous duels...
...and Johnny Depp figurines. Dastardly kitsch.
Roughlock Falls, SD. This was one of those stops where we saw a dirt road, thought it looked promising, and took it. And then almost got stuck driving up a mountain in the snow.
November 5. This was the first truly frigid day of the trip. Note the frozen ears.
I couldn't get the right picture of the dead tree in the lake... close enough I guess.
Remember that scene from Twister back in 1996 when the camera comes over the top of the cornfield and the stormchaser caravan emerges as guitars wail from the overhead speakers?
It was loosely based on this picture. Bill Paxton was driving the lead van. True story.
There wasn't a sign saying we were entering Wyoming. WHY DO WE EVEN DO THIS TRIP?!
Population rock bottom.
Devil's Tower, aka God's Thumb.
Uhh... what are those...?
Ok I KNOW it's nerdy. I know. BUT, spend ten seconds trying to figure out how Devil's Tower was formed. Just, come on, do it. TEN SECONDS. Here's the sort-of-answer.
Next stop...
This was pretty much the only restaurant in the entire town.
This was their basketball team in 1989. Some real winners in this one. Favorite: front row, center.
FEED ME NOW.
And in the morning, our first view of "real" mountains. Bighorn Mountains.
Check out all these balls. Snow. Balls. They're mine. BACK OFF.
This one tastes like asphalt.
Suddenly afraid of Winter...
Calvin and Hobbes fans will recognize Winter's pose as "Hobbes dashing".
Something along these lines:
I just kind of liked the trees.
Winter leaves her mark on Wyoming.
Cheese adjacent.
Ok these aren't perfect conditions, but they're not too bad...
Uh, these are less perfect, but...we'll try it out anyway. Heading up to Sheep Mountain Lookout...
"Why is this picture being taken outside of the car?" you might ask...
Snow was being stomped. This is a real Matrix move.
One hour and only about five miles later...
It was VERY cold.
But some of us were able to smile anyway.
Fine, I'll do it too.
Ugh, ok, now the same thing in reverse...
NEW ALTITUDE RECORD ONLY A FEW MINUTES LATER!
9,666 feet -- as of Nov 17, this is still the trip record.
Favorite picture so far.
Eh, actually, maybe this one.
Or this one.
It's hard to see in this picture -- should've cropped it maybe -- but there are like 10 types of rock visible here.
5,000 of an estimated 12,000 miles. Check.
Hmmm...this doesn't look touristy.
I literally still have clothes that smell like sulfur from this, two weeks later. Even the shirt I wore today, it smells like an egg fart.
Hellowelivehere.
The new sleeping position.
Oh yeah, no big deal, tennis ball STILL THERE.
Have to get to Jackson, WY tonight -- already booked a hotel room. Only problem: got within about an hour of the town and suddenly, at over 9,000 feet just as we enter the Rockies (just north of the Wind River Range, in case anyone cares), it starts to snow. Hard. One hour turns into three.
And then, to make things stranger, suddenly the forest is all on fire. WTF.
Did we make it? STAY TUNED.
Spoiler alert: we didn't make it. We're still parked by the side of the road, melting snow for water and hunting marmots for sustenance. Winter has gone totally Colonel Kurtz on us.
No comments:
Post a Comment