Once figured out and completed we high-fived each other and headed back towards Devil's Tower. We drove down a hilly and windy road, where the speed limit was 65 and the mack trucks were hauling ass. Of course with this bag on the top of our car it feels like it could probably still get some air and be lifted off of the ground so I had a hard time going 65mph (yes, I know you all find this hard to believe).
You can see Devil's Tower from miles and miles away and already it is something amazing before we've even gotten close to it. It is by far somethign that should be deemed one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It's huge and strange and mysterious and it sits on these long plains of open fields. We took a ridiculous amount of photographs and walked around the base as rock-climbers braved the winds up to the summit. The Kiowa Legend of how the Tower came to be goes like this:
Before the Kiowa came south they were camped on a stream in the far north where there were a great many bears, many of them. One day, seven little girls were playing at a distance from the village and were chased by some bears. The girls ran toward the village and the bears were just about to catch them when the girls jumped on a low rock, about three feet high. One of the girls prayed to the rock, “Rock take pity on us, rock save us!” The rock heard them and began to grow upwards, pushing the girls higher and higher. When the bears jumped to reach the girls, they scratched the rock, broke their claws, and fell on the ground.
The rock rose higher and higher, the bears still jumped at the girls until they were pushed up into the sky, where they now are, seven little stars in a group (The Pleiades). In the winter, in the middle of the night, the seven stars are right over this high rock. When the people came to look, they found the bears’ claws, turned to stone, all around the base.
The rest of our day we drove down to Laramie (past Cheyenne) where we are currently staying for the next two nights before we get to Boulder. The drive was long but really cool. We would drive for miles and miles down these straight and long roads and even though it was mostly flat it was amazing to look at. AND WE SAW TUMBLEWEEDS! Not one but tons of them! The first one I saw scared the $hit out of me! It is an amazing drive and everyone should do it! You just can imagine the Native Americans standing on the tops of these peaks with there horses or settlers coming in wagon behind wagon through these plains. However these thoughts are quickly squashed when you read the endless number of ridiculous billboards and I am quoting these so that you can just imagine these huge billboards with these insane captions: "Save your child, be sure your child's daycare is smoke free" (this one was actually in South Dakota where they smoke like crazy), "Secondhand curiousity killed the smoking cat", "It's like secondhand beating of a dead smoking horse". I tell no lies.... this is what we are teaching each other in "God's Country".
So here are the pictures. It's 11:15 and I'm tired. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow and I'm ready for bed. Goodnight!
Old farmhouses
Devil's Tower
Yes because I was planning on going up to a poisonous animal and saying "hey little fella, you sure are cute". SERIOUSLY?!
We love our side-mirror shots!
I can take no credit for this photo. This was all Mom
Momma's additions: to me car maintenance has always meant getting the car serviced on schedule, maybe a little more prep work is advisable before setting out across this country; sure, in Japan ( it's a Toyota ) when the warning symbol lights up and the book says "pull over immediately and check tire pressure" there's someplace close to do that; in this land there's nothing for a hundred miles! Panic. It's beautiful, almost untouched, huge blue, blue skies with spectacular cloud formations; the range is dotted with sage brush, almost treeless for as far as the eye can see, what trees there are sit below the horizon in deep trenches that are dried up creeks since the Midwest has suffered a drought for a few years. Cows and antelope and buzzards above are the only sign of life except for the slight traffic that shares the endless road. Devil's Tower is astonishing and the odd butte of red clay breaks the range as we drive for hours taking the natural beauty in. This is not a land to drive in on half a tank.
