In Gillette

What a day.  But let me back up.  Last night we were in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  At about 11 pm wind started.  It came in gusts.  Sometimes the gusts were so strong that the rv rolled back and forth.  I was asleep and it woke me up.  Bob kept telling me it was fine and I knew that we had gone through wind storms before.  It finally stopped at about midnight and I went back to sleep.  But it started again in about a half hour.  This time I was awake and was imagining all sorts of horrible things.  So I got up.  It was interesting.  In the main part of the rv I could barely feel the wind, but I knew it was there.  Everything was fine.  I did not want to go back to bed and just lay there, so I read until the wind stopped at about 3 am, and then went right to sleep.  Bob was so tired from his day of driving that he slept right through it, except when I was there and grabbed him so tight that I woke him up. 

We were up early and off to an early start.  Cody is a cute, but small town.  Very quickly we were out on the back roads of Wyoming.  It looked just like what you would expect Wyoming to look like if you have watched many Westerns.  It is a high plateau and very grassy - open range they called it.  I knew that there were a lot of cattle around, but I did not see any.  There were many flat topped mesas just waiting for Hollywood Indians to come swooping down. 

It was more and more impressive as we got closer to the mountains.  This is the Big Horn mountain range.  (I had never heard of it before.  If I did, I though it was made up.)  There were huge mesas and the mountains were red.  Everything we passed had a western ,i.e., cowboy theme. Then suddenly we were in this huge canyon, with very steep side and amazing rock formations and various strata.  (See pictures below.)  Bob stopped long enough for me to take some pictures.  I was amazed at how beautiful this was.  We had come close to this area four years ago, but had taken a different route to Yellowstone.  This just proves how much there is to see in this country and you cannot see it all. 

Anyway, after a brief stop for pictures, we started again, and we started to climb.  It was very long and very steep.  The pass was at 9033 feet.  Betsy took it well, that is after we stopped for another break.  There was a car in front of us that kept speeding up and then slowing down.  Betsy was not able to go at her preferred speed and she started to heat up.  So we stopped for more pictures and then started without anyone in front of us and Betsy did just fine.  When we got to the top it felt like we were on top of the world.  Amazing. 

We went a few miles at the top and then went down - 5000 feet down in 12 miles - and it was very very very curvy.  We could just about see our behind as we went around the curves.  Bob put Betsy in very low gear and we did pretty good.  We had lunch at a very cute Mom and Pop diner - Bob wanted something hot rather than sandwiches.  Then more high flat plateau.  By now we were on the Interstate and it was easy driving, so we listened to our audio book and finished the story.  It is a good way to spend the time when there is not much scenery to see. 

We got to Gillette early and moved into the Wal-Mart parking lot.  By now we were at 4500 feet and Bob was breathing better, but he was very very very tired from the long uphill and the long downhill.  He said that his arms were sore from the stress of gripping the steering wheel so hard.  It took quite a while for him to recover.  So I went for a walk and scouted the area.  Again Bob did not want to eat our food.  He liked the idea of the little Mexican restaurant right across the street.  So we went there for dinner. It was very good.  Now we will relax and go to bed early so we can show up at the rally site and find out what we have to do.