Third Day of our trip
Miles driven
today: 503.8 Total miles for Trip: 1,469.8
Gas Mileage
today 27.7 mpg, average of 30.0 mpg for trip
Total elapse
driving time 22 hours, 21 minutes 49 seconds
Morning is
somewhat overcast, 60’s. Chuck slept
well after his jacuzzi time. Pat not so
well, shouldn’t have eaten hotel pizza so late.
We had to have AC on for good air but it was pretty noisy for a new
hotel. We pack and ready to leave by
7:30AM so we can make stops today.
Breakfast: homemade biscuits with
sausage gravy and scrambled eggs. We
treat ourselves to a biscuit and eggs and they are best eggs I have ever had
and a yogurt, coffee to go.
Wind is
coming from the south and keeping the fire smoke pushed back to north, much
better. Traffic is light, we remain on
I90 west; speed limit 80 mph, road conditions good, lite traffic. Famous tourist stops: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home, Louis and Clark
Trail, Custer battle ground never visited; Black Hills, Rushmore, Corn Palace,
Wall Drug all visited in the past. Flat
terrain able to see far into the horizon; can see smoke in the north; the
prairie grasslands are now crops and cattle.
But Prairie Winds prevail. Crossing the Missouri River, very wide and
beautiful; once we cross the terrain changes becoming hilly. For the rest of the day we are gaining
elevation gradually.
We stop off at the Prairie Dog Ranch. We have been coming here on nearly every trip since 1984. Same place with giant PD statue and lots of cute PD’s which are more like big ground squirrels. They have had babies and they are fun to watch.
Stop off in
small western town, Wall, SD. famous for Wall Drug, an historic huge theme
store with food and tourist items. We
drive through for a view and stop at the National Grasslands Visitor’s Bureau,
which operates under the US Agriculture Department; they oversee America’s
designated grasslands, not all are located in the prairies. The western state grasslands allow private
cattle and horse grazing with controls.
They keep down invasive species and encourage indigenous critters;
sometimes having a burn similar to what the native Americans have done to
encourage growth. We stop off at the
Redrock Café and sit outside. Our waiter
has a strong eastern European accent and the names of the menu items are
strange but taste good. We enter
Mountain Time soon after, now we are another hour earlier. The sky turns dark and spits as we come into
Wyoming (75mph) with it’s very distinctive landforms. We arrive at our destination, Gillette, WY, a
tiny historic downtown; there are a number of closed stores. We eat dinner at the Railyard Restaurant,
family owned. It’s an old RR office building that has been renovated; BSNF
railyard is still here with multiple tracks.
Good menu and service. We are
staying at the Marriott Townplace Suites off the I90 ramp, it has a pool and a
full kitchen, very comfortable. Weather
says it will be in the 40’s tonight, no noisy AC! Chuck in the whirlpool and pool tonight to
relieve a day of driving. Pat zoned out
on the bed watching silly TV.
Less road
hours tomorrow as we go deeper into Wyoming ending in Butte Montana. Nighty night.
No comments:
Post a Comment