The Day that was Meant to Be

Today was a day that I guess was just filled with a lot of "It was just meant to be's". We awoke from another chilly night even though each night in the Yellowstone did seem to get a little warmer and then we packed up. After so many days at one spot, this seemed a little weird. We took the east exit out of the park and this road was a little scary. Down hill the whole way with drop off cliffs on one side. I really didn't like this and was so glad Tim was driving. Our GPS then had us driving through Bighorn National Forest. Again this was spectacular. We were driving up hill for a long long time through rock canyons, then after a turn in the road, rolling green hills. We then sort of hit a platue and right in front of us, a Moose jumps out and crosses the road in front of us. Our 2nd moose sighting. Cassie's first question was "Are we still in Yellowstone?" She received an activity booklet and one of the activities was crossing off what you had seen in the park. The only thing on the list that we did not see was a moose. This helped make up for it though. They run sort of doplick?? though. Going further we ended up going down as much as we had gone up. The temperatures were cracking us up. We started in the 50's, quickly went to the 90's, dropped back down to the 70's and then back to the 90's almost hitting the 100 degree mark. Crossing Wyoming was similar to crossing Kansas. We passed alot of ranches, dirt roads, but not alot of anything else. We stopped and ate at a McDonalds in Sheridan, and tried to book a room that night for Rapid City in South Dakota. It was a no go. Well we'll just have to wait and see where we end up spending the night. We were on a long stretch before we were going to hit the town of Gillette. We should have had plenty of gas. We actually hit the first exit of Gillette, but Tim saw a sign for an Exxon at the next stop 2 miles up. Right as we passed the 1st exit, the car stopped. Oops, we ran out of gas. Luckily he was able to pull off the road safely right where the on ramp met the interstate. He hiked down the on ramp to retrieve us some gas. About 1/2 an hour later he returned lugging 30 lbs of gas. What a man. He's my hero. We had to return the gas can back to the station which meant going to the next exit and turning back. Not a big deal but it was hot. I tried booking a room here for the night with the intent of getting an early start. We were just worn out. Again, a no go. So we kept on going for our next stop at Devil's Tower. Nick got a text message from Jordan saying Michael Jackson just passed away, and we had earlier heard Farrah Fawcett passed. We really are not in touch with the outside world, so we were appreciative of the news. We arrived around 7:15 at Devil's Tower. There was a KOA right outside the park that looked empty, so that was our backup plan. We stopped at the entrance ane were pleased to find out there was actually a campground onsite and there were a few spaces left and a big bonus, it was only $12.00 a night. Score. We registered and just dropped our camping stuff before heading to the visitor center. For those of you not familiar with devil's tower, this was the first national monument designated by Theodore Roosevelt. It was also made popular in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We were seeing alot of cars decorated with Sacred 500 Mile Run. There were also a lot of Native Americans here. (more on this later). After the visitor center we tok the 1.3 mile hike around the base of the tower. Very tranquil. We were trying to place the sights with the movie but a sign said that the top of the tower is rounded and about the size of a football field. Not quite matching up to the movie, there wouldn't have been anywhere for the spaceships to land. We really enjoyed our hike. We went back to the campsite and setup and ate supper. We went to the ranger program tonight on Theodore Roosevelt which was very interesting and informative. But we were in for an extra treat. Remember the Native Americans I was talking about. It turns out this is a very special time of year for them. There is a legend that there was a race a long time ago between the 4 legged and two legged animals for dominance in the black hills. The buffalo represented the 4 legged animals and the magpie represented the two legged animals and the humans. It was a brutal race along the perimiter of the black hills, and the red rocks along the perimeter of the hills are the blood of the animals on their race. The magpie sat on the back of the buffalo and swooped in to win the race at the last moment thereby giving dominance to the humans. The native americans here were running the same race in a relay style to represent that the Black Hills were still theirs. There was a treaty giving the Black Hills to them, but in true government fashion, they took it away. There is still a fight going on. An elder on the council go up and talked to us about this, and he was a very passionate speaker talking with pride about his heritage. A few of his nephews then entertained us with drum playing and a song. If any of our earlier plans had gone through, we would not have been able to experience and enjoy this wonderful display. We are greatful.