Those of you who enjoy history would love this trip. Seeing that monument to four of our presidents was truly inspirational. I guarantee you that if you have even the tiniest bit of patriotism, your heart will swell with pride when you see that famous piece of sculpture; if you are already patriotic, the work of art will bring tears to your eyes.
Truett and I took a 9-hour bus tour that was conducted by a native of the area. He took us through the Black Hills with prolonged stops at Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse (This is another magnificent piece of sculpture still in progress and, when finished, will be even larger than Mount Rushmore.), Sylvan Lake with lunch there at the lodge, and ended with a cowboy dinner and musical entertainment that was as good as anything that ever came out of Nashville.
The next day we drove down to Deadwood to learn about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. By the way, we learned the real facts, not those that are portrayed in the movies. There we visited the bar where Wild Bill was shot and saw the poker hand (the now famous "Dead Man's Hand") that he was holding when he was shot in the back. Then we took another tour that gave us the interesting real facts about the relationship between Calamity Jane and Wild Bill (There was no relationship...they didn't even know each other, except maybe a possible meeting only once.) and the tour guide took us to visit their grave sites.
After returning from that tour, we drove on to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. This was the very first national monument in our country, and, after we saw it, we agreed that it should have been. It is considered a sacred area to the Indians and we could understand that, also, after we saw its magnificence. There, too, we saw for the first time in our lives prairie dogs, a whole town of them. I didn't know that those little varmints actually existed, since I had only heard about them from movies, but, believe me, they are real and just as cute as they can be!
Another highlight of our trip was a visit to Cody, where we took another tour to learn about Buffalo Bill Cody and his influence on that beautiful state and the West. One of the most interesting facts that we learned is that he may or may not be buried in Cody. Since he died in Denver, the people of Colorado claim that he is buried there. "Not so," say the people of Cody, who claim that three of their citizens went down to Denver, stole his body, and brought it back to Cody and secretly buried it on top of the mountain where he had requested to be buried. Thus, there exists a real feud between the people of Denver and Cody that I had never heard of!
From Cody, we drove to Yellowstone to see our nation's first national park. We arrived at the site of Ole Faithful just at the time that it was erupting. What a sight that was and what a thrill it was to actually see something that we had heard about and seen pictures of all our lives!
From there, we drove on down to Jackson to visit that town. We didn't care much for it, as it is too tourist oriented. The next morning, being disappointed with Jackson, we decided to drive over to Idaho just to have something to do.
After seeing some of that state's scenery, we returned to Wyoming and made our way back to Casper to start our journey back to Lafayette. We had stored up some wonderful memories of the places we had seen, the beauty of the Rockies and the Tetons, the buffalo, the antelope, and the prairie dogs, and the historical facts that we had learned, but, most of all, we came back with fond memories of some of the people that we met.
We had noticed that every time we ate breakfast, some form of potatoes was on the menu, but never grits, naturally. So one morning Truett asked our server if they had grits. She replied, "No, we don't have grits. This is Wyoming." We laughed and laughed at her comment.
That happened in Buffalo, but in Cody we did find grits on the menu. Truett ordered them and said they were cooked just perfectly. What a nice surprise that was!
In Lander, Wyoming, we had dinner at a restaurant where some of the patrons at the bar there, upon hearing us say that we were from Tennessee, asked Truett if he had brought any Jack Daniels with him!
But the oddest comments that we heard were about my accent. No one ever said anything to Truett about his, and he certainly sounds more Southern than I do, but the continually asked me where I was from. When I would reply, "Alabama, by the way of Tennessee," they would say, "I knew you had an accent." I never did understand why they couldn't tell that Truett had one!
So that beautiful state, with its small population (less than a half million, which is less than Nashville alone has, and is a huge state) and small amount of traffic, with its clean and fresh air, and with its nice citizens, has won my heart completely. Look for me there, if I come up missing!
By the way, this trip was Truett's Christmas present to me...my gift from last Christmas. I know that it wasn't that T-bird that I have wanted for so long, but, hey, it was a good close second!
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