Labor Day Weekend—Devil’s Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands National Park and a Mountaineer Victory

Ahhh…Labor Day Weekend!  It’s the time of year when we relax, fire up the barbeque, and celebrate the beginning of college football season!  At the RB’s Alma Mata, WVU, there are few sites which inspire such awe as the WVU band’s West Virginia formation at the start of a game…



Likewise, there is no rivalry which inspires the same degree of statewide tension as the “Friends of Coal Bowl”, aka WVU vs. Marshall.  It is this age old tale of “big brother” vs. “little brother” that can turn family members and friends into arch enemies for the day, depending on where their loyalties lie.  Now, I’d like to take a moment to point out that my Mountaineers have NEVER EVER EVER been defeated by a Marshall University football team…and this year was no different.  Let’s GOOOOOOOOOOO Mountaineers!



In West Virginia, as with most of the east coast, university ties run deep and college football loyalties even deeper.  An east coast fan, feels the gut-wrenching desire to follow their team through every game, for better or for worse, until death do they part.  So, despite the 4+ hours worth of lightening delays, Bilbo and I listened faithfully (as long as we could keep a 3G connection) via a WV radio station’s iPhone app, until the game was finally called in the fourth quarter with WVU up 34-13.  This was a good way for our new coachie-poo to start the season!  I don’t think anyone could have forgiven him, or loved him, after a loss to Marshall.

In Morgantown, WV, the home of the Mountaineers, I have seen college students set the whole town ablaze to celebrate a win.  In fact, it is now illegal to have furniture of any kind on your porch or in your yard on a game day.  Even the poor innocent elderly folks have to drag in their lawn furniture to promote peace and safety.  With this in mind, I’m sure you can imagine how strange it felt to be the only people around listening to, or even caring about, a college football game on opening weekend.  I’m not saying that I think one should go to such extremes as to burn their belongings in celebration, but I was hoping for a little more enthusiasm from my fellow Americans.  After all, isn’t football the all American game?!  But that’s enough of my football soap box.  Let me tell you about the rest of our Labor Day weekend.

On Friday afternoon, Bilbo picked me up from work and we began the journey to Wyoming.  We drove until dark, found a hotel, then finished the trek to Devils Tower.  This National Monument has been known as a sacred holy place by Native Americans for centuries.  Some still make a sort of pilgrimage here to lay down sacred items.  To others it is familiar as the convergence site for an Earth-destroying alien plot…You know, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Yet others are just drawn by the mystery and awe of it’s magnitude and history.

For Bilbo, the allure of Devils Tower was not spiritual, mystical, or otherworldly…he was drawn by its fame among rock climbers.  Those looking to reach the tower’s pinnacle climb its columns in multiple pitches, and we saw quite a few there.  Unfortunately for my dear Bilbo, we had a very busy weekend planned and had to settle for just a look at this impressive natural wonder. 

 

We took a short “hike” on a paved trail encircling Devils Tower, where lovely signs taught us about its formation.  Three theories exist that say basically this:  A volcano was once located on this spot, magma built-up and hardened in the volcano’s core, the volcano itself was eroded away, the magma stayed, and as the ground around the magma eroded away Devils Tower was formed.  The argument among theorists is to the original shape of the magma. 

With our brains full of a bit more knowledge, said goodbye to Devils Tower and drove on to another, more famous, National Monument.  On the way out, we got to see a prairie dog town.  Look at this cute little guy posing for the camera!

Let’s play a guessing game for monument #2!  I’ll give you four clues and then you can make your guess.

First clue:  It is in South Dakota. 

Second clue:  It is a “Shrine of Democracy”.

Third clue: Gutzon Borglum designed it. 

Fourth clue: It has four big heads.

Have you guessed it, yet?

IT’S MOUNT RUSHMORE!

And here are Bilbo and I with our big heads in front of it!  You would not believe how close visitors are allowed to get to the monument.  I had always assumed that onlookers would have to stand almost a mile away from the mountain’s base in order to protect the revered heads, but I was wrong.  An amphitheater surrounds Mt. Rushmore with seats all of the way to the very base of the mountain.   Another great thing about Mt. Rushmore is that it is free, so be sure to pay the Presidents a visit if you are ever in town!  Oh, and take a pair of binoculars if you want to see Roosevelt’s glasses.
 

Another assumption that I had about Mt. Rushmore was that it is isolated in some far away mountain range.  Yet again, I was wrong.  Keystone, the town located adjacent to Mt. Rushmore, is a lovely little tourist trap.  You must drive by rows of lodges, shops, restaurants, and a train to enter or exit the monument.  It was like a miniature Pigeon Forge minus Dolly Parton and black bears.  

Finally, we were on our way to the Badlands National Park…the weekend’s big destination!  It was late when we arrived and we were hungry…Little did we know that the tiny town of Interior, SD, closes down early and there is nowhere to find food at 7pm.  That’s right folks, I said 7pm.  After much fearful searching, we came upon a campground’s convenience store run by an elderly couple and a lot of dogs.  To our delight, a sign advertised hot pizza for $2.99!  YUM…just what our growling stomachs needed!  Come to find out, the pizza was a frozen Tony’s pizza that the elderly lady puts in a toaster oven.  It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but it did the trick. 

When we arrived back at the campsite, we saw a line of flashlights in the dark.  We stopped a couple to ask what was going on and they told us that a show was about to begin in the amphitheater.  Intrigued, we turned the car around.  The show turned out to be a lecture about the astrology, mostly describing what can be seen in the night sky over the Badlands.  At the end of the presentation, Rangers manned three high tech telescopes to allow visitors a closer look at the stars.  Our favorite spectacle of the night was the Hercules Nebula, a cluster of over a million stars. 

The next morning we awoke among to a bright, cloudless sky and a readiness to explore!  We learned that the formations in the park are more or less piles of mud that formed millions of years ago when the western planes were a seabed.  This has made the region rich in fossils and the site of multiple archeological expeditions. 

   

The early hours were spent driving part of the road that loops around the park.  We saw a number of impressive things:

Ridges…

Canyons…

Rainbow rocks…

 

The Minuteman Missile Historic Site…

And a really large prairie dog!

We took what was supposed to be a short break from the park to visit nearby Wall, SD, and their gem, Wall Drug.  We knew that it was going to be good when the parking lot had its own billboard!

Wall Drug began as a small town drug store bought by the Husteads, a pharmacist and his wife, in 1931.  The business was going under until they set up signs along the interstate to entice travelers with free ice water.  Travelers began stopping in, things snowballed from there, and Wall Drug is now a tastefully tacky tourist trap stretched along the whole of Main Street.

Walking through the “pharmacy” is like stepping into a cheesy museum of the old west with a touch of random tackiness.

They have fuzzy little jackalopes…

The cowboy Captain Morgan…

Animatronics displays…

 

Great carved characters…

A T-Rex…

And a giant bucking jackalope!

 

It was a great time and we stayed longer than expected, so we ate lunch there before going back to the Badlands.  Once back in the park we saw a sign telling us to beware of bison; however, the only wildlife we saw along the road were more prairie dogs and an antelope. 

 

The next view we sought to take in was atop of Sheep Table Mountain.  By the name, one would get the impression that sheep or big horned sheep would be present; however, there are none.  The drive up to Sheep Table is along a lonely dirt road with ridges ahead and sunflowers to your sides.  It is a long drive, but when you arrive you are rewarded with an aerial view or plains and mounds.  It was about this time that the Mountaineer game began, so we had plenty of entertainment for the drive in and back!

 

For us, the lightening delays in WV came at the perfect time because we were ready to do a little hiking!  Bilbo and I were both surprised to find out that Badlands National Park has only one trail loop with small extension off of it, but it did make choosing a hike much simpler.  We decided to do the main loop starting at the Saddle trail, the most exciting part!  Here, you begin by scrambling up on of the mounds and sliding down the other side.  Clumps and crumbles would fall off of the mounds as hikers passed, making the ground very difficult to balance on. 

 

On the other side of the mounds lay an expanse of dry, flat, grassy land through which the trail wound.  After completing our hike, the RB’s packed up our campsite and set the GPS for Douglas, WY—that’s was a little over halfway back to Pueblo and one of the few places in WY with hotel vacancies.  In fact, we stopped in another town about 45 miles before Douglas and all 3 of their hotels were booked.  I guess that is what happens in a large state with a small population…no need for hotels.

   

As we left the Badlands, the Mountaineer’s victory was just being announced and “Country Roads” could be heard playing over the speakers in the stadium.  Likely because they were so tired of being on the air, the announcers signed off before the first verse was over.  Feeling the nostalgia of the day, Bilbo and I decided to play a video of our unofficial victory song on YouTube.   It was all fun at first; however, the video that I loaded didn’t feature John Denver, but a slide show of WV sites.  By the time the chorus rolled around for the first time, both of us were silently homesick for our wild, wonderful state.  Check out the video, fellow Mountaineers, it’ll put a teardrop in your eye…Click here for Country Roads.
 
Our homesickness was assuaged the next day by a visit with Mr. Cooper.  We stopped by Boulder to have a yummy lunch with our fellow Mountaineer at Pasta Jay’s.  Mr. Cooper and I both had the eggplant parmesan and Bilbo had a pesto pizza. Eggplant parmesan is my favorite food and I have eaten it in many restaurants, so you have it on good authority that Pasta Jay makes some killer eggplant parm!

 

After lunch we took a quick stroll through the “Spice of Boulder” festival.  The best part?  Kids could decorate a zucchini, put it on wheels, and enter it in the zucchini race!  Could you ask for more in a festival?  Of course not!  That is why we had to call it a day and end our weekend fun.  With another 1,377 miles traveled we arrived back in Pueblo to begin week 5.  I’ll bet you are wondering if we were tired.  Yes!  Yes, we were but it was a wonderful weekend!

Colorado Weeks 3 & 4

“Take it easy.  Take it easy.  Don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy…”  After fun, full, and exhausting weekend, it was time to take it easy.  In fact, we didn’t even leave the apartment, besides work, until Wednesday evening of our third week in Colorado.  That evening, our stomachs led us to the Mediterranean Cafe in Colorado Springs.  Bilbo had the classic gyro and I had the sampler platter, with items that I had never even heard of before.  The best part was a lasagna-like casserole called moussaka. 

 

The adventure of the day was to drive to the top of Pike’s Peak, the second most visited mountain in the world.  Also known as America’s mountain, Pike’s is named after the first mountaineer to lead an expedition to its peak—even though he didn’t make it to the top.  Standing at 14,115 feet, it is counted among Colorado’s 54 “fourteeners” (mountains with a peak at or above 14,000 feet above sea level) and its popularity is second only to Mt. Fiji, in Japan.  An important bit of information about Pike’s Peak is that it is closed during inclement weather and, as you can see below, the skies in Colorado Springs weren’t very clear that evening. 

By the time we reached Manitou Springs, the town which Pike’s Peak calls home, the skies were even darker and the rain beginning to fall.  Never the less, we plunged on to the gate and (I’m sure you aren’t surprised) the ranger told us that the mountain was closing. 

Our parade was not rained out, though, because we had noticed a wine shop on the way to the entrance gate.  We just turned around and found our way back to The Wines of Colorado.  They have a collection of Colorado’s best wines AND free tastings!  We enjoyed the experience, found our favorite, and bought a nice semi-dry red called “Touch of Red”.  We also bought a wild card apple wine from The Abbey, a winery near Pueblo that we plan to visit in the upcoming weeks.  It was a nice teaser and we are looking forward to trying more.

   

Thursday went into the books as another lazy evening at home, after a rained out attempt at a climbing trip, during which we realized that our new board game, “Here I Stand”, is going to take a bit of learning before we are ready to play a real game.  It’s a card driven war game, much like “Washington’s War”, based on the reformation of the church.  We have only read half of the rule book thus far…

Another evening in left us refreshed and ready to hit the town with Mr. Cooper on Friday night.  The first item on the docket was dinner at Southern Sun.  They have your basic American foods—burgers, fried fish, fries—along with organic, vegetarian, vegan, and hippy options.  Bilbo went standard with the fish and chips and I tried the organic sandwich of they day.  The best part of the meal was meeting some more of Mr. Cooper’s friends, who offered great conversation.

Since our arrival in Colorado, our buddy has been excited to take us out for an evening on Pearl Street, in Boulder.  By day it is a “hipster”, as Mr. C would say, shopping area where you can get a bite to eat at a nice restaurant or try out a fad store.  By night, it a carnival-like atmosphere with street performers on every corner, bikes made out of picnic tables and other odd items, and the proverbial nighttime freaks.  Here’s a “bike” we saw.  It’s a table surrounded by people peddling on stools.  Not only do they have to keep peddling to make the “bike” run, but their beer tap won’t work without it.  I’m not sure how this is legal…

 

Our attention was caught by a juggler, not because of his skill but because of the comedic relief that made up for his lack of skill.  All was well and good when he began.  After all, a rogue juggling ball never killed anyone.  Then he announced that he was going to juggle fire…FIRE after he already dropped every other ball he through up.  Now, I want you to know that the RB’s and Mr. Cooper were watching from a safe distance; however, a large crowd of what must have been crazy people stayed right by our juggler.  Just has we had hoped wouldn’t happen, the juggler through the fire stick into the crowd.  Somehow, nobody was hurt but I would think this would be a clear sign that one should stop the show.  Not for this guy, though!  No, his show must go on!  His next announcement was that he would have a member of the audience throw butcher knives at him; which he would catch with his bare hands.  We couldn’t bear to watch this, so I cannot tell you the results.  Let’s all pray that he still has four limbs, twenty digits, and one head…amen. 

 

That night on Pearl Street, these old farts quickly found out exactly how old they are.  At around 11pm, Mr. Cooper’s college friends were ready to go hang out some more, watch some more street performers, and be all collegie.  Bilbo and I were dead on our feet and bid our ado’s for the night.  Poor Mr. Cooper had to call it a night, too, because we were staying at his house. 

Much more rested than anyone in the house, we woke up early enough on Saturday to go for a nice breakfast at the Buff and make it back as everyone else was getting out of bed.  Though we had enjoyed the saddle bags last time (pancakes stuffed with meat) we both decided to go for a lighter option.  I had an egg sandwich and Bilbo had the corned beef hash.  My sandwich was exactly what I had expected and very good…Bilbo’s hash was a bowl full of nothing but corned beef.  Not quit so lite!  He enjoyed it, but is over corned beef for a while. 

After breakfast, we told Mr. Cooper goodbye and headed off to what we expected to be a day in Denver.  We started with a trip to the flagship REI.  It was enormous with a bike track around the outside and a park complete with stream and bridge. 

Next up we had planned to take a tour of the US Mint.  Unfortunately, they are only open for tours the fifth Wednesday of the first full moon occurring in the winter solstice during the rein of King Henry VIII or Nelson Mandela…and we were not there on that day.

 

Also against us was the Great Urban Race, which caused a majority of major roads to be closed that day, so our tour of Denver seemed to be dying quickly and we decided to come back another day.  We did get to see Coors Field and the Colorado State Capital, as well as a bunch of runners in tutus. 

 

Our Saturday was still wide open for fun—it wasn’t even noon yet—so we changed course for the Rocky Mt Nation Park.  If you remember, our last trip to Rocky Mountain was rained out, so we were looking forward to the chance to do some hiking.  We first stopped at Lily Lake and walked the paved loop to get used to the altitude.  I never believed people when they said that altitude would have a major affect on your endurance.  I believed that it would make physical activity harder, but assumed one could just muscle through it.  Well, I’ll admit that I was wrong!  On our first weekend in Colorado, we walked up a small talus field of maybe 300 feet and were panting like Frodo at the top of Mount Doom.  Fortunately, we are becoming acclimated to higher altitudes and were able to enjoy our little frolic at beautiful Lily Lake.

  

With a warm-up under our belts, it was time to take a hike to the 9,789 ft above sea level summit of Lily Mountain.  The distance to the summit is only two miles, so we just knew it would be a shoe in.  However, the thunder began to roll after about a mile up and, no matter how quickly we walked, we knew that the lightening may beat us to the top.  So, in order to avoid a shocking experience, we booked it back to the trailhead. 

 

The most quickly changing weekend trip ever next led us to the town of Lyons.  It is snuggled cozily in the mountains between booming Boulder and picturesque Rocky Mountain National Park.  Lyons is one of those small towns with a cute, old fashioned downtown, a pinball arcade, and friendly citizens.  If I were ever to live in Colorado, I would choose Lyons for my homestead.  On the main street of this sweet little town is Oskar Blues, another of Colorado’s microbreweries.  I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that this state has a lot of microbreweries.  Mr. Cooper told us that it is like the Napa Valley of beer.  Of course, Bilbo was interested in a quick stop by for a sample and he loved the Old Chub brew.  You all are aware of my low beer aptitude, so I really can’t tell you much else. 

 

From Lyons we set the GPS back to Pueblo.  Sunday we attended one of the four churches beside our apartment complex, King of Kings Lutheran.  The people were all very kind and they even gave us a mug with candy to welcome us.  From church, we went to Cheyenne Park, near Colorado Springs, for a few hours of rock climbing.  The rock there is very sharp and crumbly which makes one prone to falls while walking about.  On the to the climbing area, I tripped, ripped my pants, and had to wear a pair of Bilbo’s extra shorts.  So stylish.  Luckily, I got a much nicer pair of hiking pants out of the deal. 

For dinner, we tried a semi-fast food oriental restaurant called Pei Wei and then drove home.  Thus, our random weekend came to a close.

The next week brought a couple of second round trips which were more successful than their predecessors. First was a trip to Shelf Road for hiking and rock climbing.  This time we didn’t see any snakes nor did we get rained out.  We were also less affected by the altitude this time round! 

The next second chance trip was back up to Pike’s Peak, and again it was a success!  Look at how much brighter the skies were in Manitou Springs that day!

There are three ways to reach the top of Pike’s Peak:  take the train, drive, or hike.  Initially, we had hoped to hike to the summit; however, it takes three days to make it up and back and we already have plans for our only three day weekend in Colorado.  The drive up is still a rewarding experience.  As you make your way up the narrow winding road, you begin to feel a bit like Mickey Mouse driving up the narrow road in “Mickey’s Mountain”( Watch the cartoon here. ). Thank goodness, Pike’s Peak has side rails and a two lane road! 

 

Which ever way you look, you see breathtaking scenery with mountains, lakes, clouds…

 

When you reach the summit, it’s like being on top of the world!  The horizon is open for miles in each direction, the air is chilled, and it feels lonely—the good kind of lonely.  Because of the chilly air, we didn’t spend much time at the summit, but we did go into the gift shop for a magnet! 

    

Pike’s Peak was the end of the line for our 4th week in Colorado…

(This is the end of the line of the Pike’s Peak Railway.  Scary, huh?)

Be on the look out for the tale of our second long weekend trip—Devil’s Tower, Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, and a stop off in Boulder. 

OH!  Bella had fun too…

YAY CATNIP!