Prairie Adventure part 1

August 29 – Saturday – Travel Day

4am – effing cat. SHUT UP.

5am – up and at ‘em. Colin needs no prompting to get up since he’s amped about starting our ve-venture!

6:30 - Head out to the airport. Motto of trip is GO WITH THE FLOW. Traffic is a breeze, check in and security are not. But we make it through in time for a SBUX fix and an on-time departure.

9am – Holy crap – Rick Springfield is on our plane! Walked past him to use the bathroom, on my way back I stopped and told him how I used to pretend I was Jesse’s Girl. He smiled and said, “Aww, that’s so sweet! Let’s take a picture.” Not really. I snuck a glance at him and continued on my way.

Noon – arrive in Denver. Can’t bring myself to ask to take a picture of the Rickster in baggagh claim. But Rob and Colin have the distinctive honor of using the stall next to him in the bathroom!

1pm – rental car situated, Tom Tom engaged. Have discovered a massive error in my drive time calculation and route. Somehow managed to overlook the fact that we will be driving up Wyoming as well as the time it would take to actually get moving. Add about three additional hours to our drive today and voila, first itinerary alteration – no Mammoth Site.

That’s about all I can recount with an actual time continuum. From then on it was wide open Wyoming – a lovely state and I’m actually glad to be able to see some of it. Surprised at the beautiful rolling hills, painted bluffs, and rapidly changing landscape. By the by, Wyoming has the nicest rest stops we’ve ever seen! I think they may have a little extra tax income to spend out here.

We crossed over into South Dakota and continued to climb into hill country. Beautiful.
Night fell as we finally pulled into Custer the town to find some dinner. If you aren’t a beef person, you are scheisse outta luck for tasty options. I realized just how horribly spoiled we are with Portland’s culinary options.

After our meal we took the final leg of the day’s journey into the park to find our cabin and rest our heads. I had the first and most fun surprise sighting of a buffalo grazing roadside. It appeared out of nowhere in the headlights and it was huge!

We checked into our cabin and surveyed our home for the next few days. It was a nicely equipped two-room log cabin with a/c (roughing it here) a kitchenette and a fire pit outside. We were all ready for bed after a long day and looking forward to starting our adventures in the morning.

August 30 – Sunday – Playing in the Park

6am is horribly early to get up Colin.

Today we just cruised around Custer State Park. We took in the wildlife loop, and at one point found ourselves held hostage by an overly-friendly troop of wild burro. “Hello, we are burro. We are friendly. Do you have food? You look like you have food. No food? Mind if we take look for ourselves? Bob, get in front of them and don’t move until I find the food.”

Aside from the burro love fest we saw pronghorn, white-tailed deer, mule deer, prairie dogs and a few random buffalo. Turns out the main herd was over in a part of the park that we didn’t explore that morning. The guys we were seeing had finished up their uh, manly duties for the season and were recuperating from all the bwant chicca bwahn bwaw.

We cruised into Custer the town and found a coffee shop that served espresso. Hello latte, I think I love you. We found one of the park’s beautiful rock-rimmed lakes and took a great hike around the perimeter. Colin’s first hike and he did fantastic with a few assists from daddy. At the park store we found Colin’s new friend, Buddy the Buffalo. Isn’t he cute!

We were where the deer and antelope play. Literally. The young white tails and pronghorns frolicked – they were frolicking, people - - in the fields as we passed.

Later in the day we took a buffalo jeep excursion. The jeep ride was a lot of fun – it took us off onto non-public roads to go into the buffalo herd. Baby buffalo are CUTE. Adult male buffalo are BIG. All buffalo are STINKY and INSECT-Y.

The ride culminated at a beautiful valley where a chuckwagon dinner and entertainment awaited us. Most of the time Rob and I enjoy being off-season tourists – no traffic, no lines, not many people. However, a chuckwagon is just not one of the things that is terribly enjoyable in a small group. There were about 15 of us total, and it’s hard to work up the jolly energy necessary to do a chuckwagon right proud. Colin ran around like a banshee, and threw a handful of rocks at one of the men. Mortification ensued at this first glimpse of demon child who accompanied us on a good part of this trip. We ended the evening with a group hokey pokey/chicken dance….just let that sink in…and an echoy Ya-HOOO!!!

A fire and s’mores at the cabin capped off our evening and we put another day and ourselves to bed.