Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, and Hasty Retreat

Grandma and grandpa and I went to Devil's Tower after leaving Torrington, where we spent an hour or so.

I went ahead and hiked around the monument, taking a number of good photos, while Grandma and Grandpa stayed behind to check out the visitor's center and some less intense trails down below. Below are some photos I took on the way around.



I've tried to include some unusual views of the monument, because I believe it should be familiar by sight from the front.



Finally, before we left Devil's Tower, we took some photos of each other; the results are below.

We moved on from Devil's Tower to Rapid City, staying there for the night. As we were leaving for dinner, the wind almost picked Grandma up and send her right home to Minneapolis, but we managed to catch her first. We ate at Ruby Tuesday, and while we were waiting for our order, Grandma and Grandpa took a selfie together, which was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. I don't have my hands on the photo itself, so you're not seeing it now, but I'll see if I can get my hands on it, if only to see it myself.

After Rapid City, we headed down to Mount Rushmore. I'd thought it'd be a bit more relaxed of a route, but it turned out to be pretty winding, which was probably not the easiest thing for Grandma to handle. She and I ended up splitting the driving load today, though, which helped a bit.

We arrived and we approached the monument. It was fairly cloudy, so it wasn't the best of times to visit, but we took photos and enjoyed some hot chocolate there regardless.

We got a group picture courtesy of a European traveler...

...and eventually we moved on from there and headed north and then back east. We ended up in Mitchell, South Dakota, and are staying at a Holiday Inn for the night. For dinner, we had Fajitas for 2 at El Columpio, which was some of the best Mexican food I've ever tasted. It was much more than we needed, as well, so some amount of it will be eaten at a later time.

While the trip has been enjoyable on the whole and was a delight at times for all three of us, Grandpa's leg pain has remained throughout the trip, and he believes further trips, domestic or international, will be out of the question, at least as long as his leg pain remains.

As for me, while I've taken great comfort in the times when I've been able to serve as a safe driver so my grandparents could rest, it's been a struggle for me, as well. If I let Grandpa drive, Grandma tends to distract him with comments and questions, while Grandma on the whole is a better situation. My choice, then, since Torrington, is to prefer myself driving as much as possible, and letting Grandma drive as much as is necessary beyond that.

We might have been able to come back to Minneapolis late tonight (Saturday), but we would have been in around 10, and I would have been driving about five hours longer than was likely safe, to say nothing of the additional stress on Grandma and Grandpa of driving another several hours with minimal rest. No, stopping here in Mitchell was a good thing. The fajitas were absolutely spectacular, and El Columpio has my highest recommendation if you're ever in Mitchell and want something to eat.

We've visited a lot of strange and interesting places along the way, but I think El Columpio is the best restaurant we've been to.

We should be back in the cities around lunchtime if all goes well tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Noah

To Torrington

So, today Grandpa, Grandma, and I woke up in the Holiday Inn and Suites in Torrington, Wyoming. We travelled from Minneapolis beginning late Tuesday morning, and we've been on the road since then until yesterday, early afternoon.

We're here for Grandpa's 70th high school reunion, but the unfortunate fact of the matter is that we don't know where it'll be, when it'll be, or if it's even happening at all. Grandpa neglected to bring his invitation along, so we only really have a couple things to go on: the woman who was setting up the reunion and sent the invitation (I think), the high school itself (they might know about reunions, I assume), and Grandpa's fantastic idea of driving up and down main street, shaking locals by the shoulders until we get the information we're looking for.

How could we fail.

I took a badly-needed shower last night, and this morning while trying to get my hair to behave, realized it's time for another haircut. The last one I got was pretty excellent, actually, so I think I'll try to go the same place and see the same stylist...but that'll have to wait until I get home.

Grandpa tells me that the woman organizing this works at a museum locally.

This is the route we've taken so far, basically Google Maps' recommendation except for going south on 35W (spent about 20-30 minutes in traffic) and taking a detour yesterday afternoon into Scott's Bluff in Nebraska. We took some lovely shots, including the below, which Grandpa graciously took of me.

At this point, the plan is to visit the Homesteader's Museum in Torrington, where Grandpa says "they should know if there's something going on." Here's the Google street view of that location:

I guess if we're able to find something there, we'll be able to go there and see what we see.

It's a bit unfortunate that we didn't plan this a bit better, to know where we were going and what we wanted to see, but our plan initially was to see the Badlands, the Black Hills, Custer State Park, and Mount Rushmore on the way out, but it seems more likely that we'll see those things on the way back, likely with a stop in Custer or its State Park, possibly in a nice lodge or cabin up there.

Somehow I caught up on my devotions this morning and got in my physical therapy exercises last night, so hopefully I can keep up with all of that. My appointment the morning we left added a couple exercises onto my regimen and they're daily instead of every other day, which is a little more difficult to work in.

Here's a shot of Grandpa on Scott's Bluff.

Thanks for reading; I'll try to update as soon as I can.

Pray for Grandma and Grandpa, they're doing alright, but a trip like this is no longer easy at their age.

Noah