Tired, tired family

Today was a monster day, even though we planned for it not to be. I started out the day with a jog through Buffalo, WY. Buffalo isn't as big as I remember. Of course, none of these Wyoming towns are nearly as big as my childhood memories make them out to be. You know you're in the back country when the crosswalks have directions posted on them...seriously. "When the white man is showing, you may walk. When the red hand is blinking, please don't start crossing the street. When the red hand is present, don't cross the street." Where have these people been the past 15 yrs? I guess the directions telling us to turn at THE light, should have been a clue in :). Anyway, I digress. By the time it was time to turn around and head back to the campground, I was in the historic downtown area and it really was lovely.

We packed up our trailer in the beautiful wooded campsite and headed out for Devil's Tower and to spend the night in a hotel (the first such treat since we left a week ago, though last Saturday seems a lifetime ago now). Halfway between Buffalo and Gillette, our other trailer tire blew. So, I now have two sets of pictures of Michael changing a trailer tire on the interstate. Unfortunately, the furtherest east Les Schwab Tire Center in existence is in Pocatello, ID (been there, used them). This one we had to pay to replace even though it's less than a month old. We were told to hang on to the blown tire and see about an adjustment/refund when we return to Les Schwab country. Oh well... What's a trip without a few little adventures? We've changed both trailer tires in broad daylight on more laid back travel days on the interstate with a wide shoulder within 30 miles of the next town with a tire location (That last one is a big deal in Montana and Wyoming). We debated about trying to make Devil's Tower last night and taking a back road. If we had, Michael would likely have been changing a trailer tire in the dark on a dirt embankment far from any civilization. God has been good. 

We got the tire replaced and were back on the road fairly quickly. We figure we only lost about an hour fussing with the tire. Devil's Tower is pretty spectacular. Not really worth driving several states, but if you're only going about 50 miles out of the way (as we did), it's certainly worth it. The trail around the base of the tower is a 1.3 mile hike on an asphalt trail. The boys have been showing signs of needing to run off some steam more over the past couple of days, so the hike/run (with us playing "freeze" occasionally to keep them in sight) was a welcome diversion. 

We drove into Sturgis by suppertime and found, to our delight, that the hotel we booked on-line, sight unseen, is literally brand new. The indoor pool has a two-story tube slide on one end. The boys climbed up and slid down repeatedly. They wore themselves out completely and are snoozing, dead to the world as I type. 

Tomorrow we're still playing by ear. The plan is to drive to the 10:45 service in Spearfish. The associate pastor there was the photographer for our wedding and an old friend of Mike's. It will be fun to drop in, though in summer like this, he may well be on vacation himself. We'll see how all goes in the morning. It's nice to be playing things somewhat by ear and planning our schedule as we'll do this or that for x number of days give or take a day or two. 

I'm starting to fade and am looking forward to soaking in a nice hot tub tonight, so I'll sign off.