Road Trip Day 2: Spontaneity is the Spice of Life

Who would've thought that we'd find the best Mexican food since leaving Phoenix in a converted Long John Silver's in Gillette, Wyoming?

It's true. Last night we tried a place called Los Compadres (no idea if there's any relation to the Phoenix chain), and except for cole slaw being substituted for the usual shredded lettuce, it had the Arizona Mexican food taste we've been missing all these months.

Today's goal (and in fact, the whole reason for this trip) was Devil's Tower.

Very impressive, even if we didn't have any Close Encounters of the Third—or any other—Kind.

The boulders at the base of the tower are huge:

This is a wood ladder built in the 1890s:

And here is some crazy guy climbing the tower. He was about 2/3 of the way up:

Neither one of us was paying attention to the other when we got dressed this morning. It was only after we were about a half hour from the hotel that we realized we were all matchy-matchy. One of those couples. Ugh.

The baby is due any day now…

This picture gives you a better idea of how incredibly large the boulders are at the base of the tower. I was surprised—and a little disappointed—to learn that none of the boulders (or any of the columns) have fallen for the entire time the tower has been a national park (a little over a hundred years). Seeing one of those columns shear loose would be awesome:

And what would a road trip be without some sneaky pics?

It was around noon when we finished up hiking around the base of the Tower and Ben asked, "Want to go to Mt. Rushmore?"

We checked the travel time (about two hours), and since neither of us had ever been there, we thought, why not?

Not as impressive as Devil's Tower (both of us were expecting it to be a lot bigger), but still worth the effort to get there.

I've also learned (somewhat belatedly) that my fancy-schmancy DSLR takes the best pictures when I set it on Auto or Programmed and don't mess with it…