The Great Tee-Pee Event

Day Four

Quick story….going to bed on day three, Nona said, “this sure isn’t a cruise.”  Pop-pop replied, “Of course not, it’s Cruise America.” 

Today was the day of arrival, we would finally begin to see cool things and arrive in Buffalo, WY at the home of El Guapo, in time for dinner…so we thought.  15 hours later, we were eating veggie lasagna (delish!) at 9:30pm. 

We drove first to Rapid City, SD, home of the …I don’t know, we only saw Cabelas.   But thanks to the local taxidermy, we got our first experience of wildlife there.  Sadly, we returned El Guapo’s rental car which meant we were now 9 plus Moose in Traveling Luxury for the rest of the day.    And we did stop on the way at the infamous Wal-Drug. (you southerners think South of the Border Western Style, and slightly nicer…slightly)

On to Mt. Rushmore, which was amazingly….exactly like every picture you’ve ever seen of it.  I’m kidding of course, it was really mind-blowing to see up close.  5 was devastated you couldn’t hike the mountain up to the faces.  Rough met one of the original drillers who was signing books in the gift shop.   Oh, and FFG had a great time.  He expects his face to be added soon.

This is not our RV, but we saw it at Mt Rushmore. How great is that sticker.  It inspired us as you'll see later.

We drove by Crazy Horse, and while also amazing, not too much to see there yet.  On to Devil’s Tower.  This is where we start to lose a little track of time.  Several of us, ok, all the girls, were under the impression that we were only driving about 1.5 to 2 hours to Devils Tower.  3 hours later we were…close.   That ensued some hefty discussion on the trip motto.  A few members of our expedition were tired at this point and felt the pictures of Devil’s Tower from the scenic roadside view were enough after our long, long drive.  Others in our party could not imaging having this opportunity and not going into the park and actually hiking the 45 minutes around the base of the tower.  I think Tough would have strapped on rope & carabiners and started climbing if we’d let him.  

We did go in, but did not do the hike.  But we got great closer up pictures, and though I was sad we did not get the mashed potatoes prop, I made a terrible video in homage to the aliens. 

Then, our expectations failed us again, and we drove the last 2 hours to Buffalo, WY, finally arriving at the home of El Guapo at 9pm, never happier to be out of the RV, but having seen some cool stuff.

This is where we pick up our last 2 members of the expedition, Liblitz and Daphne, who share the home in Buffalo with El Guapo, which is why we are making this trek to begin with.  Liblitz made us a wonderful dinner and homemade ice cream, and for me, this was my first night of my vacation in a real bed.  I’m definitely liking this whole idea of naming this our “expedition”, b/c I’m with Nona…for a vacation, this ain’t been no cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daphne, our final passenger, with Moose.  Don't worry dogs, we didn't need that walkway.

 Day Five

I’m a late sleeper.  I mean, I love to sleep in.  But at 7am, I was wide awake wondering who else was up.  We’d been up early every morning, so I was so bummed to be awake when I could have slept.  I decided to creep to the kitchen to get on the Internet and work on this blog.  I arrived to find El Guapo and Tough both at their laptops working…”So this is what vacation looks like,” I said sarcastically, and sat down and joined them.    Actually I think Nona said the same thing when she walked in a few minutes later, only she meant it to fuss at us!

 

Martin Vacay Tradition - Ice Cream for Breakfast

But we put it all aside for a yummy birthday breakfast for Liblitz, and then headed to explore the bustling metropolis of Buffalo, WY…a real cowboy town.  The highlight here is the Occidental Hotel.   We saw the sights, did a little shopping, and ate lunch at El Guapo and Liblitz’s favorite sandwich spot, then packed up and headed on.  There’s more west to see!

Another “short” RV trip and we found ourselves in Cody, WY at the Ponderosa Campground.  No, I’m not making that up, that was really the name.  Here’s where our adventure takes an exciting turn.  Ma, Rough, 7 & 5 and El Guapo, Liblitz & Daphne all slept in an honest-to-God Injun Teepee.  Dirt floor.  Hole in the roof.  No zip up door to keep the bugs out.  Shoot, the teepee skin didn’t even touch the ground, the bugs, spiders and snakes could come right in.    5 & 7 were beside themselves with glee about this experience and how cool it looked, but we all made predictions about how long they’d last and be running back for the RV with Nona & Pop-pop.  But let me let you all in on the secret, the real miracle here is that this city girl slept all night in that thing!  My only saving grace was I knew we wouldn’t get bears b/c we were tee-peeing (haha) right next to major thoroughfare and the rodeo was in town so we heard the cars all night long. 

The highlight was when 5 couldn’t sleep b/c he was scared and we were all encouraging him.  We thought he had gone to sleep but then he yelled and said, “But what about the Indian?”  Huh?  Liblitz said later that was the one thing she would not have thought to be scared of.  “What if he comes and wants his tee-pee back?” said 5.  B/c…of course.   But we made it through the night, all 7 of us, and pretty warmly too for a cold night with a hole in the roof.  And that alone would be enough to write this blog about.

and inside

Outside (note the hole at top and raised off the ground)

 But let me backtrack, El Guapo and Liblitz had planned to cook steaks for dinner that night and had these amazing hunks of meat someone had given them, but we got to Ponderosa, and they were still frozen.   And our site did not have any kind of grill.  In fact, we couldn’t find a grill or fire pit in the whole campground.  Didn’t you have a camping stove, you ask?   Now, Tough & Kiki and El Guapo & Liblitz are all what this city girl likes to call “professional campers.” This means they all wear their own headlamps from the moment dusk settles in.   So of course they had a camping stove, but that thing wasn’t going to work on Fred Flinstone sized frozen steaks.   So surrounded by cowboys & teepees in Buffalo Bill’s hometown, we dined on….takeout pizza and antipasto at our campsite.  It is afterall, Father Guido’s Family vacation, even if we’re in the west.