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2017 Adventures – Happy New Year 2018!

Dec28

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family who enjoy reading about our adventures. It was a great year and plans are already in the works for the new year.  We will celebrate our 5th year of Adventures in Travel in February, yaay!

We apologize for not publishing much over the last couple of months, life has kept us quite busy over the fall months and Christmas season.  A highlight of the Christmas season was the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train coming through Columbus. Al got a great video over 1000 people have already viewed. See it here!

Another highlight of the season was a house with a 40 minute synchronized music and light show. See it here!

We will be spending the winter catching up on trips that took place after Labor Day.  Also updating older posts that need it. Our “Westward Ho! South Dakota and Wyoming” trip was amazing!  Go back to begin reading about our trip here.  Made some new friends along the way, as well as with enjoying time with long-time friends.

We hope you had a great year too,  see you on the road! Happy New Year from Al and Laurie!

 

 

 

Sundance, Wyoming-Gateway to Devil’s Tower

Jul10

Days 4 & 5

4-27 and 28-2017

After our visit to Devils Tower, we arrived in Sundance at 4:45 PM. There was quite a bit of snow here, the elevation is 4,750 and population is 1,182 and located in Crook County. Another snowstorm hit overnight, blowing out of Montana, where they had a winter storm warning. It was Winter Storm Ursa.

We were tired after being on the road for 12 hours and checked into our home for the night, Bear Lodge Motel. We had a pleasant night here, notice no vacancy. It’s a popular place!

After checking in we had dinner at the Long Horn Saloon + Grill, great food in a relaxing atmosphere. They show the front of the steer in the front of the building…

and the back end behind the restaurant. Cute! He was repainted black and white in July.

Inside the restaurant and our dinner, yum!

On the left of Longhorn is Deluxe Harley Davidson and Vilas Pharmacy.

Right of Longhorn is Mae Mae’s Gifts and Jewelery.

On the corner right of here is Dillon Sundance Hardware, across from the bank.

The people we met in Aladdin in the afternoon are members of the Wyoming State Historical Society.

They have museums all over Wyoming, including Sundance. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to see it inside.

Sundance is famous for being the namesake of the Sundance Kid. Just outside on the left is a bronze statue of the Sundance Kid on a bench that you can get a selfie with. He was covered with snow on April 28 😦

Learn more about the Sundance Kid here.

The historic Sundance State Bank that he robbed is still here too and still in business. They are now operating out of newer, larger building a couple blocks away.

To the right of the museum is the Crook County Courthouse.

Other businesses downtown. Next door to the Bear Lodge is the Arrowhead Motel, affiliated with Budget Host.

These businesses are right of the bank. L-R, the far left and far right buildings are unoccupied.

Security Insurance Agency

Wyoming Pioneer and Sundance Times Newspapers.

STEVENS, EDWARDS, HALLOCK & CARPENTER, P.C

 

The Crook County Museum will be expanding into a larger building at some point.

This poor tree is trying to tell us spring is here.

Bearlodge Engineering and Surveying

A Veterans’ Memorial

The Dime Horseshoe Bar

This bar is a major gathering place during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

On the left is 1875 Gallery, Wild West Espresso, Sundance Realty LLC and Higbee’s Cafe.

A few remaining places downtown.

Country Cottage Flowers and Gifts

 NAPA Auto & Truck Parts

Both of these gas stations are on Cleveland Street downtown too.

Rolling Metal Sinclair

Fresh Start

A beautiful mural on a wall.

After filling up at Fresh Start, it was time to depart from Wyoming. Maybe we can stay longer next time.  Not long out of town we saw Bear Butte Mountain which was soon lost to sight.

It is now the 5th day of our trip and we turn eastward toward home again.

 

Waiting for a Starship at Devils Tower

Jul4

Day 4- April 27, 2017

As we continued to head west, the more snowy it became at the tops of the highest hills. We had to take a selfie at the state border, we reached it by 1:50 PM.  After a stop in Aladdin at 2:06 PM,  Devils Tower became visible by 3:30 PM, partially obscured by the incoming mist and rain.

There was also a marker at this pull-off giving an overview of Devils Tower.

This view was seen shortly before entering the park. Also in the view are cattle grazing, a tranquil scene.

We’re here! It is really amazing to see it in person.  We arrived at 4:04 PM.  Get a souvenir at the Devils Tower Trading Post. 

The staff at the booth went off shift at 4:00, so we just took care of business at the self-service kiosk and drove into the park.

The road curves to the left and we saw Prairie Dog Town. They made cute little squeaks when they saw us.

Closeup of the cute little guy, they are quite skittish.

Another great view of the tower from within the park.

We could hear thunder in the distance, it was time to go. One more picture before leaving, we tried flagging down that space ship but they didn’t see us 🙂  We love that movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.