Well, as it turns out, today wasn't quite the day that we had planned. Before we went to sleep Tuesday night, we had decided that we were ready to move on to Colorado today. We did some looking and decided to head to Estes Park, and made a reservation for tonight. So we got up in the morning & had some breakfast at the hotel. Lauren's been starting a cough/cold, and she had a big coughing fit in the middle of breakfast. It was a little scary to me because she was shaking afterward, like having tremors, and went right back to the room and got back into bed. I was worried that she was getting sick, but I think that she had just scared herself, because in a couple minutes, she was fine. So we headed out and went to Bear Country. It's a drive-through park with wolves, elk, bighorn sheep, and about 100 bears. They can walk up to your cars - there's a rule that you have to keep your windows closed, and we noticed that they were washing some people's windows/grills before they drove in. We realized the reason for that when we got into the section with the bears. Several times bears walked close enough that we could have touched them, just meandering around in their section. It was amazing to be that close to a big bear. Then after we drove through the park, there's a portion called "Babyland" that you walk through. We got to see all kinds of animals in a more zoo-like setting, but the best (by far) was the baby bear cubs - about 20 of them, all playing together. So cute!
After Bear Country, Lauren and I took some Dramamine and we headed out to Jewel Cave. We knew we'd be driving back though the windy roads in the Mount Rushmore area. We stopped in Custer and ate lunch, and I have solidified my opinion that Custer is the place to stay if we ever take this vacation again. So after lunch we headed for the cave, which is the 2nd longest cave in the world, and has formations that look like jewels. Lauren was pretty excited about this cave, due to the "jewels", of course! The cave does have 723 steps, though, so she wasn't too excited about that - Wind Cave had about 300, and she felt like that was a lot. However, when we got there, they were having elevator problems, which is their method for leaving the cave, apparently. It was 1:20, and their next cave hike started at 4. We decided that if we were going to head to Estes Park, we couldn't wait that long. So we walked around their Park Ranger station, checked out the gift shop and headed out.
And that's where things went downhill! We crossed over into Wyoming and hadn't gone too far - I think about 30 miles, when all of the traffic ahead of us had stopped. There was a sign on the side of the road that said "Wreck ahead". We sat (it was about 95 degrees outside) in line for about 1/2 hour, then used the atlas and the GPS to look for a backtracking route. If we went back around 15 miles, there was a road that would angle back and get us back onto the main road that we were on. So we turned around and headed that way. However, that angled road was a rutted gravel road that we didn't want to take in our rental car - it didn't look passable in a car. So we headed back and got in line again. Many people were out of their cars and walking around, walking their dogs, etc. After a while, maybe an hour, there was a sudden exodus of many of the cars. We couldn't decide what to do - whether to cancel our reservations in Estes Park, whether to drive back to Hot Springs and try a different road, etc. We spent a total of about 2 hours waiting, and then a police officer came along and recommended that we go back and take that gravel road - he said it was passable in a car. So that's what we did. It was such a crazy experience and Lauren was a total sweetheart the entire time - no complaining, no whining, being such a little gem.
Anyhow, we headed to Cheyenne, and stopped there around 10 p.m. and had some dinner. Lauren didn't feel well, so she didn't eat anything, and fell right asleep when we got in the car. We got to Estes Park around 11:30, checked in to our hotel, and Lauren climbed right into bed in her clothes and fell right asleep.
And that's where we are now - it's Thursday morning, and Lauren is reading the newspaper in bed next to me. We're trying to find information about that accident in the paper, so we can find out what kind of wreck would close the road for a few hours.
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