July 12, Staying Put (mostly) in Spearfish, WY

 

Our fridge has decided that 50ºF is the new 40, so we had to dump a bunch of food this morning. It made me really sad and very cranky. Ask Jim; he’ll tell you.

 

We have canned and dry things to eat, veggies to cook up, and we’ll be fine. Won’t be the same level of bougie that we are used to or greatly desire. But it will be fine. Two more days on the road, have to improvise for breakfast and lunch. But the gas station lunch burrito today in Hill City did not kill us, so it’ll be all right.

 

Speaking of “did not kill us,” and Hill City, we decided to stay cool in the car as much as possible today. Loaded up the dogs in the truck (poor critters, they have been so patient) and headed for the Needles. Our esteemed hostess Lanna gave Jim a map of an off-road-ish way to get to Needles Highway, which involved going up the Spearfish Canyon again (not sad, and I drove most of it) and finding a road that had a “Pavement Ends” sign at some point. It turned to dirt/gravel, as we expected. But it’s possible that we turned one way when we should have gone another, and we ended up on yet another road where there needed to be a “Follow Me” pilot vehicle to guide us through the construction.

Turns out that this particular dirt road is slated to be paved all the way through, in stages. Spent about 15 minutes sitting and talking with a bearded, burly mountain man holding a Stop sign for the construction, waiting for the pilot vehicle to guide us through. It wasn’t particularly clear about exactly where to stop, so we kinda butted to the front of the line. Anyway, he was chatty and kind and told us they’ve not had proper snow since about 2010. I’m not sure I’d take this highway again once it’s paved either. I'm not sure folks need to be able to drive all of this rugged part of the country on fancy paved roads. Let it be, unless it's a real safety issue. And maybe it is.

 

Anyway. The pilot vehicle finally came for us, we followed, and holy uphill some more, and twisty, and around large earth-moving vehicles. He finally stopped, we went past, and continued on this gravel trail. Nearly missed the sign that said 16 miles to Hill City, go left, but I’m not really sure we should have turned that way anyway. It was ROUGH. Washboards abounded and really no way to go real fast over them to float them as we are used to. I was freaking out the whole way, of course. But not without reason! There were a couple of spots where the mirrors on the truck threatened to rattle right off. Jeez.

 

So yeah, we got lost on bumpy-ass roads, finally found a paved stretch of Highway 17 that led us to the Needles.

 

Needles was beautiful, if only a lane and a half wide in spots. Most spots. And with tight switchbacks. And tourists everywhere. The rocks are pointy and many look like, well, gotta just say it, penises. There, I’ve said it. It’s true, though I think I’ve only seen one, maybe two.. of the rocks, or the other things... 

 

 

It was nifty to see the tall, spindly, needle-named-worthy rock formations, and you are right next to them. I remember reading a blurb about how the road designer walked the path himself and meticulously planned the road. 

 

But my brain wonders (again) WHY do we need a road up there? Right to the rocks? Through the rocks in skinny tunnels that they’d blasted? With 8’ clearance on the sides and 9’ on top through some of those tunnels? In one tunnel I commented that I “could” touch the walls if I’d rolled down the window. I wouldn’t, but I could have. It was wild. In another tunnel, I commented to Jim, “Don’t worry, if you scratch it, we’ll have a story.”

 

 

We stopped at one overlook and let the dogs out, and of course, Buddy got pets from nice strangers from Indiana and somewhere else. Buddy also almost got pets as we were driving, from an old guy in a truck, with his window down, inching by us in the other lane. Bud had his head out the window, and the guy slowed down and sort of restrained himself from petting a strange dog through a passing car window. The gent even called Buddy by his name (because of course, his name is Buddy; all boy dogs’ names are Buddy, didn't you know.) That boy has magnetism, I tell you. So pretty with his fur blowing in the wind, and his eyeliner just begging you to say hello. I get it.

 

 

 

We wound through the Needles and finally ended up on a real highway, up to Rapid City. Took the interstate back “home” to Spearfish. I got more practice passing giant fucking earth moving equipment on the highway. I did not like it.

 

Did not take nap, but went for a swim in the “kids’” pool and then in the “adult” pool. Neither is truly named such, but the kids’ pool has a twisty slide and the adult pool does not. Listened to reggae at the kids’ pool as much as we could, and watched several near-death crashes of kids upon kids with that slide situation. Then we went to the calm pool and found our nearby neighbors chilling with much better, less-loud music. Had a great time talking with them as we soaked, and then with another couple just as we were leaving.

 

Oh, and between pools we noticed another Airstream, one from Texas as it turned out, and we talked with the lady for a few minutes about their travels and experiences with their Airstream. They’d picked their 30’ up gently used and run right out for a long trip, with no prior experience or even a shakedown cruise. Said they popped FIVE tires on that trip and that they were good at changing tires. I hope we never have to get that good at changing tires. Anyway, they’d been way up in Canada, Golden, they said, and had not brought warm clothes with them. Now that they’re here, they were wanting to see the monuments and get out of here, get home to Texas. Which, in some parts, is power-out again due to the heat wave. Why will Texas not learn (sorry, friends and fam in Texas).

 

After swimming, Jim and I cooked up the last of the sweet potatoes, poblanos, and jalapenos. An onion and some spice mix, heated up some tortillas, served with sriracha and bleu cheese dressing and wow, that was a fine little dinner.

 

We will try to start early-ish tomorrow for the 5-ish hour drive to Sioux Falls. Jim hopes to see the falls – neither of us have ever seen them, as we can recall. After SF, we will try to bomb all the way home in a day. I think we can do it, even if we have to nap in motion or stop to nap along the way. Even BRF could be an option if need be. Wish us luck.

 

Never did find those keys. I don’t think they’ll ever turn up. Jim will order more blanks when we get home and we’ll grind more keys for the trailer. Down to just one barrel key for the hitch lock, though. Maybe that’s replaceable too. Sigh, but we tried. And we really liked Spearfish; it was worth going back to Chris’ Campground (go!).