Thursday, 7/17/97
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Bob got up at 5:30 am and took pictures
of the golden colors of the mountain glaciers and snow fields during sunrise.
While eating breakfast this morning, a woman walked up and asked us about our Coleman Trailer and how that works having
the electric hooked up to the battery of the car. Then after we answered the
obvious, that it works just fine, she got to her real reason for stopping by. How
can she get her teenage daughter to enjoy this park? "She hates it here." Either she thought I would have some words of wisdom that would convince the girl,
"What a Great Park This Is!", or she was hoping to match her daughter up to another teenager, (my son) to spark her interest. I merely replied something about it has to come from up here, pointing to my head. I also mentioned that we had been using this Coleman trailer for twelve years to let
her know politely that she should have started her daughter camping years ago.
After she left, I sensed that Brennan had read the same alternative intent of the lady as I did. We packed up camp and were on the road by 7:30 am! Record time. We
had planned to leave today anyway, heading for the Black Hills of South Dakota next.
We dropped of mail at a mailbox in Estes
Park and headed reluctantly away from this great park.
We stopped at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, located along the "Overland Trails", including The Oregon
Trail, The Mormon Trail, and several others that passed this way over a century ago. We also visited one roadside state park
that had sighting posts pointing out where certain historical events were located within sight but miles away. We also stopped at the longest construction holdup of the entire trip.
We were on a two lane highway narrowed down to one by construction. A
flag man had stopped all traffic going our way and even though the land was fairly flat, we could not see how far away the
other end of the construction area was. We were stuck in the hot sun in one spot
joking with the other stranded travelers for an eternity before at last we saw the "Follow Me" truck coming toward us with
a long line of cars behind. When the last of the opposing traffic had passed
and the "Follow Me" truck took the lead of our line, we had been in one spot for one hour.
We got into Custer State Park in South
Dakota around 5:00 pm; found our reserved site #24 with our name attached to
the marker post. Not very level for a trailer, but we set up and then to relieve
the headaches that we were both feeling, we ate an orange, then relaxed with the guitar and books before fixing dinner at
around 6:00 pm. The orange had done the trick; both of us had the energy to think
again. Ham and cheese sandwiches, fresh carrots and some of the HUGE cinnamon
bun Bob had bought to go were we had lunch (somewhere in Wyoming). Between the
two of us, we could only eat half of the cinnamon bun.
Stupid Bob cut the Styrofoam box lid off to use as a plate leaving the bottom to be the other plate. Well, we only ate half of it and did not have a latching lid to the box anymore so I looked for a solution. I have now used my Father's Day present of Gaffer's Tape to:
1. Repair the camping guitar case,
2. Hold the insulating pads to my tripod legs,
3. Make a hinge for a Styrofoam box.
After dinner
we drove down and got a few groceries at the campground store by Sylvan Lake, a truly picturesque spot, and did laundry and
got wonderfully fresh showers. In bed by 10:15 pm.
