Just a short note tonight, as it's time to start thinking about nothing. Thinking does occupy one's time on these trips, as you have to do a fair bit of planning. For example, tomorrow we will head on to South Dakota, and soon will be in the Black Hills, where we'll find Crazy Horse's enormous statue, and of course, Mount Rushmore. From there, it'll be over to Rapid City, and that'll be enough for one day. But it takes some planning, some map study, some reading of CAA books, and so on. Not complaining, 'cause it's part of the fun. But now it's time to think about nothing. Except...

Today, we stopped by the nearby Thermopolis State Park wherein lies the largest hot springs complex in the whole wide world. We did a walk around, and it truly is quite a sight. We were so impressed, we decided to take advantage, so had a lovely soak in 104F waters. Cleansed and relaxed. May have even helped my cold, although as Joy Vance says, it takes 7 days or a week to get over most colds.

From that pleasant experience, we headed east, into the wild and wonderful Big Horn Mountain range. It has many fine views, and consists of various rock/mineral formations that date from 300 million years ago to 2 billion years ago. Oddly enough, the oldest formation was at the top of the pass. How do we know this? Because the State of Wyoming has signs along the way that tell you the age of the formations you're driving by, by gosh.

And what a climb. Seemed we'd never get to the top. Met some folks from Holland at one of our viewpoint stops, who were doing a three week trip from New York City to Las Vegas. Havin' a good time. We finally hit the peak of the pass at 9,666 feet. And then we had to get down, with warnings about runaway truck catchments, the need to gear down, the need to mind the sharp upcoming curves. But the old van managed. And then, once on the relative flat land, we had an hour across the open barren spaces with major winds blowing at us.

But here we are, safely tucked away in Gillette, Wyoming. That's all for now. Stay tuned. And don't be shy. Drop a not of reply if you've the time. Love to hear from you.