Okay, Where Were We?

Okay, you've got to be getting bored with my travelogue--because I'm kind of getting bored of telling about it.  But a couple of things are just too good not to share.

We woke up in our lovely 4-poster bed, reluctant to leave.  If I could have packed that mattress and comforter into my suitcase, you better believe I would have!  No free breakfast at this hotel, so we stopped at a local place with lots of cars.  You know the sign of a good restaurant is a full parking lot.  This one was no exception, but I had a hard time with the cigarette smoke.  It's against the law in Tennessee to smoke in places where children will be (read: restaurants), so I'm always surprised when I visit other states and that's not the case.  Anyway, the breakfast was good.

We headed for Independence Rock--a place I've wanted to visit for years.  See, I have an unusual maiden name and rarely find it in random places.  But one time I was watching a documentary about the Oregon Trail and they were talking about Independence Rock and showed a picture of it.  Lo and behold, there was my maiden name in two foot tall letters!  The desire to see that name in person took over and I can't tell you how excited I was to be going there.  It was the one thing I wanted to do on our trip.  Unfortunately, no one told me that the picture I saw was decades old and most of the writing has been washed off the rock by rain and time.  There was nothing to see.  But just walking where possible ancestors had walked was enough.

We were told we should be sure to walk all the way around, even though it's over a mile.  With all the sitting and eating we'd been doing, we thought it would be a good idea.  The weather was chilly and wet, but we persevered.  What we weren't told was that the walkway didn't go the whole way round.  And on the other side were cows.  Very healthy cows.  With wonderful digestion systems.

Back in the car and down the road to Devil's Gate and Martin's Cove.  And the weather not improving.  Don't they know it's springtime?

Martin's Cove is a very reverent place.  We met some wonderful people and were on our way up to the actual cove in a golf cart when the storm you see in the photo above picked up speed (and lightning) and bore down on us.  We were about halfway from our destination.  Go forward?  Go back?  What to do?  Mother Nature decided for us when she suddenly began pelting us with sleet!  Before we got back to the car, we were drenched and freezing.  I so wanted to get a picture, but Darrell had taken the brunt and I wasn't willing to test his good humor by asking him to pose.  (I really regret that decision now.)

Laughing and shivering, we went on our way.  Now what?  Hmmm.  Might as well head for Idaho.  But what's this?  Fort Bridger is on the way.  Let's stop there.  But tomorrow is Sunday and with our luck, it'll be closed.  And it's cold!  So we changed directions again. We're nothing if not flexible.  Spent the night in Kemmerer, Wyoming and ate a lovely meal at the Bootlegger.  Woke up the next morning to a couple inches of snow on the ground.  Remind me again why I didn't bring a coat...

This is long, but I'll wrap it up quickly.  We spent two days with good friends in Pocatello and then drove down to Utah to see our son and daughter-in-law.  They were house sitting for a family who graciously allowed us to stay there, too.  This house was amazing.

Seven bedrooms, seven and a half baths, exercise room, play room, theater!  Amazing!  And the views!

We finished our trip with a lovely drive through northern Utah and back across Wyoming (with a stop at Ft. Bridger--which is ONLY open on the weekends--go figure!), and into Colorado.  Then a short flight home--with no crying toddlers--to find that our ride home had locked the keys in the truck and we would have to wait an hour or so for the locksmith.  A fitting ending to our adventure!