Day 5 was Fathers' Day. As a concession to Clyde and Donald, there would only be three hours of road travel. Road travel did not include the scenic routes to our Vacation Highlights, only the highways, the serious traveling.
We were on the road, headed for our first stop, Sundance, WY, at 8:14. We saw a herd of tatanka, a word we would use frequently on this vacation. We also learned that bison is the proper word for what we had always called "buffalo". There are no buffalo in the Western Hemisphere, they are only found in Africa and Asia - water buffalo. Who knew?
While still in South Dakota, we came across the remains of the Jasper Fire, caused by a discarded match. 83,000 acres were burned. While reading the information signs on the fire, we saw another sign that said there were mountain lions in the area. That got u
s back in the GM toute de suite. Even the burnt out area had its own beauty.
s back in the GM toute de suite. Even the burnt out area had its own beauty. We crossed into the state of Wyoming at 8:53, and found ourselves in a canyon, or a reasonable facsimile. We started seeing pronghorn, which are only slightly easier to photograph than lightning. They are the fastest animals on our continent, able to reach speeds of 65 mph. Many of them stared at us as we went by. Maybe they didn't see many cars from Massachusetts.
In researching Sundance, it seemed that we would be able to spend a couple of hours walking around and seeing multiple photo ops. What we found was an old bank, a statue of the Sundance Kid, who looked amazingly like Paul Newman, and two closed restaurants. It was Sunday, after all.
Things started to get interesting when we neared Devil's Tower. We had read that it was a long ride in to the Tower and that the GPS would not help us. Fortunately there were plenty of signs, not to mention the sight 
of the Tower rising up from the flat prairie. Devil's Tower was filmed in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and is a popular attraction. It is also a holy place to Native Americans, and there are many ceremonies held during June. The Tower is absolutely gigantic, and there were four men risking life and limb to climb the side of it. Their tiny figures were also attracting much attention. Tied to the tree branches along the footpath to the Tower were colorful scraps of fabric, prayer cloths.
of the Tower rising up from the flat prairie. Devil's Tower was filmed in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and is a popular attraction. It is also a holy place to Native Americans, and there are many ceremonies held during June. The Tower is absolutely gigantic, and there were four men risking life and limb to climb the side of it. Their tiny figures were also attracting much attention. Tied to the tree branches along the footpath to the Tower were colorful scraps of fabric, prayer cloths. Along the road exiting the park, we stopped to look at Prairie Town, which is basically a field with dozens of prairie dog dens(?) with lots of prairie dogs peeking out of them. They looked just like every photo we have ever seen, but are smaller than we thought, somewhere between a squirrel and a chipmunk, and they are shy.
On the road to Buffalo, WY, we passed a minivan from Massachusetts. We saw the Rockie Mountains, still snow-capped in late June, maybe always snow-capped, and were again amazed and a little awestruck to think we were so far from home, in the great western states. Once we reached Buffalo and checked in to the Comfort Inn, we decided it was laundry time. Although Choice Hotels have a washer and dryer at each location, we needed two machines each, and weren't about to waste hours when we could get it all done in one hour. We found a really nice laundromat just down the street, and we again saw the minivan from Massachusetts. They were also doing some vacation laundry. Adjacent to the laundromat were a car wash, which we also patronised (to debug the GM), and a pet wash, which we did not. Sticking a pet in a small plexiglass shed, hosing and soaping, or maybe soaping and hosing, seemed like fun, but we had left our cat at home.
One of our first impressions of Buffalo was what looked like milkweed pollen in the air everywhere. It stuck to everything and everybody, and it especially liked black clothing, which I had in abundance. We had to be careful to dodge the fluffballs when carrying the clean clothes from the laundromat to the trunk, but some of them found their way onto our clothes. Supper was at the Bozeman Steak House, and was excellent, and then we were off for ice cream. Clean car, clean clothes, and we headed back for some shut-eye in preparation for Montana, Big Sky! Our view out the motel room was of the Rockies. The Rockies!!!
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