And Just Like That...We Are Out of Time

We may have just left, but I miss Wyoming already. It was such a beautiful, wild, and spacious state. I can't help but feel like I belong out there...ah, maybe some day! We left Yellowstone and headed toward Cody, WY on yet another picturesque highway. We pulled in at a little place called The Big Bear Motel, just to see what they had available. The motel was booked, but the owner informed us of the fact that the entire town would be booked solid within an hour or so (he was correct) and offered to rent us his last open "cowboy accomodation." After listening to his description, I figured out that he was renting us a trailer. At first I thought this was just a cute name given to the trailers, but I later realized that they are the places the actual cowboys and girls stay at while in town for the rodeo. So, for $79, Joel and I spent the night in a dilapidated single-wide trailer, up on blocks, behind the motel. I've never been in a trailer before, and I'm sure some are not terrible, but this one was pretty bad! And there wasn't just one! There were three smooshed up against one another...we literally had to walk over one trailer's hoses to get to ours. As I wrote on facebook, the whole experience just shows how low a person will go after sleeping on the ground for a few weeks! On a side note, another "small world" experience....as I filled in our address on the check-in forms, the owner asked me how Ross' Corner is doing. At first I was confused, but then he explained that he was originally from Andover, and moved out there after vacationing and falling in love with the area(I can relate).So, yet again, we meet someone from north NJ! The accomodations may have stunk, but the rodeo, on the other hand, was AWESOME!!! I absolutely loved it! They had bareback and saddle bronco riding, calf roping, barrel racing, and of course bull riding. I can remember watching bull riding on tv with my dad when I was young, but it was so much more impressive to see it in person. The bulls were so big and angry, bellowing and thrashing around in their cages. After reading about it in a roadtrip book I have, I made sure we sat in the "buzzards roost," which is the area directly behind the little pens where the cowboys get on the horses/bulls. We had a close up view and watched as the bulls kept bucking around and trying to climb out. One was going so crazy that it bashed open it's mouth and was flinging around blood and froth...kind of gross. I know some parents have a hard time watching their children play physical sports, but I truly do not understand how the parents of these boys (they were high school/college aged) can let them ride the bulls. They get stepped on every time..it is so scary!!! Anyway, if you are ever able to visit Cody (the self-proclaimed rodeo capital of the world), GO TO THE RODEO! Today we left to head toward the Badlands. Another beautiful drive! The original plans were to stop at both the Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore monuments, but when we saw how long it was going to take us to get there, we had to cut out Crazy Horse. As it was, we just did a drive-by of Mt Rushmore because of a lack of time. We didn't even get out of the car! It was cool to see, and I'm happy I can say I've been there in person, but it was a lot smaller than pictures make it out to be. Overall, it was underwhelming, and while there are a lot of touristy things to do nearby, I can't imagine vacationing with that as a destination, as many people do. Right now we are competing in a race against time...flying across South Dakota to try to get to our campground in time to set up before the sunlight is totally gone. Badlands tomorrow!