the way home...Devils Tower, Badlands and Wall

Last major stop on the trip, Devil Tower and Keyhole State Park. You can call it a volcano plug or magma burp it is just pretty cool. The sky was clear...you just could not get enough of the post card quality pictures. Pat and the boys like the Corvette convention that must be happening somewhere because how else can you explain a parking lot full of the things. They all picked out their favorites-Pats was an orange one, Jamison like the one with the cool paint job and Peter like the older style blue one. Hey! remember we are here to learn about the nations first designated national monument? The boys are tiny compared to it! They signed up to be junior rangers...so we were looking at lichen, smelling ponderosa pine trees and watching for rock doves and and mule deer. Again for the cool picture with super blue sky. We saw a number of climbers going up the tower and when asked the boys said that they will try doing that when they are old, like 18 or 25. Back at the camp site we enjoyed beautiful sunsets to then be woken up to crazy winds that rattled the tent for many hours. We still woke up in WY so all was good. Peter thought he was funny when he said he looked like me because he was wearing my hat. If it helps to keep his hair out of his eyes then he can wear it all of the time! You can tell we were getting close to the end of the vacation because mornings were getting more difficult. We cleared out the tent and removed Jamison from the tent still on his cot without waking up. When he did wake up he was really confused.... "Hey guess what, tonight we are going to a hotel that has showers and a pool!" We all were pretty ripe and were longing for the comforts of home...or at least a hotel. But before we got there...we had to stop at Wall Drug and the Badlands. It was about 102° so we only stopped for a photo or two and enjoyed the scenic drive from the comforts of our air conditioned car. Despite the sign, i was hoping to see one...from a safe distance of course. At Wall, you had to enjoy the free ice cold water (which was not all that cold), ride the jackalope and stock up on all your kitsch items. and to think i forgot to get my "____miles from Wall Drug" bumper sticker. rats. We are headed to a cool hotel with pool!!! Vacation was good, no major mishaps and we hope to get back to the Mtns again soon. Now for some rest....oh wait we have some birthdays to celebrate.