5 states, 4 national parks, 3 days, 2 fugitives, 1 awesome weekend (take 2)

then it was saturday morning. there we were. laying in our tent. 6:30am. too excited to sleep. and the smell of breakfast cooking aroused our senses. we got up. we showered. we packed up camp. and then we had all-you-can-eat pancakes for $3.00. another reason to love hill city, sd and the crooked creek campground.

after breakfast we were on the road again. like a band of gypsies we go down the highway. we drove through the beautiful hillls of south dakota and saw beauty unmatched. we were not in the desert anymore. this was perhaps our favorite view of the drive. so much so that we had to stop for a picture. that woman who took our picture...she was not sensitive to our fears. "yeah, watch out for rattlesnakes..." um. hello. we were talking about bears in yellowstone. how did rattlesnakes in south dakota come up?

this overlook. the forest. the lake. the boats. the perfect day. all of it combined made us all long for the perfect summer camp. like on the parent trap. we were all making plans for what we'd do if we could be kids again. but kids don't take epic road trips like this. i'll keep the mid-20's. i'm starting to get the hang of it.

after some beautiful driving through south dakota. surrounded by the roar of bike week. we passed through deadwood. saw the sign for the highway we needed to take west to get to devil's tower. we also saw a sign that said "sturgis". uh, this was still pre-gps. pre-gps is how refer to the portion of the trip before i realized that my new phone has a stellar and very accurate gps system built in. that coulda saved us a time or two. oh well. there's more adventure in not really knowing for certain where you're going. or if you're going the right direction. i digress...so there we were. we saw a sturgis sign. we didnt' know just how far sturgis was but we saw a sign so we were going. we needed sturgis t shirts and jaymee still needed to cross "riding on the back of a harley topless" off of her bucket list. there's no time like the present.

while we were in sturgis nat really got into the biker spirit. she got some new ink. i'm fairly certain that naomi approved.

and only in sturgis will you see this... from sturgis we continued our journey to devil's tower, wy. i was stoked to see this giant rock. it's a big climbing spot. and i'd been told by a very reliable source that it was something not to miss. he was right. from miles away at this scenic pull out the rock was pretty stunning.

of course. there had to be the classic "let's make it look like you're holding it" picture. and despite the look on my face in this photo...i am not angry. quite the opposite actually. euphoric happiness.

and up close...it was even more magnificent. these binocular things were all over around the visitor's center so you could see the people climing on the rock. jaymee actually saw two guys high five as climber summited the very tippy top of the rock! now i want to climb it. someday.and this...well. it could be said that this was the winner of the trip. i mean really. look at the hair on that one! and kudos to jaymee for getting the picture while the mullet lady was clueless. i wonder what goes through her hairdressers mind every time she has to cut that hair?
after devil's tower we had very important business to take care of. our families needed their postcards and packages mailed to them from a place with a cool post mark...devil's tower,wy was the place. and this is betty. she's the postmaster here at devil's tower, wy. former mayor of hulett, wy. and one stand up citizen to boot. she somehow managed to get my v.i.p. (very important package) to my loved one's in only one business day. uh. i only paid $4.90 for the flat rate priority envelope. she must have known how important it was for that sturgis bandanna to get there.

on the road again. we preferred the gas stations called "loaf 'n jug". i mean, how could you not?

after leaving devil's tower i needed some backseat nap time. but when i rested me feet comfortably on the cooler the cold air from the ac blew right on my feet and legs. freeze out. i didn't have any pants that weren't buried in the back. but I did have my fleece. it will work as pants for now.

another random roadside self timer shot. somewhere in beautiful wyoming. this whole day was a day of driving beautifulness.

jaymee slept through this double rainbow. and the rainstorm that created it. nat was driving then. it was so cool.

finally. after one wrong turn. time spent in cody wyoming. a conversation with a crazy liquor store lady. discovering that i had a gps system on my phone that could take us anywhere. and after driving through yellowstone national park. we arrived at abigail's house. the house that she left to us. while she stayed at her boyfriend's house. it was like having a private condo in jackson wyoming. we were four lucky girls and honored that she let us stay in her house.

oh. there was one more thing. we weren't entirely alone in the house. abigail has a roommate. i'd never met her. but we met her that night. when we arrived roommate wasn't home. most likely out partying. we liked her already. we were all beat after a long and fruitful day on the road. we all went to bed in our respective places. no spooning. less than half an hour after going to bed i hear the bells on the handle of the front door jingle. jaymee asked, "what's that?" "roommate's home."

the next 20 minutes were perhaps the funniest of the entire three days. there was a knock on the bedroom door. meet leela. "i'm a little drunk." she told us. "i have all of this army shit in my car. i don't know where my gun is." "yes, i'm wearing pants." "oh look, a foofie." she was great. made the night complete. and after the good belly laughs we slept like little babies. thank you abigail!