As American as the Fourth of July

We woke up on Independence Day, July 4, to some strange noises coming from outside our motel room. Upon investigation, we learned that we were on the parade route for the Cody Fourth of July Parade. The good news is that the parade was a really big deal - long, with a lot of floats and interesting characters. The bad news is that the only road we could use to get out of the motel was closed for the parade until 11:30. That made for us getting a very late start for the day.

Here are some pictures from the parade. It was really a Cowboy Parade. (Cody is known for its rodeos - they have one here EVERY NIGHT in the summer.) I never saw so many horses in a parade in my life! An added bonus was that I got to see former Senator Alan Simpson in the parade. So though I missed Bob Dole in Russell, Kansas, I did get to see his friend. This Cody parade must have been a big thing throughout Wyoming as the marching band from a high school in Cheyenne showed up to take part in it.

We soon stopped for lunch at McDonald’s – again. Jon vowed that this would be the last time! We occasionally stopped to look at some beautiful scenery along the route through Wyoming, which is a long state to get through no matter where you are going. Climbed to 9666 feet in elevation and let the kids have a snowball fight on July 4. That's something they will always remember. We figure that will be our last snowball fight on our trip.

We filled up the van and Debbie strongly recommended we get a car wash. No amount of logic could dissuade her that it was just going to get all buggy and dirty again imminently, so we got it washed.

The next big thing was going to Devils Tower, which was America's First National Monument. It seemed kind of appropriate to be there on July 4, especially when we learned that it had historically been a gathering place for neighboring ranchers on July 4ths of yesteryear.







We hiked the loop trail all the way around Devils Tower. At first Katherine was pretty grumbly about this, but she soon made friends with a little three-year-old boy named Oleg who wanted to walk with her and hold her hand. (Little kids always seem to like Katherine!) We struck up a conversation with Oleg's parents and learned that they were in the midst of a move from Florida to California and had been camping along the way. They had just spent the previous night at Mount Rushmore and saw the July 3 fireworks there. They were headed to Yellowstone, where we had just been. We gave them some suggestions, and they recommended Wind Cave in the Black Hills to us.

While at Devils Tower, we also saw a large and active Prairie Dog Colony. For family fun, we decided to all make up our own legends about how Devils Tower formed since there are a variety of Indian legends and scientific theories.

Since we were in a hurry, we stopped for supper at a convenience mart where all of us (except Debbie) found something to eat.

We arrived in Custer just as the fireworks were going off. We pulled off and managed to watch most of them.

Now came the first real problem of our trip so far. You might call it the "wicked glitch of the west." Although we had made a 3-night reservation weeks earlier at the Custer Motel and verified it with a credit card, they had given away our room which slept six. They told us that we would be given equal accommodations at two cabins in a campground 2 miles down the road. Somewhat disgusted but without recourse, we fought the fireworks traffic to make it to this new location to find out that they didn’t have any accommodations there for us, but that they would “upgrade” us to a great room at the All-American Inn 2 miles back up the road for our three nights. When we finally made it to the All-American Motel – getting very tired by this time – we were given a very standard room with 2 beds in it. We complained that we had (already) paid for a room for 6 and were given a room for 4, but there were no other options so we very reluctantly checked in. We hope to get this straightened out and get satisfaction tomorrow.