The jet lag post. The first real post entry is always the same.
I am awake at 3am. Suzanne follows at 3.30, Max at 4.30, after waking up briefly at 3am.
Microtel Inn & Suites advertises a ‘Continental Breakfast’. This turns out to be exactly what we want. Cereals, juice, tea, but most importantly, a waffle maker!
Today we started in – Loveland, Colorado
We finished in – Custer, South Dakota
Miles travelled today – 320
Miles so far this trip – 380
Tonight we are staying at – Best Western Buffalo Ridge Inn
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The sun is shining, and as we always do, we take a quick snap of us outside the hotel, for memory purposes, before jumping in the car.
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Suzanne was again driving of course. The sun was beating down, and thankfully the air con did its thing and made us comfortable.
It was a long drive today, over 4 hours to our first stop, PigTail Bridge. After about 2 hours though we found ourselves in Torrington looking for coffee.
The Bread Doctor came into our lives. Not for the coffee, but for the pastries. A mixed fruit Danish, an Almond Croissant and a Blueberry & Lemon Scone.
Coffee was had at The Old Moose, a trendy loft type space, despite it being on the ground floor. All were happy to talk to us, with the English accents doing their things. 10 minutes in there, 3 conversations struck up. One as we left the shop. We walked past a group at a table.
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“Hi, how are you?” Came the call. A few pleasantries went back and forth, but it is during exchanges like this I wish I had made more of an effort to strike up a meaningful conversation.
We took our coffees and pastries back to a bench, and sat watching our dirty old hire car, and then the multi (multi multi carriage) train pass by.
One vital thing we overlooked in Torrington was a toilet. We were on the hunt for one, and hoped the next town would save us
We rolled into Edgemont, a town that felt like no one ever visited, but still felt the need to have a museum. This seemed the best shot at finding what we needed. Coffee shops here didn’t exist it seemed.
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Suzanne struck up a conversation with the old man running it. She mentioned we were on our way to Pigtail Bridge.
He has never heard of it, but on knowing we were from England, he eagerly informed us he had been to Ireland.
Toilet emergency taken care of, it was off to Custer State Park, in particular Wildlife Loop Road, via Pigtail Bridge.
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We had to pay $20 dollars to enter the park, and while this was debated, we decided it was worth it as we are likely to need it tomorrow too.
By now, it was close to 2 pm. We had been on the road for close to 7 hours, only now realising we hadn’t had lunch. We were reliably informed by the man that took our $20, that the Bison Centre would deal with that necessity.
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A small fridge brimming with about 5 different options of rolls or sandwiches. We bought 2, plus a drink and two chocolate bars, and we were $24 poorer.
While wandering around, I heard a Ranger pointing out a ‘Buffalo Jam’ on the other side of the valley. A Buffalo Jam is not really a traffic jam of Buffalo, but a normal traffic jam caused by people stopping to watch the Buffalo
Of course, we wanted to be part of that jam. After all, it is what we have flown thousands of miles, and driven hundreds of, to see.
We quite quickly jumped (or as much as a 51 year old hobbler could jump) into the car and headed off to see what we could see.
We arrived and became the latest car in the ‘Jam’, and got cameras out, set about filming and recording the best we could from our car.
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It turns out we arrived at just the right time. Shortly after pulling up, a group started wandering off. Then a few more followed, and before long the whole herd of what must have been several hundred Buffalo/Bison (apparently they are the same over here) were all heading in the same direction.
Looking out the rear of the car, we could see the back window getting filthy from the gravel road we are on.
Dark clouds were gathering in front, and to our left, and soon thunder and lightening could heard and seen.
Thanks to speed limits the drive to our Hotel, the Best Western Buffalo Ridge, took longer than we had liked, and we had to forego the last stop on our list, The Needles Eye Tunnel, hopefully seeing that tomorrow.
Check in was simple, and we decided to try out the Mount Rushmore Brewing Company for drinks and tea. I felt brave enough to take on the 10 minute walk, and while it was slow, we made it there.
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It was a rustic, wooden place, with baseball cap wearing locals sitting at the bar. Just out back was a decking area, with red triangular awnings provide summer shade.
Dinner and one drink and everyone was shattered so we walked (I hobbled) back to the hotel, excited with what tomorrow may bring.