Home again.... Mike and I returned from our official honeymoon last night. We headed out last Friday morning with an unknown destination. We literally flipped a coin to see which direction we would head - North. It was his idea to do it this way, stating it is representative of marriage... it's not about the ultimate destination, but in the road one travels. This is one of the things I love so much about him - his insightful, meaningful ideas. We kept flipping until we got a general direction. We were drawn northwest. I will attempt to provide a quick summary below, as I have a lot to do today, including re-doing an assignment from last week that I completely fucked up somehow. It was a missed diagnosis, I was way off.... Oh well, I need these types of things to knock me on my feet once in awhile and keep me challenged. Anywho, the wonderful weekend more than made up for it....

Friday... Like I said, we headed north, breezing through small town after small town, happy to be free of any itinerary or schedule. For lunch we stopped and had hot beef sandwiches in a small town whose name I have already forgotten. Stepping into the little cafe, it seemed we had been sent back in time. The waitress bore the likeness of the 70's version of my very own mother. She had glasses, long stringy dark hair and a timeless outfit, worn only by the small-town. She seemed unhappy, the type of woman who goes home every night to an ungrateful husband and 4 screaming kids. After serving us, she sat at the counter-bar, and quietly ate a slice of pie, choosing not to take part in the animated conversation of the older waitress and patrons. Maybe she was interested more in the listing of local events being broadcast by the local radio station.

Our bellies full, we continued northwest, not stopping again until we reached Valentine, NE. I had never been there before and I'll admit I was expecting something a little more substantial. We parked on Main Street and stepped into a large western store, smelling of leather. We got at true taste of the people of this town, everyone seemed dressed very western in boots and hats, the women wearing those cowgirl jeans that have no pockets on the asses. Leaving town, we drove through a state park to get a view of the Niobrara. I must admit it was beautiful this time of year with the leaves changing. We were in awe that we were still in Nebraska.

We continued north towards Rapid City, SD. On our way, we drove through Pine Lake Indian Reservation and made a slight detour to drive through notorious Whiteclay, NE, a one-block town whose basic purpose is selling alcohol to the constant flow of Pine Lake residents who travel the 2-mile stretch for that sole purpose. My biggest memory is of a woman stumbling out of a bar and sitting down on the curb, obviously very drunk. She had an ironic little smile on her face and looked as if she did not even know who or where she was. All along the dirty little street, people were everywhere, leaning up against the buildings. It was a cultural experience and left us both feeling a bit sad. Obviously, there are many, many great and successful American Indians and, besides the invasion of the white people, they have such a beautiful culture and history. But we didn't see that along our route through Pine Ridge.

After another few hours, we reached Hot Springs, SD. It was getting dark so we decided to stay there for the night. After checking out the town, we decided upon Comfort Inn, where we were lucky enough to snatch up the Executive Suite, complete with a very nice hot tub and big screen TV. So after checking in we had a wonderful dinner at Red Rocks Cafe, a quaint little restaraunt. It reminded me of larger-scale Jack's Bistro (for all of you Three's Company fans). They even had a live guitarist. Oddly enough, the first song he sang was "Fields of Gold" by Sting. I always thought that would be a good wedding song.

Saturday... Off to Rapid City. On our way out of town, we took a detour through a state park whose name I also forgot. About a mile into it, we saw a lone buffalo grazing right along the highway. What a beautiful sight. I've seen them before in zoos and parks, but never out on the prairie, free as a bird. We later saw a very large herd of them and another lone one on our way out. We also noticed tons and tons of little hills out on the prairie, which were the homes of the Prairie Dogs we finally figured out. Cute little things, we stopped and fed them pistacios. After stopping again to pick up some neat rocks on the side of the road, we finally made it to Mt. Rushmore. I had never been there before and was amazed at the beautiful scenery as we drove up the mountain. It really was everything I expected and more. In fact, I was expecting a simple carved mountain and was unprepared for the beauty that surrounded it. We spent some time and bought some taffy in a nearby town, very touristy but nice little shops.

We then drove into Rapid City, bought some walking shoes and headed off toward Deadwood, taking a tour of Sturgis along the way. Deadwood was wonderful, with Germanfest going on. We gambled, ate brauts, and simply walked through the little town. I usually hate casinos, but the ones in Deadwood were great. They were small, the smoke was tolerable, and there were no tired-looking waitresses in short skirts, In fact, Mike's drink was brought to him by a middle-aged man wearing jeans.

It was about this time when we decided to begin heading south towards Colorado. As we drove away from Deadwood and entered Wyoming, I asked Mike if we should get some gas. He thought we could make it to the next town, looked on the map to be about 23 miles, so off we went. I'm not sure what happened to that town, but we literally drove about 100 miles seeing approximately 5 houses and 1 intersection. And it began to rain. I must say I was a bit nervous. Mike kept assuring me we'd make it to Lusk, and we did, but we rolled into town on fumes. If there was a worst part of this trip, that was it. First of all, I get a little uncomfortable being away from civilization for that long and second, the gas thing. So after we filled up the tank, I took the wheel for the first time. It started out ok, but I think my hormones got the best of me as it got windier and the traffic got worse. I became the irritated driver and snapped at Mike when he commented on it. A bit humorous looking back, but not at the time. We didn't speak much for about 30 miles, but all was well once we got to Wheatland, WY and talked it out. We checked into a Motel 6, which was the most basic hotel room I have ever stayed in, lacking even a box of Kleenex, but don't get me started on that. I slept horribly that night.

Sunday... I awoke bright and early to shave my legs in the tub. Then we stopped at a gas station to purchase more gas, coffee for Mike and Vanilla Espresso for me. I forget sometimes that Macy ultimately ingests what I do. She was a little hyped up on that espresso for awhile. It was a short drive to Estes Park from there. We were lucky enough to be a part of the Elk Festival they had going on. We listened to some Indian Stories and an Elk calling contest there, strolled through town, ate nachos at a restaraunt atop one of the buildings and eventually headed into the mountain. We were lucky enough to see many Elk, first a couple, later a group of about 12, and eventually a large group of 26 grazing on the mountainside. On our way out of the park, we stopped to look at about 3 of them grazing along the roadside. We looked up and on the side of the mountain, we could see many more coming down, including a big, gorgeous buck. The herd literally walked right around our car and ran off into the woods on the other side.

Another full day coming to a close, we headed east and stopped for the night in Greeley, CO. We checked into a Country Inn & Suites, again requested their hot tub room which we were given and headed across the street to dine at the Texas something-or-other. At this point I was beginning to feel like I was close to home. After another great meal, we spent another wonderful night in our suite.

Monday... Interstate 80 and home...