(no subject)

[jianantonic]

I'm on my own for the rest of my road trip.  The Montana tourism people scheduled a ton of stuff for me, with lots of time driving, too, which was fine because I was with Z and we had a nice time in the car together, and I used a lot of that time to look up random shit on Wikipedia, like the history of minor league baseball, and other really random shit.  My Wikipedia history is totally bonkers.  But I like learning unusual factoids about things no one else cares about.  No one else except for the person that wrote the Wikipedia article.  Anyway, the Wyoming itinerary is a lot different.  It's way less driving but way more activities.  And today I just didn't really feel like being that much of a tourist.  But I did decide it would be cool to see the Medicine Wheel, which was on the agenda today.  What I didn't realize was that my list of activities for today was in reverse geographical order.  So by the time I got close to the Medicine Wheel, I'd already passed all the other things on the agenda.  Whoops.

Z took the GPS to Canada, but I have my BlackBerry, so I figured I could use that for directions.  Turns out you need a cell signal for the GPS to work, and Wyoming isn't the best place to find cell service.  So I had to improvise.  I stopped in a town and asked at a gas station how to get to the Medicine Wheel, which according to my itinerary should've been in that very town.  Notsomuch.  They told me it was on top of a mountain, about 30 miles away, but it's easy to get there, no problem, they just opened the roads.  Uh, ok.  So I did my best to follow directions and signage, but there wasn't much to go by at all.  I drove for a long time without seeing anything, and just when I was starting to be convinced I was on the wrong road (even though I was on the only road), I finally saw a sign for the place I was going.  It was another 30 minutes before I saw another sign though, and when I finally got to the summit of the mountain, the attraction I had driven so far out of my way for was under five feet of snow.  Well, bugger.

 

I continued on to my hotel for the night, 30 miles away from the town I left this morning, but 3 hours of driving later.  It wasn't a bad drive -- really beautiful, actually -- just kind of frustrating to feel like I wasted so much of my day.  When I got to my hotel, the road was closed for some National Guard event, so I parked in an alleyway where I really hope is legal.  Then I came to check in, and I could not fucking find the front desk.  I was definitely in the right hotel, but all I could find were rooms.  No office.  No other people.  Wtf.  Also, by this point, I was really hungry and really really had to pee.  I circled the building and found no sign of a front desk, so I decided to walk around town and find lunch.  I poked my head in five or six restaurants, and NONE of them had a public restroom.  Do people not pee in Wyoming?  I'm so confused.  Finally, desperate, I walked into an ice cream shop next to my hotel and asked them if they knew where I needed to go to check in.  "Right here!"  Oh, well, obviously.  Why DIDN'T I think to go into the ice cream shop to get my hotel key?  Z thinks it's a great way to sell ice cream.  I think it's a shitty way to sell hotel rooms.

 

So it's been kind of a frustrating day.  But all that said, the people here are REALLY nice, my room is really comfy, and I have been relaxing for the past few hours, so I'm feeling good now.  I have a lot on the schedule for the next few days, then I fly home on Thursday afternoon from Cheyenne.  I'll be really glad to get home, but I'm also really enjoying this trip.  This is the first time I've ever really traveled solo.  It'll be an adventure.