Saturday, October 11, 2014
My little buddy Josh (and his litttle buddy Chubby) was the only one who actually wanted to walk up to and around the base of the Tower. So off we went. We had some fun climbing these rocks along the walk that circles the Tower.
Josh took one of me on the rocks too. See, I was there!
A nice stranger took this picture. He did not know that we were the ones who were going to set set off an obnoxious car alarm in thirty minutes. 
Josh's little animal Chubby (the buffalo) made the trip too. He's featured in many of these pictures.
The walk... very nice. Great views.
Devil's Tower: Alarm Bells
I enjoyed this place. I would go back again and this time hike all the way around the entire base. Perhaps request a permit to go higher...but you won't find me climbing all the way up this thing. Its BIG!! There was a group about 3/4 of the way up the tower climbing and all I could think was thank goodness none of my kids are interested in that. And now that I write this I should add, and hopefully they never will be. The Tower itself it very impressive, certainly worth the side trip.
This was the place where the alarm in my car started going off and we could not get it to stop. The story...about 2 months ago Jason moved my car out of the driveway so he could mow the lawn. The keys have not been seen since. The car is ten years old; the other key with the push button was lost long ago and never replaced. So, now we are down to the valet key. Which is fine, it opens the doors and fits in the ignition...its not TOO much of an inconvenience that I can't open the wayback with the key, nor that I can't just click a button to lock/unlock the car, nor that if I lose this key, we won't be able to drive the car...none of that is very important. What turned out to be important is that you can't turn off the alarm in the car with this key. Or any other way. BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP! Imagine yourself in the parking lot of a National Park (Monument? not sure which Devil's Tower is) surrounded by people who went way out of their way (seriously, there is NOTHING else near here. its quite a ways off the beaten path...I don't think you could just stumble on Devil's Tower, you'd have to be going there) to commune with nature and enjoy this national treasure...and your car alarm is going off repeatedly and unstoppably. No idea what set if off, and no idea how to turn it off. Panic. Seriously. Panic. I don't panic, I deal with stress all the time at work, deadlines, errors, pressure, being the VP of Tax at a public company these days is not a bed of roses...but I started sweating and felt like I was going to explode. Come to find out, there is a timer or something associated with the alarm and eventually (2 minutes maybe?) it shuts itself off. Longest two minutes of the trip. Until...well, the reasonable man might wonder what set off the alarm. So might I, especially after taking deep breathes when it stopped only to feel my blood boil when IT STARTED TO GO OFF AGAIN!!! Apparently whatever set if off the first time was still happening because it did it again. This time I just got out of the car, opened and closed all the doors (would that help? couldn't hurt), tucked the key in my pocket and not very patiently waited for the preset alarm time to expire...then I really, really wanted a drink. Instead, we packed up and hit the road, saying a silent "Sorry!" to all the people who's quiet, calm afternoon at Devil's Tower was interupted by our screeching alarm.
This was the place where the alarm in my car started going off and we could not get it to stop. The story...about 2 months ago Jason moved my car out of the driveway so he could mow the lawn. The keys have not been seen since. The car is ten years old; the other key with the push button was lost long ago and never replaced. So, now we are down to the valet key. Which is fine, it opens the doors and fits in the ignition...its not TOO much of an inconvenience that I can't open the wayback with the key, nor that I can't just click a button to lock/unlock the car, nor that if I lose this key, we won't be able to drive the car...none of that is very important. What turned out to be important is that you can't turn off the alarm in the car with this key. Or any other way. BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP! Imagine yourself in the parking lot of a National Park (Monument? not sure which Devil's Tower is) surrounded by people who went way out of their way (seriously, there is NOTHING else near here. its quite a ways off the beaten path...I don't think you could just stumble on Devil's Tower, you'd have to be going there) to commune with nature and enjoy this national treasure...and your car alarm is going off repeatedly and unstoppably. No idea what set if off, and no idea how to turn it off. Panic. Seriously. Panic. I don't panic, I deal with stress all the time at work, deadlines, errors, pressure, being the VP of Tax at a public company these days is not a bed of roses...but I started sweating and felt like I was going to explode. Come to find out, there is a timer or something associated with the alarm and eventually (2 minutes maybe?) it shuts itself off. Longest two minutes of the trip. Until...well, the reasonable man might wonder what set off the alarm. So might I, especially after taking deep breathes when it stopped only to feel my blood boil when IT STARTED TO GO OFF AGAIN!!! Apparently whatever set if off the first time was still happening because it did it again. This time I just got out of the car, opened and closed all the doors (would that help? couldn't hurt), tucked the key in my pocket and not very patiently waited for the preset alarm time to expire...then I really, really wanted a drink. Instead, we packed up and hit the road, saying a silent "Sorry!" to all the people who's quiet, calm afternoon at Devil's Tower was interupted by our screeching alarm.
There is a person dangling from a rope in this picture. Crazy people.
Miscellaeous Pit Stop
Pit stop...Daniel scared the heck out of Josh, then they posed for a picture. Nice.
Day 9: Cody to Devils Tower and on to Mitchell, SD for our last night away from home
There is this weird, free, airplane museum at a random reststop. We wandered through it and it was interesting
seeing all the planes. But honestly, it felt more like an airplane graveyard than anything else. My sense was that some airplane enthusiast (read: nut) had some land adjecent to the rest area and started dragging "dead" airplanes there and at some point thought "Huh, why don't I share this passion with the public?" and away they went. Not knocking it...its great to have a passion and more power to them for wanting to share, but it was certainly in the early stages of being ready for public viewing. In any case, we tooled around a bit, dodged a couple of bees, worried Mom and Daniel who thought we were just going to the bathroom when we disappeared for twenty minutes, took a few photos, and headed back to the car. It was a queer little side trip, but that's what roadtrips are all about.
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