Traveling Rhinovirus

Picture 1: Zach in front of Mt. Rushmore

Picture 2: A South Dakota stop sign

----------------------------------

We all have colds. I guess that’s to be expected when five people share 50 cubic yards of breathing room for two weeks. It’s like the Hanoi Hilton, but with climate control and never-ending string cheese (which definitely makes it tolerable). Zachary was the original viral vector. He quickly infected the rest of us. Hopefully, it’s not swine flu, or we will be RV Zero in next fall’s flu epidemic. Maybe it’s some bison mutation we picked up in South Dakota and Wyoming. Stay tuned!

The last post was from Custer, South Dakota in the Black Hills which we visited after the Badlands. After the Black Hills, we drove through the Not-So-Good lands in Eastern Wyoming. We stopped for two nights in the Big Horn National Forest, and then drove through the Could-Be-Better lands before Yellowstone. Tonight, we sleep in the bustling metropolis of Yellowstone in August.

Apart from Devil’s Tower, noted in guide books as the most prominent site in Eastern Wyoming (the only site in Eastern Wyoming), the area between the Badlands and Big Horn National Forest is the most desolate and expansive that I have ever seen. Despite being barren and interminable, it was actually quite inspiring. There was nothing as far as the eye could see except hills and fields. If we had a thunderstorm behind us, it would have felt like the end of Terminator I.

Big Horn National Forest was gorgeous. It’s a little off of the beaten path, so we camped in a more primitive (ie. no electricity) camp site nestled in a mountain meadow and surrounded by 10,000 foot peaks. We just chilled out for the day and let the kids run around the campsite and the meadow. We hoped to stay up and watch shooting stars, but the clouds didn’t cooperate.

Tonight, we have squished into Yellowstone. Before finding our campsite, we “dumped” – RV lingo for evacuating the waste – and refilled with water. We’ve gotten to be pretty good at this. Since our first dumping disaster, we have gone un-besmirched for two consecutive dumps (would that be “smirched?”)We plan to do some fishing and visit some geysers tomorrow, though the high is supposed to be 50 degrees. If it doesn’t warm up, it could be board games in the RV.

Here are some kid stories from the road.

Lest anyone doubt that our society (and the Smith family as well) over-indulges kids with toys and stimuli – mostly made in China, the games and toys that the kids invent when they have no other options is a testament to kids’ creativity. In the Big Horn, first Zach and then the others took large pieces of aluminum foil and fashioned them into clubs that looked about like chicken drumsticks. They amused themselves for hours bopping grasshoppers on the head in the meadow. After laying into a grasshopper, they would quickly rush it over to the tupperware holding container where it awaited its fate – ostensibly to be bait for river fish.

At Custer State Park, Zach made friends with a tomboyish girl named Sky. They bonded while comparing mountain bikes. Zach first reported his friendship by telling us that he made a friend whose name was Sky, but he wasn’t sure whether Sky was a girl or a boy. This was understandable as Sky was a stronger mountain biker than Zachary and had a short Kate Gosselin hair-do underneath a concealing bike helmet. We quickly figured out that she was a girl.

A little later, Sawyer told us that he had made a friend, and he wasn’t sure whether his friend was a boy or a girl. However, his androgynous friend had a pink My Little Pony bike with long, white tassels coming from the handlebars, a white basket, and the rider had long flowing curls, and was wearing a dress.

Here’s another – Today (new day) we visited Old Faithful Geyser Basin at Yellowstone. To make sure that visitors don’t walk around the geysers break through the thin crust and boil themselves, the park service erected a 3 mile walkway made with wooden planks six inches across. Three miles equals 15,840 feet. That equals 2,640 planks. Since we went up and back, that would mean that we travelled across 5,280 boards. Sawyer wouldn’t walk on the cracks.

Lastly, it’s time to obsess a little over my newfound facial hair. First, I shaved a little on the cheekbone to create the “jawline” beard look. Having taken a razor to it for the first time, I now have a jones for cutting. Perhaps after Yellowstone I’ll go with the the Lamb Chops with the Fu Manchu kicker! Second, a cold and a mustache do not go together. I never thought about it until it became painfully and messily apparent. Third, I’ve noticed that the left point on my mildly cleft chin has significantly greater beard growth than my right point. Should I be worried? Is this a right brain/left brain thing? Maybe it’s beard cancer. I couldn’t find anything on the Internet about disproportionate facial hair growth except some ramblings by a nut job who interspersed his ruminations on facial hair with a documentary on his family vacation. What a loon!