Fourth of July 2013

Our day started at the Cheyenne Crossing restaurant for breakfast.  While we enjoyed sourdough pancakes, and gourmet oatmeal, the sky turned dark, and pea sized hail fell on the motorcycles, convertibles, and other vehicles in the parking lot. Our waitress was so excited for the moisture and the storm.  But Mom was excited when she realized the drawing on the back of the menu was done by her old high school art teacher!

On down Spearfish Canyon is the Latchstring Inn where we celebrated Mom & Dad's 50th anniversary a few years ago.  And up a ways from there is a waterfall Mom wanted to see again.  A road goes on past the falls, and I wondered why we couldn't go on.  Mom didn't recall ever going, but in my head, I heard my kids saying, "Here we go!"

Iron Creek Lake

12 miles further up the road was Iron Creek Lake.  It was beautiful, with lots of campers for the holiday weekend.

We thought we'd leave in the other direction instead of going back to the falls, thinking it would be closer on our way to Spearfish.  Our map was sketchy, and my cell phone was back at the cabin.  Our road turned out to be more of a rutted, muddy trail past some mining sites, and very remote national forest land.  When the road crossed a cattle guard and a sign said all ORVs must have valid Wyoming licenses, we really

Notice the pond crossing the trail on the right!

thought we were lost, and wished we were in at least an SUV instead of the old Lincoln Continental!  Dad said a lot of, "I don't like this."

About twenty miles, and three hours later, we finally found some decent roads and got to the highway west of Spearfish.  Later Google Maps confirmed that most of our trip had been through Wyoming!  What an adventure.  Mom is telling her friends, "It was really fun!" We were all ready for a break, and opted for early supper at Sanford's Grub & Pub in Spearfish.

Later, Mom watched the Capitol Fourth on PBS, but Dad wanted live fireworks, so he and I found a spot on the hill in town across from the "Open Cut" (large pit from the gold mine right beside downtown Lead)and enjoyed the ooohs and aaaahs with lots of other people.  We talked about memories of other Fourths.  Dad recalled a cold one in Oakland, California, when a family with 2 kids, shared their extra blankets with our family (3 kids at the time) and afterward these strangers came to our house for cocoa!