Day 22: Resupplying, the Fire Restaurant, and Wind

Today, we left for Yellowstone. We got packed up reasonably early, but our extended shopping trip led to a late start driving.

Lucas’s shoes could barely grip the mudstone at Badlands. Only someone with his fierce determination and unending commitment to doing every single thing his brother can do could have made it up those loose dirt slopes in his well-worn shoes. Our first mission was to find Lucey a pair of shoes with grippy soles for hiking at Yellowstone. After some back and forth negotiations between Lucas and myself, we settled on a pair of Jurassic Park sneakers that lit up and a pair of Nikes that has a decent tread.

I love most campground cooking fare. Burgers and brats. Sausages. Eggs and bacon for breakfast and salami for lunch. After three weeks of camping breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, even I am ready for a break. The shopping plaza with the shoe store had a Japanese steakhouse. I didn’t really want to blow an hour for lunch, but they love love love “the fire restaurant” so I decided it was time for treat. We had a good time at lunch and Lucas finally ate most of a meal he ordered. Will had a California Roll, Lucas’s salad and soup, a large order or rice, and an order of scallops.

After lunch, we resupplied the RV with junk food, a few dinner items, fruits and veggies, and more laundry detergent (even I am amazed at how dirty they get when camping) kat Target. We are ready for Yellowstone and Jenny to arrive.

The drive across Wyoming was wild. After a couple cross-country trips over the last few years (including one in a 20 foot UHaul with a trailer) I consider myself pretty well-versed in the strong winds of the plains and high plains of the upper Midwest and West. I never experienced anything like the winds we experienced today. The only way I can describe them is to say it was like driving a 24-foot toaster oven through a hurricane. We blew through a half tank of gas ($60) traveling 120 miles.

I booked a KOA campground in Sheridan, WY, which is about 20 miles from the Montana border. We didn’t pull into the campground until seven. We parked and immediately headed for the pool. The boys played in the pool for a bit without me while I talked to my mom. After I got off the phone, Will asked me to take a video of his first attempt at “walking on water.” It does appear to the “chosen one” Neither does Lucas.