just in time for the unexpected

It was bound to happen. I'm not sure if I'm actually sick or if it's my allergies. I know the constant climate change isn't helping. We went from sleeping in 90 degree heat one night to sleeping in 40 degree cold the next. We've been on the road a lot this last week, we're not looking the healthiest. Due to my sneezing, coughing, itchy eyes, and misery we cancelled a four hour cave expedition a Wind Cave National Park today. I'm pretty bummed but at the same time I know that Andrew's just looking out for me. Yesterday, I realized that we have not been without one another for almost a month now. I was trying to imagine if it was going to be weird the first time we're apart after this. It'll be much welcomed to spend some time doing some girly things. It's little awkward tweezing my eyebrows in front of Andrew. Though I will say we are strangely comfortable around each other and separately we are both hygienically unique people.

Andrew's beard is really growing out. I had to trim the hairs that hung over his lip. I was getting a scratched up when he kissed me and my skin's already pretty dry from all of the climate change.
So, here we are back in the North and actually not far from where we started. I can't but have this feeling that we could head West and stop by home for  day or two. South Dakota isn't that far from Seattle unless you've just driven over 3500 miles to get here. Speaking of home... I've really started to feel unsure about where to say that I'm from. It's a bit worrisome that I have no problem telling people where I'm going but when it comes to where my roots are I get all tongue twisted. "I'm from Seattle, well actually Tacoma, my parent's live south of there, but I'm kinda from Seattle, that's where I went to college, Tacoma is thirty-ish miles from there, I mean I'm a military brat, but I was born in Edmonds, that's near Seattle...blah, blah, blah" For Andrew it's easy, he's from Montana. Even though he's a military brat too, he's very sure that he belongs to Montana. I get jealous of that. People aways love people from Montana. When you say you're from Seattle people always say something about the rain, maybe Starbucks, and usually "Sleepless in Seattle" and it's never followed by "I here it's really nice there."  I usually just let Andrew answer and ride that train until I can't.
Let me tell you, time doesn't really run the same out on the road. First off, we cross through time zones pretty often, so I don't really know if we're an hour ahead or behind. Second, there's nothing to really make you think about time. It's kind of nice I guess. Grand Canyon was the last place, we really had a time and place destination. We have a few stops that were planned ahead, but very loosly and they are pretty far apart. So, we've really just been filling in the gaps on the fly and trying to make good distance while having time to experience things. I take a lot of pictures from the passenger seat window. There are things I wish we could have stopped the car for, but sometimes you gotta make that mile mark.

Some treasures though, you thankfully stumble across at the right place at the right time. I was so ready to be out of Colorado. I enjoyed Mesa Verde and also really was interested in some "street art" we saw on the drive through Tuba City and the rest of the Navajo reservation.

By the way excellent radio stations out there: Tuba City radio 91.3fm and 104.5fm through Marcos Valley. I don't know why, but it felt like Colorado was never going to end. It's also where I started feeling sick. Our last night in Colorado was spent shivering in a middle of nowhere state park campground that we didn't find until 10pm. I don't do well in situations like that. After Andrew had to zip me up in my sleeping bag, I spent the whole night with our hunting knife close at hand and pinned up against Andrew who was pinned up against the side of the tent. I was scared. I was very excited once we got out of Colorado. Denver was pretty much a blur. We stopped in Fort Collins which screamed Bellingham so we were excited to get our hands on some Kombucha at the co-op there. We drove 20 miles out of our way to find out that Kombucha has been taken off of the market for a while. Something about a higher alcohol content than expected. That explains a lot.

We chose to drive through Eastern Nebraska rather than Western Wyoming even though it was a bit further. We cut through Cheyenne on our way over. As a reward to ourselves after the long night we decided to treat ourselves to a thrift shop and lunch. I suggest both. Havens Treasure Flea Market at 312 W. 17th ST, is full of great finds much that might be found at an interstate gas station but also a lot of cowboy themed vintage stuff. For the most part it's all really reasonably priced. Just down the street is "Pizzaria Venti" at 112 E. 17th Street. "America's only authentic sliceria" totally hit the spot.
We were welcomed by presumably the restaurant's matriarch. She knew that we had never been in so gave us the whole spiel. "Look at the board, choose some things from the case, order, get you drink and silverware and we take care of you. You can sit anywhere you'd like." We watched the staff bumble about the floor, everyone friendly. I told Andrew that I thought it must be a new restaurant, because it seemed to be running so efficiently with such a large staff. We later found out they've been there for six years! We found out why too. The pizza is so good. I love a crust where you can taste the cornmeal. The "Grande Max" was a rectangular slice with green peppers, onion, pepperoni, and homemade meatballs. "Mama" informed us that everything is homemade, from scratch. A meal like this, a la fresh ingredients is well needed for the weary traveler and we were very excited to have found it.
As we left Cheyenne, all evidence of the Rockies began to fade and we headed across the plains to Alliance, Nebraska. Alliance is the home of the infamous "Carhenge."

That's right! It's a nearly perfect replica of Stonehenge created from old cars.I got abut 398924347 bug bites walking around the grounds but it was well worth it.

We had found a semi-large town near the South Dakota boarder called Chadron where we figured we'd find a cheap motel. I asked the Carhenge lady if she knew anywhere to stay there. She said she'd stayed there once but with the festivities didn't know how affordable it would be. Festivities!?

That's right not only was it Chadron's very popular annual coming of Fur Trader Days but also the towns quasquicentennial! That's it's 125th anniversary.

We were lucky enough to get a room at the Grand Westerner Motel and spent some time with the locals that night. There was even a carnival in town. The next day we headed to Fort Bordeaux which is now the site of the Fur trapper Museum. Andrew inherited from his father a love of all thing fur trapping. We spent a good amount of time looking at old trading artifacts. We saw everything from old Green River knives to small beaded pouches used to store umbilical chords. We would have liked to stay another night but couldn't find a room. We made a reservation for the wind cave tour instead.