Best Western The Inn At Lander

So here we are, we just started our climbing oddessy, although there has been no climbing yet.... We arrive here at Lander, wy late last night and woke up to a very cold and rainny day, the idea is to run some erands today and hit the climbing gym here in town. Tommorrow we shall see how the weather is and amaybe hit the real rock!!<br>ta-ta....

After driving through a dust bowl of an area and not knowing exactly where we were going we stumbled across one of Wyoming's heritage sites, South Pass Gold Mine and it was worth the arguing, time consuming effort of getting there.  A narrow street of houses, inns, post office and hotels beautifully restored but all as they were when it was gold rush time.  An informative museum of gold mining but the best for us all was the hotel, which was virtually spooky in that it ...

... and drove there around 8:30pm. We talked with a guy, Tim, from Texas who camped at the site for several nights. Susan asked him about bears in the area. Tim said a bear rubbed against his tent the night before. We left the parking lot without looking back and searched for a motel room.<br><br>Fortunately, the Downtown Motel had rooms available. The decor was early tag sale from the 50's and 60's.<br><br>Still, it was better to sleep in a bed without the bears.<br>

... back,) and back into Idaho.  Down into the North and East Forks of the Salmon River Valley.  Again, rushing rivers (lots of rain recently), people setting out for rafting trips all along, and after a bit arrived at my cousin Molly's and her husband Gerry's in Carmen, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and green fields.  Their spacious vertical-log house, terrier Callie, cockatiel B.B., Gerry's coffee bean roasting ...

We saw sign, near dark for Sacajawea Grave site, went looking but couldn't find it.<br><br style="font-family: yui-tmp;">LINK<br><br>Another Link<br>

We set the alarm for 0530 but, as usually, the body alarm went off at 0515. We finally got away by 0630 and chugged down the back roads heading for the interstate on ramp. Then a little further on we got to the Jerome, ID exit and it said there was a McD's there so we pulled off and stopped. Got the McEgg sandwich and coffee but the coffee was not so good. I think they put way too many grounds in the pot or else they are not getting McD's gourmet coffee yet. At ...

... headed a little further down the road to River-ton Wyoming and are staying at the Days Inn. The prices are about double are more here for this type of motel. It is a nice enough place but I guess I have to get use to the fact the further west we go the higher the prices. I spent two hours trying to find us a place for tomorrow nothing ...

We drove from Lander to Casper and spent the night at the Ramada Inn. It is the old Holiday Inn on the River under a new name. They were very hospitable and allowed us to store out car in their parking lot for free for 4 weeks and only charge a very reasonable rate for lodging. Plus, they provided free shuttle to the airport.

... between the Shell station and a local restaurant, lent a tarp by the gas station dude and comped a meal by the guy running the restaurant and bar solo for helping reset tables to accomodate a band. Pretty good scene, but feels like a weird movie.