Genie and I left from our home in Albert Lea just before 9 a.m. on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 2023 headed for the Big Horn Mountains above Sheridan, Wyoming.
We traveled on I-90 to Sheridan, then Highway 14 to Arrowhead Lodge at the top of the mountain, a total of 815 miles.
The reason for leaving early Labor Day is no delays due to construction, plus Labor Day traffic doesn’t get heavy until later in the afternoon.
The first year of staying at Arrowhead Lodge was 1973. Thus, this is our 50th anniversary. We missed 2021 because of COVID and 2022 because of Genie’s right lung cancer surgery. Genie is now cancer free.
Our first main stop was Mitchell, South Dakota to look at the theme made from corn on the entire west and south side of the Corn Palace (outside).
The theme is “Circus” and almost completed using 2023 corn and corn stalks (the “Lion” and “Clown” were great!!)
We stopped at our favorite place for a late lunch – namely Dairy Queen (It was 105 degrees as we walked in.) of Mitchell.
Dairy Queen numbers each sales ticket. The customer gets part of the sales ticket and D.Q. delivers the food according to that number. Our number was 99 and next table was 66. If you look at 99 or 66 upside down, you will claim the wrong food order, which we did. Thus confusion in getting the right food to the right person. The grandmother found out I was a Minnesota Twins fan. She asked if I could get her a Twins cap. I said yes, so she wrote her address on the DQ ticket and gave it to me to mail her a Twins cap. I looked at the address later and discovered Grandma Donna Schroeder of Norfolk, Nebraska didn’t give her street or post office box. Net result: Grandma is still waiting for her Twins cap.
On to the Badlands of South Dakota with a detour off of I-90 to feed the prairie dogs in Prairie Dog Town. Back onto I-90.
We waved at the Brontosaurus as we pulled into Wall, South Dakota, better known as Wall Drug. We checked into the Super Eight Motel for the night. Khalema, a great from Jamaica, checked us in.
We ate the evening meal at Wall Drug, very good with shrimp and, of course, a free donut and 5¢ coffee for veterans.
We had prayed for rain at Central Freeborn Lutheran Church, rural Albert Lea the previous Sunday. It took two days to answer our prayer as it rained in Wall, South Dakota Tuesday night.
A very good breakfast at the Super Eight Motel Tuesday morning and then on our way to Our Mountain Destination via I-90 and then U.S. 14. We reach our destination about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, September 5th (Arrowhead Lodge 815 miles from Albert Lea). As we turn off Highway 14 into Arrowhead, a Bull and cow moose greet us.
We checked into the lodge, staying in the hotel for a week. After check-in we went for a drive seeing four bull moose, four cow moose, three sand hill cranes, about 45 mule deer, many bluebirds and other birds.
We have learned from previous years the first day in the mountains you just relax due to the fact that your body needs to adjust to the change in altitude as is it about 7,800 feet above sea level where we stay and about 2,200 more feet after to the very top of Highway 14. (If you don’t relax the first day, you can get quite nauseous and hurt all over with a headache.)
As we unpack the car and put our stuff into the motel, we are careful to look for personal items that might have popped open due to the altitude change coming up the mountain.
I found an Old Spice shaving lotion that let out a swish of air as I opened it. Genie found a bottle of mouthwash that leaked into a bag.
From the above I think you can understand why it is best just to relax the first day based on the change in your personal items, so we just relaxed.
See next week for the completion of our mountain trip.
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in New York. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.