The Little Transmission that Might Have...

So we hit our first snag in the trip last night. We were zooming along, ate dinner in Lovell Wyoming and headed out of town for what was going to be a 2 hour zip to the interstate and then 4 hours to Mt Rushmore. We get out of town and start driving. The signs start saying steep grade next 20 miles. About a mile into the steep grade we look up and start thinking the road can't possibly go up that mountain. We were looking at a 10,000 ft mountain and the road seemed to wind around and over the mountain.
We stopped and started thinking even if the van holds together to get up the mountain what about coming down the other side. After studying the map and the GPS we decided to turn around (which was terrifying for me on that narrow mountain road) and detour around the mountain. It seems like it's gonna add 120 miles or so to the trip to Rushmore but at least we have a chance of keeping the van's transmission in one piece. After we turned around we saw the signs that said it was an 8% grade and that was just at the bottom. I can't imagine what it was at the top.

So we stayed at a Days Inn last night. Now we're back on the road detouring south to Casper Wyoming. We're passing through Thermopolis Wyoming now. We're hoping to be at Rushmore by 4 or 5pm and then drive late tonight to make up some of the time we're losing by detouring. We'll probably sleep at a rest stop tonight to make up more time. Still looks like we'll be home Wednesday if we don't hit anymore Crazy mountain roads.

Oh yeah. You know what the old cowboys look like in the movies with the moustaches, big hats, checkered shirts and bandanans around their necks? They really do dress like that in Wyoming.