Smoke, Devil, Drenched
So our big score of getting into a $249 a night hotel for nothing was a let down. Of course we requested a smoke free room as always. We got our smoke free room on the 4th floor. As we were entering our hallway we smelled the overpowering stench of a cigar. Ali called down to the front desk to let them know, assuming the entire floor was smoke free. WRONG. They split the floor into half smoking, half non-smoking. What a bunch of f’ing idiots.
As the night went on the smell got worse. The hallway smelled like I just stepped foot in a casino, it was that bad. Ali actually had to stuff a towel along the bottom of our door to keep the smoke smell out, it was ridiculous.
If I had actually laid out the $249 I would have raised holy hell. I mean WTF do they think, that smoke magically stops halfway down the hall? I was severely annoyed.
The continental breakfast the next morning was annoying as well. Since the hotel had an attached water park there were kids galore. It seemed all of the families descended upon the area at 7am when I was there. It was a freaking zoo. It was made worse by crazed hotel employees that insisted on cleaning the area every 15 seconds. Several times I had this old lady swooping in under my armpit to wipe up a spot of a milk or a spare Frosted Flake.
It was a real letdown. We both thought we really scored it big staying there for free. It’s amazing what a bit of smoke can do to change your impression of a place.
So our final destination today was Billings, Montana. On the way we stopped at Devils Tower. Never heard of it? Well I bet you have seen it if you are 40 years old or older. It’s the place that Close Encounters of the Third Kind ended up at.
It is an amazing natural structure that just doesn’t seem possible. To get to it we drove on mostly empty roads in mostly uninhabited areas. Because of this I was amazed to see a full parking lot when we pulled up.
Once again there were dog restrictions. I found a spot under some trees to park the van to make sure it stayed nice and cool. Ali and I then headed off for the hiking trail that circles the structure. It was impressive as hell as you looked up at the sheer vertical sides of the tower. I was also very surprised to read that climbers actually navigate to the top of it. It looks far too treacherous from a ground level vantage point.
Of course it didn’t take long until we found a good spot for an L sit picture. Hell, Ali actually suggested the spot. 🙂
It was great trail with awesome views everywhere you looked. One odd thing we noticed was for some reason they installed speed bumps in the trail. Yes, speed bumps in a walking trail.
You have to question the logic of installing bumps in a path where visitors spend most of their time looking up. Real genius at work there, let me tell you. I even tripped on one of them, look!
We didn’t spend a lot of time at the park since the girls were in the van. Ali and I both agreed it was worth the time it took to get there.
My fix of the electrical glitch that was killing the power locks was premature, it’s still f’d up. Once again the locks (and the power seat) were dead. I even disconnected a second power lock switch and still couldn’t get it working again. Since the seat couldn’t adjust that meant I was stuck driving all the way to Billings, yay.
The drive was very scenic but got pretty hairy towards the end. We hit some hellacious storms that included hail, driving rain and very strong crosswinds. I had my hands locked on the steering wheel to keep us on the road. Lightning was everywhere. The sky was extremely dark.
We managed to pull through it and arrive safely. Ali is down swimming in the nice pool they have here right now. Tomorrow it is on to Yellowstone where more cold temps await.
Oh yea, it’s 53 degrees here right now.
More pics are piling into my Picasaweb account.