Devil's Tower and Dr. Doctor
Judy was our fuel guru. Because of the high prices at Hot Springs, she decided we should fly to Belle Fourche (local proununciation "bell foosh") for reasonable fuel. At Belle Fourche, South Dakota, as at everywhere we went, the arrival of four RV's was an event. Pictures for the record, signatures and history were required pretty much everywhere.
Departing Downwind at Hot Springs
The proprieter at Belle Fourche gave us advice for the next leg, where we planned to fly around Devils Tower (from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"). He said the tower is much smaller on top than it seems in the movie, about 1 1/2 acres, but that an airplane had landed up there. The area is small, but even more impressive, after we saw it, is that an airplane landed on such a small domed area. This tower is an igneous intrusion that never reached the surface. Now the land around it has eroded away to reveal the columnar basalt.
After Devil's Tower, we flew over quite a lot of desolute terrain, then started hitting a couple of rivers. Sue and Becky were the designated interpreters, and they let us know that we were hittting the Little Big Horn River, just above where Custer and his troups had a very bad day, then the Big Horn rivers. After hitting the Big Horn there was a very unexpected and beautiful canyon that we followed down to Upper Big Horn (Cowley, WY) Airport.
Big Horn Reservoir
At Cowley we were greeted by a very jovial gentleman and airport bum, who turned out to be one of the hits of the trip. Cowley is a really little town and it seems like half the professional positions were held by this man who we dubbed Dr. Doctor, because he has two doctorates. He had recently retired from a position as superintendent of schools, and his business card showed everything from aerial photography and charter work to counseling and family therapy (he is also a homebuilder); a real renaissance man.
As the four of us lined up for fuel at Cowley, not a busy airport, yet another RV landed for fuel, on a trip from Wisconsin to California. One of us was momentarily confused when she looked up and saw FIVE RV's waiting for fuel. "Weren't there only four of us?"
After borrowing the courtesy car for lunch, at which the local "Buffalo Chips" were the big hit, we consulted with Dr. Doctor as to where we should fly next. He was so even handed, and so informative we were more confused than ever. Every place we mentioned, he had a list of positives and negatives for that place, and he knew what he was talking about. Dr. Doctor knew the topography and the history of everything for a wide radius around where we were. We finally decided to go to Cody, Wyoming for the night.
Cody (near Yellowstone National Park) has runway and taxiway renovations going on, but in all other respects proved to be an excellent choice. It is big enough to have easy car rental and lots of restaurants without being big enough to have lots of hassles.
At Cody we started shopping around for a motel, and found the prices high for our modest tastes. Finally, Rick came up with the Western 6 Gun Motel, that had "The Lodge" available at a rate in our price range. "The Lodge" turned out to be quite a kick; sort of a combination of college dorm room and summer camp. This is a rustic wood building with one large room, including refrigerator and sink, and one bathroom with two toilets, two showers, and two sinks. The remarkable thing is that it worked. We ended up spending two nights in "The Lodge" and we had a nice time. Believe it or not, with three women and three men, we got up each morning at 5 AM and were ready to step out the door at 6 AM. Partly, this is a commentary on the quality of people on this trip, and partly it is a tribute to building design.
Engineer Rick contended the designer of "The Lodge" was a genius. You see the bathroom had nothing but very dim lights and the kitchen section actually had "makeup" lights around the kitchen sink. There were also bright lights near another mirror in the main room. This had the effect of making the bathroom absolutely useless for those that wished to apply makeup and such, freeing it up for showers and shaving. There would be one woman applying makeup over the kitchen sink, while another was blow drying in the main part of the room and others were shaving and such in the bathroom. Incredibly efficient!