Mystery Road Trip, Day 4

Today we drove 434 miles: from Denver, CO to Dubois, WY with stops along the way in Laramie, Rawlins, and Fort Washakie, WY. We ate supper at the Nostalgia Bistro in Dubois and had some tasty items there.

We tried to start our day with a tour of the United States Mint location in Denver. Unfortunately, even arriving there before the tour ticket office opened wasn't early enough: all available tour tickets were already gone for the entire day by the time we arrived.

Beautiful scenery in this state--especially along the route that we took today.

In Laramie, we explored the campus of the University of Wyoming. The grounds are inviting, and the buildings are beautiful. We saw a memorial to Matthew Shepard and posed for photos by a huge copper statue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

One of the roadside attractions in Rawlins is a 1955 Cadillac with two front ends!

Mountains, plains, big blue sky . . . it was a beautiful drive.

Outside of Fort Washakie is the "Sacajawea" Cemetery, which has a statue in memory of Sacagawea as well as a tombstone with her name (well, the "Sacajawea" spelling, at least) on it, flanked by headstones for Bazil ("son of Sacajawea") and Baptiste Charbonneau ("papoose of the Lewis and Clark expedition" and "son of Sacajawea").

But is this really where Sacagawea is buried? Read this!

Mystery Road Trip, Day 3

Today we drove 0 miles! All our frolicking was in Denver. We competed in a scavenger hunt from Urban Adventure Quest, which required us to explore points of interest in downtown Denver from the CO state capitol to the Brown Palace Hotel and numerous spots in between; to answer questions about those locales and their historic significance; and to do so faster than other teams who have done the same scavenger hunt.

We did some shopping up and down the 16th Street Mall, rested in the cool of our hotel room during the hottest part of the afternoon, had a great Italian supper at Maggiano's Little Italy, and then attended a performance of The Book of Mormon in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Two views of the capitol.

The Yearling, a work of public art that sits on the grounds of the Denver Public Library.

Big Sweep, a sculpture just outside the entrance to the Denver Art Museum. There's Hillary to give some perspective as to the size of the sculpted broom and dust pan!

In Civic Center Park, there is a public art exhibit called Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: bronze sculptures of the heads of the animals that make up the Chinese zodiac signs. Suzanna was born in the year of the ox.

Abigail was born in the year of the rabbit.

Hillary was born in the year of the snake.

Susan was born in the year of the rooster.

I was born in the year of the dog.

Although we didn't tell the girls that we'd be seeing The Book of Mormon tonight (because: mystery road trip!), we did pass through the Denver Performing Arts Complex during our scavenger hunt, and the banners for the musical caught the girls' eyes. Therefore, they were not too surprised when this is where we ended up this evening . . . but they were delighted nevertheless. It was a great production. 

Had to take a selfie in the lobby of our hotel at the end of the night.

Mystery Road Trip, Day 2

Today we drove 475 miles: from Spearfish, SD to Devils Tower National Monument (southwest of Hulett, WY) for some hiking--and then on to Denver, CO, where we spent the night (with stops along the way in Wright and Cheyenne, WY).

A kind stranger snapped a family pic of us before we started our hike around the tower.

The tower is an impressive geologic structure that looks different from each direction and is surrounded on all sides by impressive views of its environs.

After exploring the area of downtown Denver near our hotel, we ended up at Little India for supper: papadam and dipping sauces to start followed by fish saag, chicken tikka masala, and shrimp korma with jasmine rice, raita, and naan.