Devil's Tower and Sheridan

Imagine a whack-a-mole game that occupies 40 acres and you have a prairie dog colony. They are about the cutest little buggers in the world unless you happen to live or ranch in their vicinity, in which case you are rooting for the snakes. This guy resides at Devil's Tower National Monument, which we were able to enter without paying thanks to John's ten dollar, rest-of-his-life pass to all national parks and monuments. AARP must have lobbied hard for this perk - makes us feel guilty when we watch all the young families forking out big bucks to take the kiddies to see their priceless national heritage.

It is a beautiful place, and we enjoyed walking the 1.3 mile path around the tower. The great controversy swirling around the Tower is the conflict between Native Americans and rock climbers. Since Indians regard it as a profoundly sacred place, hot-shot white climbers clambering up its side are regarded with about the same enthusiasm the Pope would dosplay if the Vatican were used for paint-ball practice. Trying to find a compromise, the park service has

established a "voluntary moratorium" on climbing during the month of June, a particularly sacred time for Native Americans (we saw many prayer cloths around the base of the tower). This prompted a lawsuit from the "nobody can tell me what to do or when to do it!" contingent, a lawsuit which went nowhere since they were not being prevented from climbing. We suspect that the vast majority of people in the climbing community respect the moratorium, but there were two parties climbing today. Which leads to this picture - the tower seen through a recently-placed sculpture by a Japanese artist which represents the first puff of smoke from a peace-pipe. It is near the campground and picnic area where we had lunch.

We then headed for Sheridan, a city we picked for location rather than any inherent

charms. It was beautiful watching the snow-capped Bighorn Mountains rising ahead of us; we will cross them tomorrow. This is classic cowboy country, and the dining options were quite slim;we opted for Mexican. Some well-heeled tourists must find their way here, because the surprisingly healthy downtown has a fair number of upscales shops, as well as a classic old Penny's department store. After relative opulent digs the last two nights, we are going retro tonight at a well-aged Rodeway motel. One corner of our bed is held up with a Gideon Bible, which must be a metaphor for something.

Tomorrow we leave for Cody, where we will spend two nights with friends Randy and Bev Leisey - we have to track her down at a pow-wow when we arrive. We may not be able to post for a few days because spending time with friends is a higher priority than writing a blog.