Almost home?

Before we left Cody, Dave wanted to have a moment with the Duke.
Instead of Where's Waldo, where's the road! These are the mountains and roads we drove on in the dark and in the rain on our way in to Cody last week!
LOOK!! See the bus up on the mountain? That is the road, look at all the switch backs!
Very narrow and curvy!
It was beautiful, but not so much in the night!
The colors were so brilliant in some of the landscape!

This was the unexpected stop that had the amazing falls! Wildlife even a Big Horn sheep.
We decided that Ross would be out on this climbing it and Philip would be near by waiting to put them back together! 120 feet down!
Top of Shell Falls in long exposure.
The Full view of Shell Falls.
This was just pretty! Looks like fall!

A bit out of order, but this is on the other side of the mountain nearing Rapid City. It was stormy but beautiful.
Dave looking out from near the top of the mountain. We had to stop and let our brakes cool down. Super gusty wind.
Look closely, see that squiggly line to the left of the tree? That is the road we had yet to travel!
Yikes! Look at the road! It is a miracle we didn't slide off when we were driving in the rain!!



Today was spectacular, again. We drove back over the Big Horn Mountains. These were the ones we drove in the rain at night and met the pink-eyed albino ghost bull on our way to Cody. Oh, my heavens, we couldn't believe what we were driving through once we saw it all in the daylight! Gracious! It is simply a miracle that we didn't fall right off the mountains edge. Kudos to Dave for his driving, double Kudos after seeing the road!! We stopped at a random site called Shell Falls, they were beautiful!!! Tonight we are in Rapid City. We didn't make it to see Mt. Rushmore yet because it was raining AND lightening. So we ate at an IHop and are going to crash early. Stuffed French Toast is decadent! YUUMMMMM! In the morning we are going to look at our brakes. . . they are not happy after crossing the mountains. Kind of a nasty scratchy metalic eeeewwww sound growls from them when we stop. Dave said something about the pads getting glazed from the intense heat from driving hairpin turns with steep grades! There is a brake place across the street (isn't that amazing! God is being so good to us!) since Dave brought limited tools we may have to pause the trip for a minor repair. Then if it is not raining we will visit Mt. Rushmore, if it is, we may zip back through the Badlands on our way to Des Moines! Love you and we will be home Tuesday!

A quick update, this morning (Monday) Dave took the van over to the brake place (Tires Plus just to give them a plug!) and they worked him right in. The rotors and pads were completely worn down, metal to metal, OUCH! It was a miracle that the place could work him in and get things fixed. Its 8:00 and we are getting ready to head out to Mt. Rushmore on a bright sunny day with brakes that work! The Lord is certainly watching over us!!!