Day 8 - Get a bit of the Geek on......

So today we spent a good deal of it traveling, we only made three stops today...we had a leisurely beginning...choosing to hang out at the hotel until almost checkout time...

The first stop we made was at Belle Fourche, SD....Belle Fourche is the geographical center of the nation.  It used to be in Kansas, but when Alaska and Hawaii were added, the center moved west.....

Look, Ma!  I'm at the center of the nation! (Technically, it's actually outside of town in a field)



They also had the reconstructed house of the first white settler to the town..it was very small!  There were 13 people living there once!

Then we hit the road again!   And our next stop had massive amounts of biting flys...we don't have biting flys like that in CT!!!!




 
It was in Vore, Wyoming...Between 10,000 and 20,000 buffalo were stampeded into this pit by various tribes over many centuries...The guides said they have identified 22 distinctive hunts....unfortunately there was a flash flood two weeks ago and some of it was still covered...but it was still VERY COOL!!!

By the time we walked down to the bottom of the pit, to the dig in the building, my knees were killing me!


Down the road several miles...(well down the road, around many corners, and back up a mountain) was the place I was heading......and I literally gasped when I first saw it...and said outloud, "There it is!"  My nephew didn't get it, but he has never seen the movie....

We didn't actually go to the park, as there really isn't much to do, unless you are hiking or rock climbing....


Did you know that it was our First National Monument??? I didn't...President Theodore Roosevelt, established it in 1906.

We got pretty close.....Devil's Tower in Wyoming....


Tonight we are in Gillette, WY....tomorrow we head to Fort Laramie and we'll also go to Guernsey to see some wagon ruts and Register Cliff.....can't wait!!!!