Adventures in Roadtripping, Vol. 3 - Hanging Out

Day 3 was destined to be a catch-up day. The girls (Melissa, Carolyn and Marvell) had planned on making it a shopping and grooming day, hitting the local discount stores and getting their hair done.


Me - I slept in a bit, then got up and tried to work online. The connection at the hotel was sporadic. To top it off, I had Melissa's laptop and tried to access my work email and while I could read, I couldn't respond due to my work mailbox being full. This, of course, makes no real sense to me, as sending responses to emails are how I get emails out of my Inbox. I can only archive them from my workstation at work, so I can't do much to open up space.

Having failed at trying to work while on vacation, I turned back to my ailing computer. When last we checked in, it was dead. Kaput. Finito. Being stubborn as a mule, I decided that wouldn't be enough. I tried firing it up again, to no avail. Then an odd thought hit me. I plugged everything in as it was the last time it worked. When I pushed the power button, lo and behold, it sprang to life. I felt like Frankenstein rejoicing over his monster. I proceeded to wait until it had completely powered up, unplugged the devices I had just plugged in, and rebooted. It rebooted without a problem. Whooping ensued.

I spent the rest of the day catching up on email, fantasy hockey, blogs - the important stuff. Melissa came by and picked me up, and we headed over to her folks house for dinner. Marvell had put together a delicious dinner of liver and onions, something I never get enough of. I was starved, as I had tried the cafe at the hotel for lunch. It's never a good sign when the "fish" entree is fish sticks shaped like stars...and that's the good looking item.

Melissa decided to stay the night at her folks place, as she hadn't been feeling well and it would allow her to sleep in. A late wake-up for Carolyn is 7:30, so Melissa staying at her folks would afford her an extra hour or two. After dinner, I took Carolyn back to the hotel and got her into bed, and spent the next few hours online. I did some searching for geocaches in the area, and prepped the files I needed for some searching the next day.

If you're not familiar with geocaching, check out the site Geocaching.com. Basically, geocaching is like a high-tech treasure hunt, using a handheld GPS and information from the Internet. The "treasures" are boxes or canisters ranging from 35mm film canisters to old Army boxes. Inside you'll find, at a minimum, a paper log on which to record your find, and perhaps some little trinkets to trade for. It's a lot of fun, gets you out into the fresh air for some exercise, and takes you to some places you might not have otherwise visited.

I hit the sack for the night, ready for the next day.

When I awoke, I connected the GPS to the computer to download the files. No luck. I tried connecting the broadband modem, also with no luck. Apparently, whatever caused the computer to not fire up with them disconnected was now causing them not to be recognized. Realizing I had to get out of the hotel and over to Melissa's folks house, I emailed the files to Melissa's computer, hoping there might be a connection there somehow.

Sure enough, there was indeed a wireless connection, albeit weak. As a side note, for those of you with wireless access at home, be sure to set them up as secure connections. The only reason we were able to connect was because someone nearby had an unsecured connection. This could be used by someone with nefarious intentions to cause trouble, using their Internet connection to disguise their activity. In this case, it helped me get access to the file I sent to Melissa. Using her computer, I was able to connect the GPS and prepare for the trip to Devils Tower the next day.

We spent Day 4 running around Gillette, learning about the town, the neighborhood, and hitting more discount stores. It had been snowing steadily, but not terribly heavily, all night, and the roads were a bit mucky. We did hit one store, Robb's, which is basically a salvage store. From what I understand, they buy loads that have been damaged in transit, much of which is usually still good. I picked up some razors and 35mm film at a fraction of the usual price. We also hit Value Villa, another bastion of thriftiness in Gillette. Here, the main stock in trade is used clothes, some of which are in basically new condition. If you're looking for some clothes at a super bargain price, it's worth the trip.

We spent the afternoon teaching Carolyn how to play Husker Du, a memory game like concentration where the goal is to remember where different symbols are on the board and match them up with each other. After Carolyn played Marvell, it was my turn. At which point Melissa decided to beat up on me. They say the memory is the first to go. I can't remember what the second is.

Husker Du gave way to another perennial cutthroat favorite, Uno. This diabolical little card game requires the players to leave all semblance of civility behind and work at destroying the players next to them in pursuit of emptying their hands of colored cards. In other words, a family game.

Dinner was a delicious pot roast and as we ate the snow started to fall. We began wondering if the trip to Devils Tower was going to work at all. But we'd leave that for the next day. Melissa stayed the night again, and Carolyn and I headed back to the hotel for the night.