Rockies and Great Plains roadtrip, 2015 part 4: Yellowstone to Deadwood

TUESDAY JULY 28, 2015

TL;DR - Drive out of Yellowstone into Wyoming and Montana, drive across Montana to the North Dakota border and then cut south as soon as I can into South Dakota, detour a bit to see Devil's Tower in Wyoming, then stop for the night in Deadwood, SD.

Theme songs:

• "Life Is a Highway" (Tom Cochrane) for my drive
• "Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

Weather: sunny leaving Yellowstone, windy and high of 75 in Billings, low of 52 in Deadwood

Rockies and Great Plains roadtrip, 2015 part 3: Yellowstone (day 2)

Monday, July 27, 2015

TL;DR version: Second of two days at Yellowstone National Park, taking a morning photography tour and a wildlife excursion in the afternoon.

Today's theme songs:

• "Photograph" (Ringo Starr) for the photo safari
• "Wild Mountain Honey" (Steve Miller Band) for the evening trip

Weather report: 30-60% chance of storms, high 61, low 30 (brrrr!)

Rockies and Great Plains roadtrip, 2015 part 2: Yellowstone (day 1)

Sunday July 26, 2015

TL;DR version: First of two days at Yellowstone National Park, taking the "Yellowstone in a Day" guided tour.

Today's theme songs:

• "Yogi Bear Show theme song" 
• "Faithfully" (Journey) for Old Faithful

Weather report: Sunday in Yellowstone: sunny, high 70, low 36

Rockies and Great Plains roadtrip, 2015 part 1: Salt Lake City to Yellowstone

Saturday, July 25, 2015.

TL;DR version: fly into Salt Lake City, rent a car, quick tour of the LDS Temple, drive north into Idaho, detour to see Craters of the Moon, drive up to West Yellowstone for the night.

Today's theme songs:

• "Rocky Mountain Way" (Joe Walsh)
• "Your Own Private Idaho" (B-52's)

Weather report: sunny in Salt Lake City for my plane to land, sunny for the drive, low of 36 in Yellowstone.

Rockies and Great Plains road trip, 2015 (intro)

Back in 2011, I was going to be laid off in mid-year and so I put together a cross-country road trip that would hit 10 of the 11 states that I still had not visited (Alaska was not feasible on this trip). My final plan was that I was going to drive over 4300 miles from Houston to Salt Lake City, UT (new state #1), and then hit in order Idaho (#2), Oregon (#3), Montana (#4), Wyoming (#5), North Dakota (#6), South Dakota (#7), Minnesota (#8), Iowa (#9), and Nebraska (#10) before driving south back to Houston. That would have taken me over 4300 miles and at least a good 3 weeks of leisurely driving and stopping wherever I wanted to (but no deadlines).

Las Vegas, 1993 (part 2: nighttime)

Part 2 of my January 1993 trip to Vegas, my first. I was there over Super Bowl weekend. Part 1 shows my ride up the Strip to downtown and back, during the daytime; this is the nighttime stuff. I arrived the day after the Dunes casino closed, spent one night at the new Excalibur, then spent one day driving out to the Grand Canyon (seeing the Hoover Dam and getting in after sunset) and one day at the Canyon itself, leaving after dark for the drive back to Vegas where I checked in to the Lady Luck downtown (part of a package) on Friday night for 3 nights. I had all day Saturday and most of Sunday to spend, then watched the Super Bowl in a giant event room at the Sahara, flying home on Monday.

Unfortunately the video isn't that great, this is an 8mm video tape converted to VHS converted to digital. I did some screen captures of the video, and below you can see them matched up with what it looks like in 2018 through the magic of Google Maps.

Las Vegas, 1993 (part 1: daytime)

In late 1992, I booked a trip to Las Vegas for the upcoming 1993 Super Bowl weekend because I had a free ticket on Continental that I had to use by the end of February, and I had never been to Vegas before. I had my travel agent book me a package deal for flight and hotel, and that's how I ended up at the Lady Luck downtown that weekend. I had borrowed a friend's VCR camera and filmed a ride up the Las Vegas Strip into downtown, then recently transferred it to digital (though unfortunately still at bad VHS quality). I did some screen captures of the video, and below you can see them matched up with what it looks like in 2018 through the magic of Google Maps.