Day 15 ~ Speakeasy to Teepee

We had such a great stay in our speakeasy hotel!  What a treat!  Breakfast was provided and had mixed reviews from the family. 

I liked it... they had homemade banana bread, good yogurts, juices, fresh fruit, and coffee, but the fam didn't like the opened stale cereal or the cups of pre-packaged fruit.  We toured around the hotel and saw the downstairs "speakeasy" part of the hotel.  There was a staircase in the corner of the dining room that originally was covered in the secret days of prohibition. They had underground tunnels throughout the town to get to it, but they have since caved in.  Now they use the downstairs, and the upstairs seating, to serve a fancy dinner on the weekends.  Before we left for good, I walked around upstairs to see more of the rooms.  The owners leave the keys in the doors and the doors open when not rented out.  Each room had it's own theme and decor.  In the lobby where we had breakfast, they also had ice cream, so I finally got to have my cone with huckleberry ice cream.  It's a common berry here and it was delicious!

Before we came on our trip, we had talked about how cool it would be to find a bison hide as a take home item to remember our trip and use at home.  We had set aside some money and have been looking around for a good, reputable place to buy one.  This morning we searched more, made some calls, and found a place that seemed promising.   However, it was an hour out of our way, so we turned it into a fun "scenic route".

After eating our ice cream we were on our way south to Thermopolis.  It was about an hour down and back, but we found a special detour destination when we got there and most definitely worth the trip.  

Merlin's Hide Out was the neatest store we've been in out here.... they had everything you could think of:  full sized bison hides, cow hides, fake beards made from bison fur, pillows and other home furnishings, slippers and moccasins, horns from the animals, scraps of hides, and every type of leather wallet or purse you could want!  They get their materials from cows and bison that were grown for their meat.  We both had a hard time deciding which hide to get until we laid them on the floor for a better look.  Right away, we both focused on the same one and it is beautiful.  It was extremely thick and the coloring varies from light brown to almost black.  We had a bit of sticker shock, but on our trip we were graciously blessed with a gift specifically to purchase something for ourselves we wouldn't normally, so we were able to buy it and bring it home.  It worked out perfectly for our super fun night in another unique lodging!

Before we left town, we went to our very cool, random find... the hot springs!  It's the world's largest mineral hot springs.  Tiger had talked about wanting to go to one, and it just happened that one was here.  Hot Springs State Park has two large springs that feed into the Bighorn River, and they built pools using the water.  They have an indoor springs pool and an outdoor springs pool that are about 104 degrees... cooled down from the 130 degrees that comes out of the ground.  The driving path also goes through a bison pasture where herds of bison live.  We were hungry so we had a picnic first, then drove around to see the bison.  This herd was so close to the road and crossing all over in front of us; it was exciting!  The hot springs pools offered a free 20 minute soak, so we enjoyed them for a bit before going back north. Panda didn't want to soak, but the rest of us did... the pools were really hot and we could barely stay in for 20 minutes. 

More wildlife we saw today was turkeys, rams on the side of the road, and two moose!!!!!

Our drive back north was long and the scenery was repetitive, so us three riders took naps.  Wyoming is long!!!!  We finally made it to Custer, SD, to our next lodging location--Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort.  It's one of the nicest and cleanest campgrounds I've seen.   We stayed in the Hawk teepee!!!  It was the first time I'd ever slept in a teepee and I thought it would be a fun thing to try out.  One of my trip planning goals was to find unique stays as much as I could, with reasonable costs.  The teepee had a king sized bed, a full bed, and a trundle twin.  Our dinner was hotdogs on our propane stove, chips, and veges.  We also got a campfire going because you can't camp without a good fire and that smoke scent on your clothes!  It was nice to camp and not have to worry about a tent, beds, or linens!  Overall, though, I think my favorite place with character was the Historic Greybull Hotel, and my favorite overall with the location and the breakfast was the Three Bears in West Yellowstone.