Previously: Adventures Delayed (AKA Prologue to Wind River Adventure) and Fun Layers (AKA Wind River Adventure in Three Parts)

Fourteen days for our pre-parenting adventure. Some people call it a babymoon. But that makes me think of lounging on beaches with virgin piña coladas. Not our style. Although if babymoons are supposed be like honeymoons, I guess ours has some similarities. Our honeymoon was 19 days of traversing the Canadian border by canoe in the BWCA. Not very romantic. Very dirty. Very Type 2 Fun. So it’s fitting that the first seven days of this adventure had been pretty gritty.

After seven nights in our tent, four of which rain was the least of our concerns, it was time for our one night in a bed. 

We pulled up to the independent family owned motel. Their clean cute website and reality didn’t match up.

As I waited in the car Will went to see about a room. A thin over-tanned wrinkly woman in a hot pink tank top came speed-hobbling by while muttering to herself before disappearing into the lobby. She told Will it would be less than $100 for the night. Sold. While doing the paperwork she made sure to tell Will, 

“There are female strippers tonight.”

Will didn’t respond but thought “It’s Monday in little Lander WY… really lady?” 

She continued “The guys were last night… that was nice.”

As we got into our clean but bare bones room Will said “If I’m kept awake by stripper music we’re getting a refund.” 

We didn’t. Despite a flaky AC unit, weak internet, and almost pointless curtains, it was mercifully quiet. 

The rest of our trip went mostly smoothly. We had two wonderful meals. One at the Lander Bar and one at the Middle Fork. Notice the “rabbit food” salad in the mixing bowl 😝on the far left. On the right is my “graham cake” French toast with lemon chèvre cream cheese filling and blueberry syrup. It was heavenly.

For the next three nights we camped in the Lander City Park and were entertained by the various comings and goings of odd characters, trendy van-lifers, and local families. On day nine we had a day of shopping for gear at Wild Iris and Wind River Rewind, restocking our groceries, and scouting the rock climbing opportunities. The next day we had a blast on a really fun four pitches of trad climbing. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon scouting for more climbs (which turned out to be off limits for the season due to nesting raptors, yay for birds, sad for us) and enjoying some tourist sights of The Rise and Trout Pool as well as The Sinks. 

By day twelve we were ready to start the journey home. Driving home is never the best part of a vacation. We at least had an absolutely delightful time being back in the Spearfish SD campground. We don’t understand why all the campers don’t hang out in the river.

Another 8 hours of driving and we were back home with our Pigeon 

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We’ve got about 100 days before the adventure of parenting begins. As terrifying as that can seem, this trip was a great reminder of all that we’re capable of and what a good team we are. 

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