Today was a long day of driving - about 560mi in total. As seems to be developing into a theme, we didn't stick to the previous plan for where to go, and we started out late again - almost an hour, today. We started out from Vernal and headed towards Dinosaur National Monument, about a 20-30 minute drive away.
'Cuz dinosaurs are cool, that's why
Dinosaur National Monument is the site of active digs for dinosaur fossils, which are scattered all over the place. Although the main quarry was closed to access (for renovation of the unstable visitor center), they had set up a temporary visitor center. From here, a ranger led us on a short hike up to a ledge which had been blasted by paleontologists just over a month ago. The ledge had a great view of the site, and featured a ton of partially-excavated dinosaur bones:
Small highways are awesome. Also, they suck.
After leaving Dinosaur, we backtracked into Vernal and headed north towards Wyoming. We took US-191 north through the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. I know that just yesterday I called US-189 one of the most scenic stretches of highway I've been on, but it's already been dethroned. This was a spectacular drive, and it certainly didn't hurt that a fair bit of it was on a winding mountain road with plenty of switchbacks and some wide corners. Today was probably the hardest workout that rotary engine has gotten since I've had the car. After 191, we hit I-80 for a brief stretch into Rawlins, WY, where both we and the cars refueled, before heading up US-287 towards Casper, our goal at the time. 287 was a similarly beautiful highway. The contrast between the side highways and I-80 is just night-and-day. Now I understand why people were advocating that I not drive across the country and calling it boring: it's because it really is, if you just stick to the interstates. Surprisingly enough, we actually made very good time on the side highways (better even than on the segment of 80 into Rawlins - which because of road construction was reduced to one lane in each direction, no passing, for 15 miles).
So that's the awesome part. What's the price you pay for the scenic journey, if not time? Simply put, it's mental energy. These roads are almost always one lane in each direction (a dedicated passing lane, when you get one, is like gold). In many places, although the lane stripings indicate that you can pass, the undulations of the road (both up and down and side to side) mean you'd have to be brave or suicidal to do so. Even when there is a (relatively) clear road, I still find passing using the oncoming lane to be a somewhat nerve-wracking experience. Thankfully, the RX-8 has a fair bit of power, but the altitude eats up almost 25% of what you would get at sea level, so there's a lot of 6->3->4 shifting going on to execute passes. That's not a big deal (you get used to the engine screaming at much higher revs than normal pretty fast), but the pressure to execute passes quickly starts to wear after a while. Combine that with the fact that even when you're not passing, gigantic trucks are whizzing by one lane over at a relative velocity over 130mph, and the interstate feels like a godsend after a couple hours. (Of course, after the first 20 minutes, the interstate then becomes boring...).
Adventures with the Casper Police
There weren't any, really. The extent of the adventure was that I actually saw a squad car belonging to the Casper City Police; it's the first cop car I've seen in days. (The one exception is a set of narcotics cops we saw by the side of I-80 in Utah. They were searching a sedan that had a LARGE box of Huggies in the back. Uh huh, I'm sure the family vacation was just a pretext for running coke.)
We got into Casper so early (around 5:30 - and with so much gas to spare) that we decided to continue north on I-25 up to Buffalo...and then out on I-90 east to Gillette. Which brings us to:
Tonight's Dinner Review: The Prime Rib Restaurant, Gillette, WY
Because the family will be off in various places next Sunday (myself in Boston, my brother at football camp in Oregon, etc), we decided to have a Father's Day dinner tonight instead. Looking for a good steak, we promptly made the last possible reservation -- 9pm -- for tonight at The Prime Rib Restaurant. When we got there, we stood around for a few minutes because there was no one at all manning the front. We were eventually (grudgingly?) led to a table, and drink orders were taken. Our waitress had a very harried attitude about her (though the restaurant seemed mostly empty). To avoid harping on the service too much, I'll just say this - we were definitely given the impression of being hurried through the meal and out the door. In fairness, we did arrive not too long before closing, but the restaurant made the reservation knowing that, and knowing our party size.
Enough of service; onto the food. Given the choice of soup or salad, the entire family picked salads. They were good; fairly generic with the exception of using Chex as croutons. Unorthodox, but actually not bad. (What was bad was that we were served salads and no silverware. It took a few minutes before we could get someone's attention to get that...but I promised to stop harping on the service).
At the table we had three steaks, one fish, and one prime rib. The fish, as one might expect at a steakhouse, was simply OK; the steaks were pretty solid (the sirloin pepper steak especially so). I decided to order a medium-size prime rib (they offer three sizes), figuring that the restaurant's namesake couldn't be bad. I was right - our waitress brought out a hulking slab of meat that was some of the best prime rib I've had. No one had room for dessert, which was a good thing, as they seemed to be in a rush to get us out. (Sorry.)
One last note: the decor of the place is pretty dark. The restaurant is also a martini bar; my impression of the place walking in is that it really ought to have been smokier, with people playing cards at the tables.
Verdict: 3 stars. The beef was really great, but the service, while quick, was not particularly friendly. I'm giving consideration for the fact that it was late, on a Sunday - under other circumstances I would knock it down even more.
Tomorrow: Gillette, WY to Devil's Tower to Rapid City, SD
Got any more dinosaur fossil pictures?
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