Leaving Salt Lake City we drove north through Idaho and the southeastern edge of Montana to the west entrance of Yellowstone.
Heading east we crossed the Continental Divide and headed down the best driving road that we had come across so far descending down into Cody Wyoming.
We really enjoyed Cody - We highly recommend The Cody Hotel - wish we could have stayed longer. We had a great meal Friday night - Buffalo Burgers, took some more photos Saturday morning and then headed out to Devils Tower. On the way we drove through some of the best twisty roads and scenery that we had been through yet.
It took several hours to drive across Wyoming. About half way through we stopped for gas in Buffalo Wyoming. That is when we had our first (not last..) problem with the car. We stopped briefly for lunch - no problems there but then after driving a mile down the road for fuel the car would not start. The battery was good, all electrical seemed to work but then when we turned the ignition... nothing.
So then we pushed the car up behind the back of the gas station up hill and bump started the car. Our theory at the time was that there was a problem with the ignition switch or the starter solenoid. Regardless we had a schedule to keep up with so we worked our way up to Devils Tower careful not to stop the car unless we had a good hill to help us bump start the car to life.
Not everything we have seen on the trip lived up to what we expected. However Devils Tower was even more impressive than we imagined and offered some great photo opportunities.
Leaving Devils tower we headed southeast toward Deadwood and Sturgis. The drive into Deadwood was beautiful. There was a nice, newly paved, smooth winding road through the beautiful black hills of South Dakota. We liked it more than we thought we would. However, maybe it is because we are not Harley guys but Sturgis was pretty much forgettable. We opted to keep right on going, still hesitant to stop the engine with little confidence that it would start for us and headed down towards Mt. Rushmore.
More pics. and stories tomorrow. For now we have some mechanical issues to sort out. To begin we are still having issues getting the car to start reliably. Our mechanic has told us that he thinks the solenoid is not functioning properly when the starter gets hot. This seems to make sense as the car would not start last night when we arrived in Custer State Park but started right up with no problems this morning. Then again during the day today (our longest driving day yet at 13 hours) the car would not start. We left it setting for an hour while we had lunch and then it started right up again. We did try tapping and rapping and cursing the solenoid while the other of us tried to start the car but it made no difference. Just letting the car sit is all that seems to work. Tonight again when we parked the car it would not restart. We will have to see how it goes in the morning. Any input any of you may have would be appreciated.