I woke up 7:30 this morning, which was a little later than I had planned, but oh well. I packed up all of my things, which I don't mind doing, but I HATE rolling up my tent when it is wet! I got all of my stuff together and out of the park in less than 20 minutes. It is a 6 hour drive to the East side of Wyoming, to Ayers Natural Bridge State Park, with hopefully a free campground. I left the park and headed south. because I had wrote down that that is where the highway would be, unfortunately I drove 30 miles south and then realized I was headed in the wrong directions, so with an hour detour, I made it back to the highway, right outside of my camp. I hauled ass out of the Teton range! The mountains turned a cool red and orange color as I drove, but after I passed those the state turned rather boring. Just a lot of plaines and really tiny farms.
I listened to digital ash and thought about how great all of the Bright Eyes albums coincided with my trip, and how happy I am to attach new memories to these old albums. Digital ash has always reminded me of right before I started going to High Tech High International, waiting in line at Soma at 6am with Alex, saving spots for Sophie, Scarlett, and Schuyler who either, couldn't or wouldn't ditch school to come sit and fly kites with us. It also reminds me of hooded sweatshirt walks, and drinking out of red cups on the beach. Listening to Lifted floods me with memories of countless dance parties, and our College Day trip to Berkeley, where Alex and I sang Method Acting, driving everyone insane with the "On and on and on and on, on and on and on and on." Every album brings back so many good memories, but they almost make me sad, because they were all so long ago, and I miss my friends and my last 2 years of high school. Seeing Bright Eyes, and Saddle creek related bands four times in a row. Now I can listen and not just think of the distant past. I can remember yesterday when I drove through all of wyoming. I drove fast and only semi conscious, yearning to be 16 again, until I sped past a highway patrolmen, while chugging a gallon of raspberry lemonade. I slowed wayyyy down, and watched him flip a u-turn to follow me. I drove the speed limit for about an hour until he gave up on me and went back the other way. It is incredibly boring driving 65 mph in the middle of nowhere with nothing to look at. I was driving past the town of Casper when I saw safeway had gas for $3.19 a gallon! woooo! So I pulled over, and filled my tank. There was also a Wendy's right there!! So I decided to indulge in some fries and a chocolate frosty! It was delicious! However, when I got the Ayers Natural Bridge only about 30 miles away my stomach started to hurt and I felt really really terrible! I checked in with the cute elderly couple that works and live at the park, and I pitched my tent @ campsite 3, on the GRASS! there was grass, it felt so good to lay on v. just dirt or rocks! There were a ton of families having picnics at the bridge and swimming, but I decided to take a nap to hopefully feel better and then I would join in on the fun. I fell asleep for 2 hours and when I woke up I felt just as bad if not worse than I did when I started my nap. I just hung out in my tent and watched the rabbits run by for a while.
I changed into some shorts to go swimming in and headed towards where I could hear the kids splashing around. The bridge was pretty cool, but the little lake stream thing that was happening was really dirty. It was the first water I had come across while camping that wasn't crystal clear. Maybe I got spoiled but it kind of grossed me out. I waded into it anyway and it felt really cool. I was probably only up to my knees in the water when this little girl held up a fish and said "Eww were swimming in dead fish water!" then she threw the fish at her friends and they kept splashing around, laughing. Although I am sure every lake, stream, ocean, or body of water I have ever been in has had dead fish in it, I was thoroughly grossed out. I quickly walked to the other side, where I saw a swing.
I got on it, and was really happy that it was so tall! At first it felt great, I miss the swings, but I quickly got really nauseous. I think the after effects of fast food and dead fish water, really did not sit well with me. I could not handle the back and forth, and up and down, which made me so sad, because I fucking love the swings! I climbed to the top of the bridge instead, which had a cool view of an old power house, and the red mountains around me.
I started to head back down from the bridge and fell for the first time on my trip, which is kind of shocking, since I have the worst balance ever. I was bleeding, but it didn't hurt at all. I headed back to my tent, glad that no one saw me fall, and called my mom. She asked how my car was running and I said great. She told me to check my tires, and they were totally bald. I panicked a little, and called 100 tires stores. The only place that had tires that would fit my car was Big O Tires, and of course they only had premium ones, unless I wanted to wait 3-7 days. Gah. They said I could try going to a bigger city, but I would have to drive 6 or so hours to Rapid City, and I didn't want to risk having a blow out in the middle of Wyoming. SO I settled on paying the $550 dollars for new tires :( Ugh. Oh well, it needs to be done. I would have to wait until morning to get them changed because the park closes at 8pm and it was already 7ish. I snacked a little on almonds and filled out postcards. The park emptied out, and I was the only one left camping. It was a nice change of pace, from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. I wasn't too far form the old coupld who maintained the park, so I wasn't completely alone. As I read my book, the cute old man came of and said "You in there little lady?" I said yes, and he warned me that I needed to be careful of raccoons. I couldn't help but laugh. For the past 8 days I had to be worried about bears and cougars, and now my biggest threat was Coons. Don't get me wrong, raccoons scare the crap out of me, but really? I sat in the grass a little outside my tent until it got dark. Then I read by headlamp. My eyes hurt really bad, so I decided to stop reading, even though I only had 15 pages left of my book. I decided to check out the stars, since it was the first night I wasn't too exhausted or the weather wasn't too bad to see the sky. As soon as I looked out my tent I could hear the swing going, which terrified me, because I was the only one in the park. It was probably just the wind, but none the less it scared me into not staring at the stars. I wrapped myself up in my sleeping bag and blanket and I made myself sleep. 
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