Day 2: Making Progress – From Kansas to Wyoming!

Dee Dee felt much better on the second day of our trip; there had been something in the air that had made her almost cough up a lung all the way from Wichita to Salina. But today was better, and she seemed to enjoy the journey a little more.

Somewhere along the way, before we reached Denver, we caught a glimpse of our first snowy “peak”, and I started to squeal like a pig:

I must say, though, that moving to Denver may not be for me. Traffic is one of the things from which I am wanting to escape, and Denver to Fort Collins was definitely some two-handed driving.

I saw something in Colorado that I had never seen before: it looks almost like what Texans would call a double-wide, but instead of leaving it on its wheels and putting skirting around it, it is mounted on top of what looks like a basement. Neat! I want a basement!


Outside of Wyoming, we saw our first silhouette on a hillside, the first of many:


We wanted to get the Wyoming sign, but there wasn’t a safe spot to pull off of the road, so Alan snapped what he could while I blew down the road at 75 mph (75 mph! – the legal limit!):


This picture is kind of interesting; you almost had to be there to really appreciate it. Driving down the road, the snow that was still in the crevices of the hills gave an optical illusion of making it look like it was a bridge going over the hill, or an overpass, or something. But the “gaps” aren’t really gaps at all -- it’s just one solid hunk filled with snow:


We stopped at a little town that I really wanted to see. When I had been bitten by the Wyoming bug about three years ago, I had talked to an extension agent in Wyoming. She told me that Wheatland, Wyoming, is in what they call the “banana belt” of Wyoming, and that if I wanted to do some hobby farming that would be a good place for growing things. We mostly just pulled off of the road for some fuel and stretching, so I took a picture of the little drag that was down the street. I also was tickled to see mountains/hills just across the way:






I thought it might be “the place” until Dee Dee tried to open her car door – the wind was blowing so hard that she could barely get the door open. Once she got out and tried to make it to the store, it almost knocked her over. I guess all of those stories about Wyoming being windy really are true!

After seeing a silhouette of a “jackalope”, we stopped at a truck stop in Casper, where once again, the wind nearly took Dee Dee’s breath away:




There was another of those interesting home concepts:


We decided to really push the day and try to make it to Sheridan on Day 2; it meant travelling over 700 miles, but we can spend two nights there before taking Alan to his destination, and I will have the chance to really check out Sheridan. Here’s what it looks like as you are getting closer:

Tomorrow: Adventures in Sheridan!