Consider It Done

lyman, WY and en route - Today was an on the road day, in Wyoming then Nebraska. A wide open, wild West day. We saw both the hard beauty of the place, and also the wounds from Cheney, Inc., tearing open the mountains for always more.

We wondered at the number of trailers we saw along the roads, then a conversation with the Gypsy clerk at the Sinclair gas station enlightened us. Wyoming needs cheap labor, but doesn't give those workers anywhere to live. New residences in certain counties must have 40 acres to build a home, hard to reach on a miner's or gas wrangler's paycheck. Lots of folks working hard and living in their cars, or hotel rooms.

But - we thrilled to the gargantuan clouds, the roller coaster dips in the road, the red rock carvings through the hills. Crossed over to Nebraska in the late afternoon light falling on endless fields of prairie grass and red clay, with Willa Cather always around the next bend.

Highlights:
-- First antelope of the trip, in a gentle rain just outside Laramie
-- Cold pizza for breakfast
-- Cheyenne is a hidden gem - we loved the City Newsstand and Pipe Shop. Enjoyed chatting with the man at the register, who also shepherded the local interest book section into being. The state house is a beautiful public space.
--Passenger reading aloud "By The Shores Of Silver lake" to driver - heartwrenching! We thought a road trip in a Jetta with a hotel every night was hard.