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After a short trip from Rushmore I was in Wyoming.  At least I guessed that I was in Wyoming because there was never a sign that said welcome to Wyoming.  It was dark so I drove as long as I could.  I came across a truck stop in the middle of nowhere.  After filling up I went inside to get my receipt, since it wouldn’t print outside.  I stood there looking around at this old, small truck stop when I started to see all these things with name of the town.  Is it actually the name of the town? I asked the lady behind the counter.  She looked at me like I was stupid and said Yes.  So of course I had to get a cap.

Yes they spell it wrong, but I was excited by the name non-the-less.  I got back on the road and found very little out there.

I went back on the road for a while but decided to stop at the first motel I saw and not risk running into something.  In the morning I was back on the road.

My guess is that Wyoming West of the Rockies is amazing.  In fact I’m sure it is, because Yellowstone National Park is mostly in Wyoming.  But the East side of the state makes you wonder if anyone lives there.  I believe if you look hard enough on the internet you will find somewhere that says that “Wyoming” is actually an old Native American word that means, “Why bother coming to the East side of the state?”

I mean I’ve driven through some places and said there was nothing there.  And when I say “nothing” I meant nothing of major interest.  Sure, there were farms, and fields, tractors and trees, bushes and cows, even crop dusting planes.  But if that’s nothing, then Wyoming has negative nothing.  I am not kidding.  I am not joking.  I took pictures people, pictures of nothing…

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing AT ALL…  Not a bush, not a tree, nothing but hills, grass and power poles.  It’s barren wasteland.

The other thing about this area is that it’s windy as all get out.  There are signs that say extreme windy conditions with windsocks on them.  I wanted to take a picture but I couldn’t get to the camera fast enough and then there was no place to turn around for miles because there is no reason to have exits to NOWHERE!  It was so windy I saw a crow flying backwards.  I. Shit. You. Not.  He was flappity flap flap flapping, but he was moving backwards. As you drive along the highway what you do notice is miles of these

They are windbreakers and they are designed to deflect the blowing wind up and over the roadway.  You see the same thing at the beginning of take off runways at airports that back up to roads, to deflect the jet blast.  Problem is that these were only in what I guess was the highest gust areas and it was still blasting in other places.

I was fighting for miles to keep the car in the lane.  And with the cargo carrier being off to one side it gets more wind resistance to the passenger side so the car was constantly pulling.  So you compensate for the pulling and then all of a sudden a gust blows you in the opposite way so you try to recompensate but then it goes back to pulling and it was like losing control repeatedly for a quite a while.

By the time i got Cheyenne I was exhausted with driving.  The first thing you notice as you take the Cheyenne Exit is this

OK,  A row of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, this should be interesting.  Problem was that once I started driving around Cheyenne I really didn’t find many reasons to get out of the car.  I drove around a while and it was just like any hitching post town in Tex-Ass.  Much of the same architecture.

I stopped at the visitors center in an old remodeled train depot, figuring maybe they’ll be able to point out something nice to see.

There was nobody else there.  Oh, Kay…  I wander around and find this sign.

Where are these elaborate and ornate cabinets that required the state to get funding from private donors you ask.  As you go through the door marked ‘Mens’ you find yourself in a small alcove.  This leads to a second door marked ‘Mens’, where the actual restroom is.  The cabinet was in that alcove.  Now, the GFWC Women’s Civic League of Cheyenne must have made one heck of a donation to justify such a plaque outside the Mens room, Right? I mean, it’s gonna blow you away, right?

You guessed it.  Way to go ladies, you should be very proud.

So back outside I go, heading for my car when

Oh Lord!  OK, keep a positive attitude.  Just keep saying over and over, This is not Tex-ass, This is not Tex-ass, and go explore.  And down the road I go.

OK, thanks to the men of service… umm, the Cowboy most of all I guess.  Nice…  Keep driving.

Here’s a city bus

And off in the distance is an interesting looking building.

It’s apparently the State Capital.  This was worth getting out for.  The building is very pretty.

As I walk around I enjoy the architecture, and start to check out the stone and bronze sculptures around it.  First this one on the corner.  It’s the swearing in of a National Guard soldier.

Apparently they have space aliens in their Guard.  That face gave me the Heeby-Jeebies….

Then This

OK, What the….

Wait a cotton picking minute here.  Is this West Texas?  They call it the “Spirit of Wyoming.”

Get me the Hell out of here!

Now before everyone starts giving me grief about being a Negative Nelly, or feel bad for me for wasting an hour and 45 minutes in Cheyenne; 45 of those minutes were spent at Bagelmakers having lunch

They claim to have “the best bagel on earth.”  That was a tall claim, which they didn’t quite fulfill, but it was very, very good.  I had the New York New York on Wyoming Herb.  Pastrami, Swiss and Spicy brown mustard, served hot.  I almost bought a second one.  But the girls behind the counter where very bohemian, with dreads and tattoos and nose piercings.  That doesn’t bother me, in fact I like people who are individuals.  But I bet you anything that they were higher then Courtney Love during…. Well any day really.  The girl with the tattoo giggled the whole time I was there.  She giggled between her own sentences.  Do you want a pickle? *giggle*  Here’s your sandwich. *giggle*  Anything else? *giggle*  I didn’t order another one because i didn’t want to harsh her mellow.)

So as I was saying.  Cheyenne was not a negative experience for me.  It wasn’t even a waste of time.  Nothing (asides from this damn cold I seem to be getting), has been bad about this trip.  It is all going into my “cool experience” locker because it’s all things I’ve never done before.  There are things that I wouldn’t do again, but I wouldn’t give up any of them because I have a great adventure story to tell…. and It continues….

So I get back on the highway and head for Denver, which is 100 miles away from Cheyenne.  One of the last exits on Highway 25, before leaving Wyoming,  is exit 7.  There is a rest stop there and it has a sign

Facing the direction of the Colorado border.  Hmm.

There are 2 large brass sculptures in the rest area that stand about 40 feet apart and face each other.  It is titled something like, “A friendly greeting” or something.  It has a plaque that talks about how many times when a settler and a Native American would meet on a path they would exchange gifts as a showing of friendship.  One is of a Native American

He is said to be holding out a horn with Sweet Water as a gift of friendship.

The settler has a… um, well the usual….  I high velocity gift that arrives at 800 feet per second and then we take your land as a free gift to us….  alrighty then.

Back on the highway I go, and I’ll be in Colorado in just a few minutes.

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