We made it

Downtown Cheyenne

Salt Lake City

After driving all day Saturday to reach Cheyenne, and then having to find a decent (i.e., cheap) place to stay, looking for something to eat, and a little roping and branding, I was just to tired to compose a blog entry, so I'll try to make up for it now.

Saturday was uneventful, but long. Lots of driving. It rained coming in to Omaha, and then for about 30 miles.  West of Omaha the land began to open up wider and the highway became straighter. Also, it became clear even to my untrained eye that a lot of the corn was dead or stunted.

We stopped at Cabela's, a huge hunting and fishing outfitters, to look for a shirt for Serry.  I don't think we have Cabela's in the East. If you're ever out west and see one, stop in. The original store, in Sidney, Nebraska, is really something. It contains an amazing display of every North American game animal in a life-like diorama-like setting. Yes...of course they're dead.

Observation: On the Capital beltway, and other busy highways in the East where the speed limit is 55mph, everybody's going 75.  Out here, when the speed limit is 70, everybody's doing 75.  Perhaps this means that we're comfortable doing 75, and don't want to go much faster even when it's permitted.

Today, before leaving Cheyenne for Utah, we rode slowly through the deserted city and stopped at the state capital to take pictures.

West of Cheyenne  the countryside really opens up, and you understand what "wide-open spaces" means. Also, the topography becomes hillier and more interesting, with outcrops of rocks, small mesas, etc. And we saw a bunch of pronghorn antelope grazing by the highway. Very cool.

You may have noticed that we cleverly decided to leave on our trip just as gas prices were starting to take off. In most places we've been paying about $3.90, but in Laramie, WY (Is there a more Western-sounding place than Laramie?) we paid only $3.29.

Along the road we stopped in Wyoming at a place called Little America, a huge truck stop that also caters to regular drivers, with gas stations, restaurants, gift shops, a motel, etc. I'm not sure this was really a town, but it has its own post office and zip code.

Anyway, we finally made it to Salt Lake City. We're staying right in town and we'll explore the place tomorrow.