Wyoming, A Love Story

I knew I loved Wyoming back in college when I spent lots of time in the Teton, Yellowstone and Star Valley areas, but on this trip we drove completely across Wyoming twice - the northern section heading out and the lower section heading home on Interstate 80.  We saw more cows than I knew existed, mixed in with beautiful scenery and small country towns.  

It brought completely new meaning to the term cowboy.  You really have to have a horse to manage all of those cows!  We got to see so many modern day cowboys doing their thing - moving cows to new pasture, over and over again.  It all seemed so romantic and cool.  Probably because it is soooo different than our way of life, and the weather was good.  In reality, I should probably just look into a dude ranch vacation.  Full time ranching might be too much.  Unless I lived with the Pioneer Woman and she did all the cooking.  I could do that.  :)

Anyway, I really do love Wyoming, and the below photos show you why.  Can't you just smell the air?  The sky is so blue!

With Brian still abnormally sick, I drove most of today.  He swore he was feeling better (he wasn't) but he managed to talk me into letting him drive in the afternoon so I could take a nap.  I'm glad he did!  That nap was heavenly.

Brian had stopped at this old ghost town years ago and we love ghost towns so we stopped by again.  Come to find out this was a major thoroughfare for the Mormon Trail, California Trail, the Pony Express, and later the trains.  This place was hopping back in the day.  But now, it is all private land from the original Mormon settlers of the area.  All 60,000 Mormon pioneers came right through here on their way to Salt Lake.

  The remnants of 4 charcoal furnaces were still here.  They would make charcoal and then ship it into Salt Lake on the train.

 These are the homes of the original settlers.  The cowboys were out herding cattle and while we were checking out the old homes a truck pulled up.  We though we were going to get yelled at - but it ended up being the owner of the ranch, a very nice guy.  He saw our Kentucky plates and wanted to come chat because his roots are from Kentucky.  Whew!  We apologized for being on the property in case he was mad, but he wasn't at all.  He said he runs into people from all over the world that trace their roots to this area that come through.  He was very hospitable and told us all about the houses (where his great grandparents lived) and how it is his family's 40,000 acre farm and that he loves it and it keeps his whole family busy.  

He's the one that confirmed what I observed during our time in Wyoming - there are 1.5 million cows and about 500,000 people in the whole state. 

 This is our "hurry and take a picture because the truck is coming" shot.

 Just look at this.  So, so pretty!

 He rents out his land for youth groups to do Pioneer Treks with handcarts on the actual Mormon Trail.  How cool would that be.  He said they read journal entries from the very spots they were written.  He said a couple hundred were doing a trek that day.  Here are some extra handcarts we saw.

I'm so glad we stopped off the highway.  I kinda wanted to go help round up the cattle and see what their life was like, what their house looked like etc. - but then we invited him to the Derby (he said he always wanted to go.) and said our goodbye's.

Haley has realized the benefits of sleep on long road trips.  Grant has not.  I can honestly say he didn't take one single nap the entire trip.  He is too affraid he'll miss something fun.  

We passed the time eating, listening to Brian's awesome road trip iPod mix (favorite song of the trip was Renegade), playing many versions of the alphabet game (thinking of something for every letter that can be found in Yellowstone...), and answering thought provoking questions from my many question books I keep in the car.  

  Brian said he would switch drivers back in Cheyenne - and he surprised me by pulling into heaven on earth - the Sierra Trading Post Clearance center.  I had totally forgotten about it!  We stopped at their other one in Cody, and bought a few things - but this one was the mother ship.  I squealed with delight.  It's like my favorite Gap clearance center in Cincinnati, only outdoors stuff.  

We spent a good long while there, and left giddy.  Haley and I each bought new Chacos (only $28/each!) and we finally found a new backpacking tent for our family.  It is super nice, light weight and an amazing price.  Two Chacos and a high end tent for $200.  That is what the Chacos alone normally cost.  I love a bargain!  Plus my old Chacos really stink, literally.

 So, now that we had not ONE, but TWO tents in the back of our car - guess what we did?  We didn't camp a single time the whole trip home.  Haha.  The weather was iffy, we were tired, Brian was sick...but mostly we had the Hilton points.  So, we would drive as long as we felt like it, then went on the Hilton Honors website and would book a hotel an hour before we got there.  Brilliant!  Free Hampton Inn.  I am actually quite a fan of their breakfast buffet oatmeal.  This is one major perk of having a husband that travels for over a month total each year added up.  For our entire trip (minus the cabin) we camped 3 nights and got free hotels for 5 nights.  Niiice.  Remember how I like a deal?  I'm sure we spent whatever we saved in food - but we would have done that anyway!

The rest of the trip was pretty much, drive, eat, get gas, swim, sleep repeat.  We love a good road trip.  It really helps to step away sometimes and recharge the batteries and come home refreshed.  Even though we fell in love with South Dakota, Wyoming, and renewed our love for Idaho and Utah - we love it best of all in our Old Kentucky Home.  We love the west, and will visit any chance we get - but Kentucky truly is our home, sweet home.  Now, onto mounds of laundry.