Wyoming -

Today was a travel day - we needed to make some forward progress, so we were on the road early and by 8:00 crossed into Wyoming. Their welcome sign is the prettiest we've seen so far. The landscape has changed, and looks more like ranch country...wide open spaces with not a house in sight but there are lots of fences. Every now and then we see cattle...Black Angus, I think...and more pronghorns. We went through stretch of absolutely desolate land where there was nothing but dirt and oil rigs. They were pretty weird looking...almost alien-like rising out of the earth. Then it was back to ranch-land again. Lots and lots of land and very little of anything else. Who owns all this land? We know there have to be ranch houses somewhere, but we never saw them. These people have huge backyards! Eventually we didn't even see cattle anymore. Once in a while we'd spot a horse out there and wondered where it came from.






We were on Interstate 90 for a lot of today's drive, and we kept commenting on the lack of traffic. It's hard to imagine that the road in this picture is a major interstate highway! There are sections of the road that seem like the ultimate definition of the phrase "the middle of nowhere". I may have already said that about somewhere else on this trip, but today's "nowhere" topped anything that we've already seen! Eventually, we started to see mountains ahead in the distance. At first they appeared to be wrapped in mist, but as we got closer they were just stunning. At first we thought they might be the Rockies, but after checking the map discovered they were the Big Horn Mountains. After a rest stop we changed drivers and Rick took the passenger seat.
As we continued along the road kept going higher and higher and the scenery got more and more beautiful. In places there were huge rock walls and we kept noticing signs pointing to them. The signs give the scientific name for the rocks and date them...to millions and billions of years ago! How amazing to be driving among something from so long ago! After a while we realized that the road we were on was actually the Big Horn Scenic By-Way.

What a road to drive! The most exciting, and scary part, is full of tight u-turn curves that go through a canyon. There are guard rails, but off the edge of the road is a deep canyon that was so beautiful it almost took my breath away. I still can't believe I drove that road, and Rick commented afterwards that he couldn't believe he let me! It was, for lack of a better word, awesome!!! We stopped for a picnic lunch in the next town - Ten Sleep - Population 304! Then it was back on the road, and we were in Cody by 2:30.

Cody is a cute town, very western and another town that has definitely embraced the tourist business. Buffalo Bill Cody is what the town is all about! It seems that almost everywhere you turn there's Buffalo Bill something or other. Before dinner we went to the Irma Hotel to see the gunfighter show, and, while it was entertaining, but we both enjoyed the show we saw in Deadwood more. Tonight's show had more gunfire, though!

Tomorrow we're heading out early to go to Yellowstone. It's one of the parks at the top of our list of things to see, so it should be a good day. Then we'll go into Idaho on our way to Washington, and should be on the west coast in a couple of days. Whew! We originally planned to go to Glacier National Park, which is up near the Canadian border, but have decided to save it for another trip. As Rick keeps saying, we need to make some forward progress!