~ Out and About with Christine n Mike ~: Bits and pieces as we race towards the SUN

We are traveling east and will be turning out of Wyoming and going south soon. It is just plain cold, too cold to hang out in beautiful WY or NE...but we have been tempted. WY -, specifically Laramie and Cheyenne, we will return when it's a bit warmer to explore.

For those of you who read last week's post...here is a very short video Mike took of the Perrine Bridge (Twin Falls) Base Jumper....ENJOY!

Traveling into different states is really educational, fun, and thought provoking...I'm starting to pay attention to the differences...it's a cultural shift that rarely happens at home and once we get back into our winter-routine I find it again. One of those for me is discovering all the different fast-food joints that I will never, ever in a million years enter, let alone buy anything to eat from them. (Yes, I am a fast-food snob, but that is a entirely different blog and longer post, with a different audience.)

It's Chester Fried...found at a truck stop in Utah...do they serve it in buckets? I now wish I had gone inside to see if Colonel Sanders was wearing a cowboy hat and was clean-shaven.

Our overnight in Honeyville, at the Crystal Hot Springs, had a herd of sheep out our back window and....

a duck couple, laying eggs and being fed Jelly beans by the 2 small girls, next door to us. That's an egg just above the duck on the left....the next morning there were two eggs. The couple were resting comfortably when we left...both ignoring said eggs.

We left Utah for Wyoming...big, big mistake on our part we soon discovered. Wyoming is at a higher altitude, well not at the start, but by the time we reached Rock Springs, elevation 6388' we hadn't drank nearly enough water and having only just leaving sea level...we both were suffering from headaches and that tiredness that altitude brings on.
The mistake? Higher elevation = colder temperatures and did you know the wind blows at really high rates of speed here?

We found parking at the Sweetwater Fairgrounds (Sweetwater Fairgrounds)
via All Wyoming Campgrounds... the fairgrounds has 1200 parking sites! We 'guessed' closer to 500....this place is massive. Since it was just us and another trailer it was very quiet, even for a Friday night. Don't let the Sun fool you...it got really "crispy" come dark...so crispy that Mike unhooked us from the water line...."crisp" as in frigid/freezing. We were both really happy to be here for just one night. (I just wished that had been the end of the 'crisp air' story.)

Next on the trip menu... giddy-up Cheyenne WY. Little did we know that high winds AND more altitude was in our future. And according to the weather reports, some snow had dropped in on Cheyenne earlier in the week, but "not to worry, it was forecast to rain by Sunday". Yep, erm, right...not happening during our 2 day visit.

The highest point on I-80 is located at 8640" just outside Laramie, WY, and yes the wind was blowing where these photos were taken last Friday. The wind blew so hard and was so loud, we both donned ear plugs just to hear the radio.

Above...the remains of the snowfall days earlier.

Eight days out, 1550 miles through OR/ID/UT/WY and we are only half-way to our "we-can-start-to-relax" state of Louisiana. I know, we probably ought get to the 'start-to-relax' part now....it's just been too d**n cold up here in the northern hemisphere of the US.

While in Cheyenne we drove down to Ft Collins to meet up with friends we met while visiting Lake Louise 2 years ago, who drove up from Denver for lunch...so if you are visiting Ft Collins, treat yourself and dine at Austin's American Grill - the food was delicious, the company was marvelous. Thanks H & M!

If you are cruising I-25 to Ft. Collins, look for the bison up in the hills, you can see it for miles.

OK, I'll admit it....I am a West Coast woman...I have never seen signs announcing road closures at on-ramps - followed by gates that actually close the ramp...

this just boggles my mind....

Just as we are about to leave WY...Pine Bluffs rest area, right at the very edge of the state. High-Plains-Archaeology-Museum and a visitors center is conveniently located, more-like disguised, on the grounds of the rest area. The volunteer was kind enough to tell us a bit about the museum, open June - Aug... built on ground where Native American artifacts had been discovered.