I woke up in the morning in my tent looking at a lake before sunrise with little ducklings beginning their day. There was a little light beginning to show in the sky above the mountains in the distance. It was 5:15 am in the morning and the air was fresh and clean. My first Wyoming morning and it was dazzling. I got out my stove and boiled my water for coffee and turned around and three white pelicans were close by looking at me. I believe they are curious about us humans as we are of them. I relished every moment of that morning watching the sunrise and the plethora of birds beginning their day. After coffee and packing up my gear I got into the Prius and I hit the road. The back road that is route 130 up over the mountain through Medicine Bow National Park to Laramie, Wyoming where I would meet up with the interstate once again. What a drive! Beginning with the beautiful ranches that line the road, dotted with cattle and gorgeous horses and then up into the snow covered mountains. It was about 42 degrees up there and beautiful cliffs, snow and gorgeous views were there for me to take in. After a couple of stops, getting out of my car to breath in the mountain air and to take in some some of the scenery not from a moving car, I took some video and headed down to Laramie. As I descended the snowy moutains the vistas opened up ever wider and greener. Wyoming is really beautiful and this isn’t the Tetons but the southern part.
I arrived in Laramie Wyoming by the Interstate put in at a Mcdonalds which I never eat at but only use them for bathrooms and parking lots and took out my friend Steve’s generous loan of a GPS system. Wow what a gift it turned out to be! I needed breakfast bad so I clicked on the menu and clicked on the food thing and bingo I clicked on the first coffee house I could and voila! it turned out to be a great place! I arrived in the old part of Laramie at my coffee house and on the door it said “only misfits and revolutionaries welcome! I thought Wyoming was Cheney country, hell if it isn't dotted with Liberuls and free thinkers and conservationists!! “Great breakfast and great coffee in the part of Laramie that you would have a hard time finding if it weren’t for this modern technology or if you read guidebooks which I did not do for Laramie. Turns out the old part of Laramie still has a lot of its western character. it was fun sitting out eating my great egg sandwich and watching the world go by near the train tracks.
Time to go and go I did. Today was travel day and it had the State Nebraska seal written all over it. This is flyover country or is it drive through country? Naw this is not flyover country,Nebraska has its own brand of beauty and interest I discovered, and thats only viewed from my car careening down the highway at 75 mph on the interstate. Flat farms seem endless. But i like it. I imagined being off the interstate would be a great adventure someday. Today was not for sightseeing, its for blistering across the midwest. I traveled over 640 miles this day as it turns out. I was going to go to a hot springs up in a town called Broken Bow where i was going to camp out but decided against it as there were reports of really bad weather bearing down on us. In fact there were severe thunderstorms and tornadoes right behind me! Little did I know but a town that I had gotten gas at was hit by a tornado only hours after I had split.
I arrived at my destination in Lincoln Nebraska under muggy dark skies, improvving where I was going to stay, using Steve’s gPS sytem to find me a hotel and to tell you the truth I didn’t like the feel of Lincoln. It felt a little seedy and dangerous, now I didn’t see all of Lincoln but my instincts told me to get out. And I did. I headed up the road 50 miles to Omaha and found a nice hotel to shelter me from the storm and lightning and ordered a great chinese meal, delivered and fell asleep pronto to the reports of tornado watches in Omaha on the telly.
650 miles and I’m almost out of Nebraska. Next stop I believe will be ...Chicago!!!
