Wyoming - O Rodeo, Rodeo, wherefore art thou Rodeo?

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If Wyoming is known for one thing other than Yellowstone National Park, it’s the rodeo. Did we get to a rodeo? No. Did we ride horses? No. Did we eat baked beans and other typical cowboy foods? No. So what did we do? Drive…a lot! Wyoming is a big state, with lots of open spaces and crazy names, like “Crazy Woman Creek,” so it was a pretty crazy week.

Here are some highlights from our week in Wyoming:

Best Meal: Holiday Inn breakfast buffet in Casper. It surprised me as well that a hotel restaurant could top the category, but I’m not much of a heavy breakfast eater. Oh, I love breakfast foods – for dinner. In the morning, however, I prefer eating a light breakfast. Much to my delight, the Holiday Inn had a large portion of their breakfast buffet dedicated to fresh fruit. In fact, their fruit selection was so good, it was even better than the fruit on the cruise we took to Alaska! The Holiday Inn had individual serving bowls each of watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, strawberries, grapefruit, orange, blueberries, pineapple, and even black and red raspberries. I have never seen such a selection of fresh fruit, which wasn’t in a grocer’s produce section, in my life! It was awesome, and to top it off, they had a soda dispenser. Fresh fruit and caffeine, now that’s a perfect start to any day!

Worst Meal:  Lunch in Thermopolis. It was my pick for lunch, so I decided to take a picnic to Hot Springs State Park. It was a nice day, and everyone in Thermopolis had the same thought. There were numerous groups having cookouts, occupying the picnic tables. Instead of eating at one of the last undesirable picnic tables, I thought it might be fun to eat on the wooden deck jutting over the creek. We hauled our lunch out, only to discover why no one else was already eating there – dead fish, right there next to our picnic spot! Floating dead fish isn’t appetizing, so we moved to a park bench near the playground equipment, which was actually just a large rock. Apparently in Wyoming, rock climbing is pretty important, and they start the kids young.

The whole picnic lunch turned out to be a dud: finding a nice spot to eat, fighting the wind, knocking over beverages…maybe better luck next state.

Biggest Surprise: The road closed signs installed on the highway for wintry weather. After each interstate exit, there was a “Road Closed Return to…” sign with a barricade. I thought they’d have this snow thing down out here and not need to close the roads because of snow, but I guess there’s really just too much highway and too few people.

Biggest Disappointment: That we weren’t able to be in Wyoming at the same time as the 2nd annual Casper Ghosts Donate Life Night baseball game to promote organ donation awareness. (The Casper Ghosts are the Wyoming farm team for the Colorado Rockies.) It would have been great to be a part of it, but at least we were glad to work with the great folks at Donate Life Wyoming in order to do some pre-event publicity for the game and organ donor awareness in general.

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Doing normal things on a Sunday afternoon. Ayers Natural Bridge was nice, and the kids had fun playing in the creek while Mike and I enjoyed relaxing. The water was just ankle deep under the bridge where they floated their flip-flops to each other over the “rapids,” and it made the excursion worthwhile…not like the glass bridge excursion in Washington! (see WA blog)

Once again, the shelters were packed with people out enjoying the park on a beautiful weekend afternoon. People were eating, swimming, playing games, and enjoying themselves. Do we do this back in Illinois? Is the pace slower here, or have we just missed it? We certainly used to do relaxing park activities on Sunday afternoons before the trip, but we didn’t see parks crowded like here in Wyoming!

Worst Closure: The rodeo. It kept eluding us. It rained when we were in Cody, and we were mere days too early for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo.

Most Beautiful Spot: Yellowstone was a little disappointing at first. The vast number of fallen trees took away from the beauty. We’ve seen so many more beautiful places, but then we saw them: the Upper and Lower Falls of the Canyon, and we were in awe! Yellowstone is beautiful. Check out the pictures.

Best Tourist Spot: The National Historic Trails Center was fun, educational, and free – thanks to our National Parks pass. Both Levi and Chloe enjoyed the exhibits, and I think Chloe even learned something from the hands-on exhibits about the different overland trails (Mormon, Oregon, Gold Rush, and Pony Express) that all converged in Casper in order to cross the Platte River. Fortunately, the virtual wagon ride across the Platte River ended when it did because it was starting to make me sick to my stomach!

Worst Memory: The family bickering over the TV - of all things! Really? It seems so wrong to have these moods or attitudes on a year-long adventure around the United States. We’ve been blessed with something so special, and we’re not cherishing every single moment of it. It reminds me of a scene from the movie Return to Me where Minnie Driver is at the doctor for a regular transplant check-up and disappointed in herself that she’s having a bad day - that it seems wrong to have a bad day or bad attitude after you’ve been given something so special as the Gift of Life through a transplant. It makes me wonder, can you live life cherishing every single day? Is it possible??? Cherish 24/7. That should be my new goal.

Best Memory: Nothing like driving thru Yellowstone listening to “This is Your Life” by Switchfoot and realizing this is my life! Wow, I am so blessed! Sure, the hotel was old and outdated. Sure, we disagreed over where to eat an overpriced lunch and ended up eating a Pop-Tart. Sure, I’m tired now. Sure, it’s raining. Sure, you get the idea, but this is my life! I’m travelling the 50 United States with my family! Who am I that God has blessed me so?

Most Heroic Moment:  Climbing around on the big boulders beneath Devil’s Tower, Chloe, amazingly enough with her long legs, got stuck on a large rock where she couldn’t get down. Mike came to the rescue and helped her. Interestingly, if it wasn’t for his transplant 7 years ago, he could never have been that heroic Dad in her eyes, rescuing her from her distress.

Best Drive: Wind River Canyon Scenic Drive from Shosone to Thermopolis. Gorgeous. It was raining during our drive, but that didn’t stop us from being in awe of the view.

Worst Drive: The one spent sitting so long on the road in Yellowstone because of the road construction and all the tourists that they instructed you turn your car off!

Best Roadside Detour: Wagon Ruts. We drove off the highway about 20 minutes to see wagon ruts, off all things. They were much larger than we imagined, carved in the rock by all the Oregon Trail travelers. It was interesting to see just how much they wore through rock.

My WY Hike: Hiking in Yellowstone. The falls were amazingly beautiful, but the mud pots and other areas stunk – literally, like rotten eggs. Ugh! I prefer less aromatic hikes.

Biggest Revelation: That’s where Yellowstone gets its name from! The rocks are actually yellow! Once I took my tinted sunglasses off, I could see it clear as day. It was beautiful.

What We Did Miss: The Tetons, the rodeo, Fort Laramie, a big statue of a Jackalope, Buffalo Bill Cody Museum – all recommended to us on our community.

In Summary: Wyoming, we may have missed your infamous rodeo, but we didn’t miss any crazy woman...I’m still right here, insanely traveling to more states!

The Mom