Greetings from Cheyenne, WY

Yes, this is coming from Cheyenne, Wyoming.  I know we said the next post was coming from Rawlins but we've had a big change of plans since the last post.  We have sold our house in Fort Wayne and the closing is July 31.  As a result, we have decided to head home after visiting our friends in Smoot.  We left Brent and Judy this morning (in tears) and made it passed Rawlins to Cheyenne.  Essentially, we are skipping Rocky Mountain National Park and Colorado Springs.  With the fires around Colorado Springs, we may have had to skip that part anyway but we are both disappointed about the Park.  During the drive to Cheyenne today we spent some time planning future trips but more about that later.

From Brigham City to Smoot on Sunday we passed the beautiful Bear Lake recreation area and Wildlife Refuge.  The photo below is of Bear Lake.  Bear Lake is huge so it was not possible to get it all in one shot.

 

On Monday, we all went back to the Bear Lake Wildlife Refuge and had a wonderful day of Bird Watching.  Well, three of us did.  Jim read a book and looked up occasionally when he heard the excitement in our voices and offered appropriate exclamations.  I know bird watching is not everyone's bag so the photo below is of the wildlife seen from our friend's breakfast area.  The visitor's came by daily.  

 

On Tuesday we played golf at the beautiful Smoot Golf Course.  Despite being in the mountains, the course in Star Valley and is extremely flat.  No trees, no water hazards, no hills.  Consequently, we all did very poorly.  But it was a beautiful day and we had great friends with us so it was a good day overall.

 

On Wednesday, we drove up to Jackson Hole to take in the beautiful museum.  The shot below is of Jim and me in front of one of the bronze wildlife statues outside the museum.  The art inside was also amazing.  

 

From the museum we went to lunch followed by a brief walk around town.  Arches of elk antlers (below) are very popular accents in several Wyoming towns.  Ironically, citizens are not allowed to collect antlers if found.  Only the Wildlife Commission is allowed to indulge.  Apparently, they collect the antlers and donate them to the local communities.  They structures are impressive and you can get a sense of their size with Jim standing inside one.  There are a lot of antlers in this arch!!!

 

The visit with our friends ended very quickly and this morning we were on the road again.  We drove most of the day on I-80 in Wyoming.  It is amazing how much nothing is out there.  I don't mean that in a bad way.  It's just that the landscape, soil, and climate are not conducive to much.  Along the way we saw many unusual rock formations sticking randomly out of the ground (see below).  

 

One unexpected surprise along I-80 was passing the highest point on the highway, known in the area as the Lincoln Highway.  The original roadway was the first transcontinental highway from New York to San Francisco.  The statue below marks the highest point on the highway at over 6600 feet.

 

After this stop, we saw many more unusual rock formations but we chose to use the Lincoln Rock as the official final photo of the expedition.

Tomorrow will be a long day of driving and we will get to the Iowa - Illinois border.  Saturday we expect to arrive home around 1 pm.

So, as mentioned above, Jim and I have discussed how we will take future trips.  The days of multiple, short stop expeditions are likely over.  Instead, we will take destination vacations where we spend several days in one spot (with a stop or two  stops along the way coming and going).  This will allow us to really explore an area.  Rocky Mountain National Park (Estes Park) will be one of these destinations along with Williamsburg, VA.  Some of these trips may be more golf oriented. 

But before that, we have a house to empty out and a trip to make to FL before the July 31st closing date so things will be busy.  We hope you have enjoyed the trip with us and we look forward to seeing you all soon.

Mattie and Jim