Cross Country, Part Four

Monday, October 12th, I woke up sleepy and slightly grumpy because I was sleepy.  Packed up all of my stuff and went downstairs to put it in the car.  Nature had left me a little treat overnight.

I was so excited that I got to clean off the snow with only a sweatshirt and sneakers on.  It was great.  (That's sarcasm for all of you that don't recognize it.)  I went back into the hotel for breakfast and to warm up and came out a few minutes later to get on the road.  Before I left Scottsbluff, I wanted to check out the Scottsbluff National Monument.  The difference between a National Monument and a National Park is "A National Monument in the United States is a protected area or a historic site that is similar to a National Park except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress. National monuments receive less funding and afford fewer protections to wildlife than national parks." 

I drove the 5 miles to Scottsbluff National Monument in ice and snow and cold and coldness and grey skies and rain....Actually getting to the monument was rough but the monument itself was pretty cool...

Scottsbluff Sign

From the National Monument, I got on the highway.  Nebraska either wasn't prepared for the earliest snowfall in recorded history, or they just don't care, because seriously, they don't plow.  The trek that should have taken me about an hour took almost three.  I was so irritated.  But finally I got on the highway.  I wasn't looking forward to the drive that day because it was through Wyoming.  What is in Wyoming?  It's one of those states that people don't visit because they're boring...

As soon as I crossed the border into Wyoming, the skies opened up to reveal a brilliant blue sky.  I was so happy to see sunlight, that my mood just lifted exponentially.  I stopped at a rest stop and in the rest stops in Wyoming, they have a person who can tell you about the state.  The woman told me what I could expect to see in the state and got me really excited about the places I would be passing.

Turns out Wyoming is a pretty cool state!  I know it sounds strange, but it is a cool state.  It started out with farm like everything else, but then developed into these amazing mountains.  Of course I had to take a picture of the wind turbines...

  

I got into the state a little ways and saw a sign for the Vedahvoo.  These are a series of mountains that were shaped by glaciers.  There are huge boulders that were carried by the glaciers and dropped in random spots.  It was a lot like Acadia National Park, but bigger.

I was stupid though.  The little road leading to see Vedahvoo was a gravel road that of course wasn't paved.  I took my little roller skate down the road figuring that I would stay in the tire tracks and be fine.  It was fine until I tried to turn around when the road got too bad and got stuck.  I found a shovel in my back seat and tried to shovel my way out, but two very nice people in a huge truck who had passed me came over to rescue me.  They pushed my car back into the tire tracks so that I could get on my way.  They were so nice!!

I left Vedahvoo and crossed into the mountain range between Cheyenne and Laramie.  It was amazing.  As I told a friend of mine:

"I've always said I was more spiritual than religious.  I think that being religious implies that one needs a church to become close to God. When you're driving through Wyoming, beautiful amber colored fields with cows or horses grazing, and hundreds of miles in the distance, you see enormous snow capped mountains, but in all of it, there is an absence of anything manmade...everything was molded by the hands of God for miles and miles around...you can't help but feel moved by that.  You can't help but feel a spiritual presence when you see that.  The colors are so amazing, it's like an oil painting, only better.  Pictures don't do it justice..."

Continuing to drive through the state, I came across the Flaming River Gorge.  This is a gorge where the rocks are bright red.  You can't see too much of the red rock unless you take a boat through the gorge, but what I saw from the highway was pretty amazing too!

This area was amazing.  I can't wait to go back and explore it more thoroughly.  I continued to drive into Utah and saw some other amazing sights there.  The following pictures are just from a stop at a rest stop to take pictures.  Once I got to Park City, there were really amazing sights...huge snow capped mountains...it was insane.

While at the hotel in Utah, I saw a real Mormon family...here was one man, and he was traveling with 6 women who had the "Mormon uniform" on of long bland colored dresses with tights and orthopedic shoes with bouffant hairstyles....I swear the dude is a polygamist and is traveling with his wives.  He came in and wanted to pay cash for the rooms and after he got the key, he brought all of the women in.  They walked outside again, and I looked up from the computer and smiled and he smiled back, but all of the women kept their eyes glued to the floor.  He looked like a kind old grandpa. It made me feel weird.  Just before that, I went to IHOP next to the hotel.  It was surprisingly decent, but the best part was as I was paying...my waitress was a cute young blonde girl.  She looked like a college cheerleader.  They had a bunch of kitchy things next to the cash register and there was a rack of keychain Beanie Babies.  One of the keychain Beanie Babies was a dog that looked like the Obama's dog Bo and was named "Bo."  I made a comment about how none of the other president's dogs were Beanie Babies, just mumbling under my breath.  The waitress asked what I had said and I told her that I didn't think it was necessary to have Bo the Beanie Baby dog.  She said "Really?  That's Obama's dog?  Ugh."  I chuckled and she said "You know the problem is...never mind."  I told her that we were probably thinking the same thing and she said "Yup.  So we have to make his dog a Beanie Baby because he's black.  No wait!  He won the Nobel Peace Prize because he's black.  Not even that, he won the Nobel Peace Prize because he's half black!  Let's make sure everything about him is celebrated, especially since he hasn't done anything!"  I laughed and gave her a really good tip.  We conservatives may cling to our guns and religion, but it never ceases to make me laugh.

So anyway, that night I fell asleep gearing up for the next day, which would be shorter and less tiring.

Oh, and if you want to buy Bo the Beanie Baby, go here.

Woof!

Hours Traveled: 12

Miles Traveled: 581