Wyoming and Kansas

We arrived in Wyoming on July 3rd, having driven in from Ogden, Utah. Ogden was a surprisingly cool town - we found this great brew pub [I thought that no such things existed in Utah without private club membership, but I guess I was wrong]. The pub even had a beer called "polygamy" and then you could buy a t-shirt that said "I tried polygamy in Utah". We left t-shirt-less, but we did smile at the joke.

Anyway, we left Utah on the morning of July 3rd. Leaving Utah was really pretty.In Wyoming, there are windfarms. Lots of them.There weren’t a lot of places to stop for lunch as we drove eastward across Wyoming, so we just pulled over at this community college. We snuck in and used their bathrooms, and then had a picnic on their grass using peanut butter and jelly stolen from the breakfast bar of the hotel in Ogden.We arrived at the little kibbutz on the prairie around 6:30pm. We [meaning, SYL, in this case], miraculously, got the school bus up the long, steep driveway and backed into the designated parking area. And this time, the name “school bus” proved true, as one of my aunt’s neighbors called her up and inquired about the school bus parked in my aunt’s yard. To be fair, the trees did kind of obscure things (and, yes, that is a deer in the foreground).

When my aunt and uncle got home, we went for a little walk.

Then we picked veggies from their amazing garden.

Then we sat down to a delicious meal of chili, salad, and cornbread.

The next day, the 4^th, we went hiking to a hidden waterfall. According to our western Washington hiking standards, there was, like, no one there. But the Wyoming folk kept apologizing for it being so crowded. Less than ten other people showed up the whole time we were there!

We stayed in Wyoming for another day, resting and taking it easy and eating well. My aunt and uncle were great hosts, and it was nice to see my cousin.

We left for Kansas on the 6^th, driving south to Colorado, and then east. Since this was the end of a holiday weekend and the first part of the drive was straight toward Denver, the traffic was heavier than any we’d encountered. But we soon left all that behind. Eastern Colorado was very flat and farm-y.

And then we crossed into Kansas. [Hold all your ruby slippers jokes for just one minute!]. At first, the driving was good. But then the storm that we’d be seeing at a distance all day caught us. In the truck, even the slightest winds made for difficult driving. Add to that dark skies, outlines of funnel clouds, and huge raindrops, and then driving got a little tough. We were inching along at 40mph and then we pulled into a rest stop to figure out what to do. The day was getting late and none of the other drivers appeared to be stopping. So we decided to just keep driving. It was a little stress-inducing. But then we drove out of the storm, and all was okay. Later, we heard that a tornado warning had been issued for some of the areas we’d been driving through – although if that was related to our storm or a different, later storm, we can’t be sure.

We spent that night in Salina, Kansas. And the less we say about that, the better.

The next day we drove a good clip, hoping to make it to our new place before the management office closed. We got there in time, and quickly found some Mexican food.

We spent the first night on the floor, with nothing unpacked. The movers came the next morning to help us unload the truck. And since it was just a little warm, we were very glad for their help.

Here’s a picture of our first meal in the new place.