Day Two: The night was a series of semi-unsuccessful attempts to -get comfortable-. While the temperature was fine with Chani putting out so much body heat, my old bones couldn’t really find a way to lay on the hard ground what didnt cause back pain. To add insult to injury, I discovered an interesting phenomena whereby if you suffer from heartburn, sleeping on a slight slope with your head on the down end will cause it to flare up. Horribly. It will also cause headaches. I ended up sleeping in an upright-ish position with my camera bag and gym bag arranged into a makeshift backrest. I was pretty pleased when I woke up, just a bit after 0700. That’s 7 a.m. to you. I’d managed to steal a few hours of solid sleep from Hypnos, and Chani seemed comfortable, curled into a ball at my feet. I was surprised it was not brighter at such a “late” hour, but once we crawled out of the tent, I learned why. The eastern sky was blanketed in a grey comforter and it turned what should have been bright rays of morning light into the dim glow you get from a decade old 40W bulb hanging from its wire in the basement of some deserted crackhouse. The air smelled pregnant with rain. I knew it was time to get cracking. While boiling water for my coffee and granola, I broke camp as quickly as I could, making several trips to where the car was parked. I looked around for a place where I could skirt the little concrete abutments in my CRX and drive to where we’d camped, but I couldnt find any. I worked my ass off, making the 203 steps (yes, yes, I did) from where we pitched the tent to where the Rex was parked no fewer than 16 times to be able to get all the gear loaded before the rain came. For a brief instant while slogging to the car, I wondered what the guy breaking camp next to me thought when he saw me loading my pistol-grip 12 gauge shotgun into the front of my CRX. With the car loaded and breakfast consumed, we finally hit the road. State Highway 30 was littered with all manner of squashed innocent critters, but when Chani began barking (her first barks of the trip!) at a rather large specimen of raccoon, I knew I needed a picture. For a moment, I considered, like I do in Ada County, getting out of my car and dragging his carcass out of the road so other critters feeding on him later won’t cause a crash. But, I was in a hurry and shirked my duty. Besides, this is Utah! I’m not even in my home state. (Idaho, Christy, Idaho!) The trip into Wyoming was pleasant. The back-roads I took were mostly deserted on Sunday morning. It was cool enough I wore a sweatshirt, but not cold enough for me to roll the windows up while we drove. The scenery would have been awesome if there had been some sun. I caught one picture of a bird of prey aloft, and you can see the overcast skies behind him. The tank was approaching half (even though I’d only driven about 150 miles, so I decided to stop in the next town. The next town turned out to be the thriving metropolis of Kemmerer, WY, the home of the J.C. Penney company. I pulled into the Maverik and fueled up, putting 5.163 gallons of $3.65/gal gas into the tank, realizing immediately the single worst mileage day was over. Those 161.4 miles cost me $18.99. Muttering to myself as I got out the car, I stupidly left the key hanging from the ignition. Taking Scott’s advice, I removed everything but a single key ring. When I returned from yet another failed attempt to buy Rain-X, I realized my error. Fortunately, I had left the window cracked for Chani, even though it was still chilly. However, I didn’t leave it cracked –enough-. Despite my best effort, I could not wedge my arm far enough in to open the lock for fear of snapping the window. A couple of cowboys (I shit you not) were standing nearby and realized I was in trouble and approached. I once heard Wyoming is the only state losing population, and most of them are young people. One of the cowboys was a rather handsome, long-haired, slightly- bearded young man, in full regalia, replete with Wranglers, big belt buckle, cowboy boots, and a Carhartt vest over a colorful red shirt (No hat). I immediately assumed several things about his “Livingston Saturday Nights” and I envied him for them. While they pondered the situation, I got a flash of brilliance and realized the handle on the window-washing squeegee they had at the pumps was extra long and might do the trick, so I turned to walk back and get one. When I turned around, I could see the skinny cowboy had jammed his arm into my car and popped the lock. It was at that point I was very, very glad 1- to have my car door unlocked, but more importantly, 2- Chani loves people and did not attack this strange dude’s arm! Some guard dog. I gave the guy a $5 for a beer. He refused. I insisted, jamming it in his palm and walking away. With that crisis averted, we were back on the road. I consulted to atlas and figured Rock Springs would be a big enough town to have a McDonald’s with wi-fi. The GPS said we were about 2 hours from there. I plugged in the address and off we went. Chani did OK, for a while, but reverted back to her “try to get as far forward as I can” thing. After about an hour, her leaning on my shoulder finally made it start to ache and I yelled at her. And immediately felt bad about it. She cowered and looked sad. :-( When I made it to the Mickey D’s, I immediately set about checking the weather for the Laramie area, where I had intended to camp. The dark, ominous clouds following us since out departure for Utah made me nervous. While I am no stranger to camping in the rain, even then it’s not pleasant, and this is NOT a camping trip, it’s a road trip. The little forecast icon showed gray clouds, with little slashes of blue to represent rain, and big yellow lightning bolts. While I am crazy brave, I ain’t foolhardy stupid, so I cracked open the atlas and formed a new plan. I checked the forecast for a dozen cities and it seemed to me the bad weather was moving northeast (which is precisely the route I had planned). If I had stuck to my original route, I would have camped in the rain for three days straight before making it to Tim’s house for a night. I chose to try to skirt the bad weather (because it appears, after encountering a small shower in Laramie, I need new wipers. I guess Idaho summers ruin them every year!). I have people who love me in Colorado, and while the rain was headed that way, sleeping indoor during a thunderstorm doesn’t have the same time-sucking effects camping in that same storm does, so I called Kathy and told her to tell Ron I’d be making a surprise visit tonight. Sadly, Kathy and Ron are, like me, on an extended vacation and arent home. :-( Fortunately for me, though, they offered the use of their spacious abode here in Fort Collins for the night. Unfortunately, she told me neither her and Ron nor Richard and Ted are going to be able to come to Georgia for the “family reunion.” I think next year we hold it at Kathy’s house and make everyone else do the traveling! I jumped at the chance to sleep inside, on a soft surface (Chani doesn’t like the stairs, so we’re sleeping on the couch), and to prepare my supper on a full size stove. The neighbor left the key for me where Kathy said it would be and after defeating the alarm, I took Chani for a stroll around the house. She -loved- rolling in the grass. So much so, I could barely to get her to come in the house with me. Not having to set-up camp, I took the opportunity to hook up to the wi-fi, take a shower, wash some clothes, and start supper cooking. Being one for a challenge, I used virtually the same ingredients as last night (except for some extra pepper flakes I found in Kathy’s cupboard), and with it I made, what I think, is a perfectly passable ersatz Penne alla Arrabiata. As usual, I made too much, so there’s left-overs waiting for you, Kathy! I made arrangements with Ted to have a late lunch in Denver and I am now wondering how much more of a drive it is to Colorado Springs to have supper or drinks with Kellee. Right now, Chani is peacefully dozing on the soft carpet and I have been editing today’s pictures. I studied the atlas and worked out a new route. Assuming there’s no other monkey-wrenches thrown my way, I intend to be at Scott’s house on Thursday night. The rest of the schedule should remain the same. I promise I won’t stand you up (again), Sandy! Almost 2200 now….Time for some atlas reading and Old Crow! (oh, and todays pictures.)
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 03:58:54 +0000
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