Thursday, September 4, 2014

Moving on to Cowboy Country

As we traveled north this morning, we talked about some of the things we learned about Colorado on this trip.  Here are a few topics we covered:

·        The speed limit on the interstates is 75; on the backroads, 65.

·        Many motorcyclists do not wear helmets, so there must not be a helmet law; most bicyclists do wear helmets.

·        Colorado has gold mines that produce over $1 million of gold a day.

·        Aspen groves are abundant here; the tree begins with one seed and spreads by root.

·         Ponderosa pines can be identified by their red bark.  If you smell the bark, it has a vanilla or caramel scent.  (I caught Robin smelling a tree trunk today!).

As we were leaving Estes Park yesterday, Robin wanted to stop in an outdoor sports shop to check out the fishing flies.

Hand-tied trout flies - waiting to catch a fisherman!

He asked the clerk who tied all the flies, and she said she and another woman did most of them and that she herself has tied over 100,000 elk-hair caddis (a little fly that looks like a grasshopper and is the #1 fly in the country).  With the Big Thompson River and these wonderful flies right there, Robin regretted that his fly rods were back in Richmond.

After we left Estes Park, we drove through Big Thompson Canyon following alongside the river.  What an amazing feat of engineering—to carve that road through those rock walls.  One year ago this week the area experienced major

The Big Thompson River in Big Thompson Canyon

flooding, and we witnessed the flood damage to the homes, businesses, and bridges.  The community continues to raise funds to help with the rebuilding.

When we entered Wyoming,

the first thing we noticed was that the speed limit increased to 80 mph on the highway.  Neither Robin nor I had ever been to Nebraska, which was 37 miles east, so we veered off our path and headed that way—just to add another state to our ever-increasing list.Before we reached the Wyoming/Nebraska border, I suggested we stop for a restroom break.  Robin suggested we continue on to the Nebraska Welcome Center.  Problem was—when we got to Nebraska,

it was a big empty.  There was no Welcome Center.  We saw a small highway sign that read: “Travel information, call ---.”  After several miles, we decided to exit and turn back to Wyoming.  When we got to the end of the exit ramp, we saw another sign that read: “Paved road ends.”

The road to Nebraska and I-25, the main highway north and south through Colorado and Wyoming, make a straight path through rolling plains with few distractions along the way, not even billboards.  Houses and businesses seldom appear.  I can picture cowboys riding their horses on these prairies, although we didn’t see any.

Tonight we are in Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming.  We wanted to get a little further up the road; however, we saw a sign that read, “Last gas for 66 miles,” and decided we’d better turn around and stop in Cheyenne.  If there is no gas, we probably wouldn’t have found a place to stay either.  Our server told us tonight that Cheyenne has 59,000 residents and that the whole state of Wyoming has only 500,000.  Denver has more citizens than all of Wyoming!

We're staying right beside the route of the first transcontinental railroad - still in use!