Wyoming Long Weekend
Long Weekend in Wyoming
The Labour Day long weekend sneaked up on us as a bit of a surprise. We'd been so busy with innumerable projects around the house that we never gave much thought of getting away for a few days. Suddenly we realized there were three days in front of us that we could use as a break from life in Denver. We also realized that we hadn't gone anywhere since our trip to New Mexico nearly five months before. And so we packed up the usual clothing, toiletries and snacks and decided on an early Saturday morning departure, our goal being Glenrock, Wyoming.
Glenrock's claim to fame is a small museum featuring dinosaurs collected by Dr. Robert Bakker, a paleontologist renowned for his theories that dinosaurs were warm-blooded and that several different species had proto-feathers adorning their bodies. Proto-feathers you ask? An early type of feather that looks similar to modern day birds feathers, though not permitting flight and possibly utilized for warmth or mating displays. Several fossils of dinosaurs with primitive feathers have been found in China in recent years, bearing out Dr. Bakker's theories, theories he expounds ad nauseum on the Discovery Channel or on A & E. Because Christopher, now 11 years of age, is utterly fascinated by dinosaurs, it was he who put forth the idea of heading for the Glenrock Paleontological Museum, a four hour drive north of Denver.
Unfortunately, because I refuse to leave the house on holiday while it is in a state of disarray, the children spent a great deal of time cleaning up before we were to leave. However, because they dawdle it takes a long time for them to clean the house to my satisfaction. And in this case they took so long playing with the toys they were supposed to be putting away that a Saturday departure now became impossible. I didn't feel like embarking on a long drive and arriving at our destination just as it was getting dark. Yes, that's how long the children took cleaning up: from 8:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. So we decided we'd leave on Sunday instead.
Sunday morning arrived and we started to climb into the car. Maydee elected to drive as I had finished another chemotherapy session the previous Friday and was feeling rather run down. Normally I drove while on holiday, comparing Maydee's everyday driving abilities to my own were I seriously under the influence of alcohol. In this case it was prudent to let her steer as it was unlikely I'd make it out of the driveway without falling aleep. I did take the time though to throw our neighbour's three day newspaper collection onto their porch. The paperboy, in true American tradition, had tossed them onto Andy and Amie's driveway, thereby alerting would-be burglars that nobody was home over the weekend. It was apparent Andy, Amie and their children had also forsaken Denver for the long weekend.
I stayed awake nearly to the freeway entrance whereupon I fell into a deep slumber and was awoken only once two hours later when we stopped in Chugwater, Wyoming for a picnic lunch at a rest-stop. I was surprised we had made it so far in so short a time. I began to mentally calculate the distance from Denver to Chugwater, the time it had taken us to get there and thus determine whether Maydee had been speeding. Unfortunately, my head was so foggy that I gave it up as a lost cause and decided that probably she had been speeding slightly. I think Maydee was grateful I had been sleeping because on those rare occasions she drives while I navigate from the passenger seat she is subjected to innumerable pieces of advice like "slow down, you're speeding"; "watch out for the a) car ahead b) car beside us c) car behind us d) red light e)amber light f) family of four with their dog and stroller stopped in the middle of the intersection to pick up the milk bottle the occupant of the stroller has tossed into the roadway." At any rate we had made it to Chugwater safely and gobbled down some cold sausages and hard boiled eggs before loading up into the car again. At least we hadn't been pulled over for weaving from lane to lane like we had a few years earlier in California. I had been sleeping in the passenger seat then too.
While not exactly a fan of mini-vans, I had to say I rather liked Maydee's Grand Caravan, equipped as it is with three rows of seats. While the adults sat in front, the children sat in the rear, each having their own row to themselves. This prevented squabbling and arguing over crayons, books and papers. The van is also equipped with a premium sound system and music of the Ally and AJ variety can be faded into the rear speakers so the adults don't have to listen. A built in DVD player with surround sound also occupies the children's time, leaving me to sleep and Maydee to speed.
Two hours after Chugwater, we pulled into Glenrock and almost immediately found the museum. It was closed. Maydee was incensed that we had wasted four hours driving to a one-horse town whose only attraction was closed on Sundays and Mondays, thereby precluding an overnight stay and seeing the museum on the morrow. Christopher, surprisingly, was not as dissapointed as I imagined he would have been. Instead he actually apologised for a wasted four hour drive and said he should have called the museum to find out its operating hours. We told him not to worry about it as we should have checked as well and if it hadn't occurred to us to do so, then we could hardly blame him. Victoria scowled in the background hoping to see Christopher catch a yelling.
After mulling over some tourist maps we had picked up, we decided to drive back down the freeway a few miles to see the Ayres Natural Bridge State Park. Here, over the course of millions of years, a river wore away at a wall of rock eventually creating an opening, which grew larger and larger as time passed until a natural bridge was formed. Located just two miles from the Oregon Trail, the bridge and the surrounding area provided a safe haven for settlers travelling west in the 1800's. Legend has it that an Indian was struck and killed by lightning on top of the bridge and since that time local Indians would not go anywhere near the place. Settlers in the area, therefore, were safe fom attack.
We spent a couple of hours at Ayres Natural Bridge on some short hikes, one of which took us on top of the bridge itself, which afforded wonderful views of the countryside about. What should have been an easy climb for me actually took up a great deal of energy owing to my chemotherapy treatment and while I rested once we reached the bottom again I watched Christopher and Victoria scramble over some loose rock formations underneath a precipitous overhang. Suddenly Christopher gave out a loud whoop of joy which could mean only one thing: a snake sighting. Sure enough, Christopher emerged from the rocks with a large garter snake which he proceeded to show off to other children in a nearby playground. The boys were fascinated, the girls less so until Victoria took possession of the snake and let it curl around her arm like some elongated reptilian bracelet. Some of the girls then became more interested and one or two actually deigned to touch the snake, though none had the courage to wear it like Victoria. Just then a loud song burst out from the adjacent picnic area and while I didn't catch all the words, it was apparent we had stumbled aross an evangelical Christian outing. For fear of being exhorted for playing with one of Lucifer's pets, as well as for suborning their offspring to evil incarnate and being forcibly tossed into the river in a mandatory 'Ye shall be born again whether ye like it or not' ceremony, I made Christopher return the snake whence it came, presumably a hole leading directly to the Devil's Den below. Having done that, thereby escaping an unwelcome bath and a starring role in Deliverance 2, we set forth for Douglas, Wy., where we intended to stay the night prior to visiting Fort Fetterman the following day.
I promptly fell asleep once we hit the highway again, but was awoken a short time later by Maydee asking which exit into Douglas we should take. I said to take exit 140 as it seemed that's where most of the hotels and motels were located. The one necessity we require in guest lodging is a pool for the children to swim in. The first hotel off the exit ramp was a Best Western advertising such an amenity and so we pulled up outside. Suddenly the children startd screaming from the back seats. "It's Miss Amie, It's Miss Amie." Still half asleep I didn't quite understand what was going on until I saw our neighbour's SUV parked in front of us and Amie starting to unpack their belongings. Well this was a turn up of the plus fours. Smack dab in the middle of Nowhere Wyoming we run into our neighbours checking into the same hotel. Andy emerged from the lobby with his kids, Rigo and Cammy and our children and theirs linked arms and did a dance of delight. Victoria even went so far as to ask whether she and Cammy could have a sleep-over!
Once settled in, we all went out for Chinese. The place looked grotesque from the outside, but the food was really quite good. Afterwards we returned to the motel and the kids went swimmng. As for me, I went straight to sleep, utterly exhausted after sleeping all day. The following morning saw us head for Ft. Fetterman.
Ft. Fetterman was built in 1867 to control the immediate territory from Plains Indians attacks on settlers moving west. It also served as a major supply point for cavalry units fighting Indians elsewhere, but by all accounts Ft. Fetterman was a hardship post. This was due more to winter weather than to anything else. The Fort had been inadvisedly built on top of a high plateau which allowed all the ferocity of winter's ice, snow and winds to travel through the camp unimpeded. Nevertheless, the Fort persevered until 1882 when it outlived its usefulness. The Plains Indians had been forced onto reservations and the military abandoned the Fort. Today there isn't much left, just a few original (restored) buildings and an interpretive trail which lets you imagine what life must have been like living at the Fort. To my mind, Ft. Laramie, Wy. and Ft. Union N.M. are much better examples of military outposts built in the 1800's. Nevertheless, Ft. Fetterman was interesting in its way, though not interesting enough to keep me from falling asleep again on the way home.
We pulled into our driveway at 2:00 o'clock and unpacked the car. Amie and Andy pulled into their driveway shortly afterwards. We waved at one another before I climbed the stairs and lay down on the bed for a rest.
The Labour Day long weekend sneaked up on us as a bit of a surprise. We'd been so busy with innumerable projects around the house that we never gave much thought of getting away for a few days. Suddenly we realized there were three days in front of us that we could use as a break from life in Denver. We also realized that we hadn't gone anywhere since our trip to New Mexico nearly five months before. And so we packed up the usual clothing, toiletries and snacks and decided on an early Saturday morning departure, our goal being Glenrock, Wyoming.
Glenrock's claim to fame is a small museum featuring dinosaurs collected by Dr. Robert Bakker, a paleontologist renowned for his theories that dinosaurs were warm-blooded and that several different species had proto-feathers adorning their bodies. Proto-feathers you ask? An early type of feather that looks similar to modern day birds feathers, though not permitting flight and possibly utilized for warmth or mating displays. Several fossils of dinosaurs with primitive feathers have been found in China in recent years, bearing out Dr. Bakker's theories, theories he expounds ad nauseum on the Discovery Channel or on A & E. Because Christopher, now 11 years of age, is utterly fascinated by dinosaurs, it was he who put forth the idea of heading for the Glenrock Paleontological Museum, a four hour drive north of Denver.
Unfortunately, because I refuse to leave the house on holiday while it is in a state of disarray, the children spent a great deal of time cleaning up before we were to leave. However, because they dawdle it takes a long time for them to clean the house to my satisfaction. And in this case they took so long playing with the toys they were supposed to be putting away that a Saturday departure now became impossible. I didn't feel like embarking on a long drive and arriving at our destination just as it was getting dark. Yes, that's how long the children took cleaning up: from 8:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. So we decided we'd leave on Sunday instead.
Sunday morning arrived and we started to climb into the car. Maydee elected to drive as I had finished another chemotherapy session the previous Friday and was feeling rather run down. Normally I drove while on holiday, comparing Maydee's everyday driving abilities to my own were I seriously under the influence of alcohol. In this case it was prudent to let her steer as it was unlikely I'd make it out of the driveway without falling aleep. I did take the time though to throw our neighbour's three day newspaper collection onto their porch. The paperboy, in true American tradition, had tossed them onto Andy and Amie's driveway, thereby alerting would-be burglars that nobody was home over the weekend. It was apparent Andy, Amie and their children had also forsaken Denver for the long weekend.
I stayed awake nearly to the freeway entrance whereupon I fell into a deep slumber and was awoken only once two hours later when we stopped in Chugwater, Wyoming for a picnic lunch at a rest-stop. I was surprised we had made it so far in so short a time. I began to mentally calculate the distance from Denver to Chugwater, the time it had taken us to get there and thus determine whether Maydee had been speeding. Unfortunately, my head was so foggy that I gave it up as a lost cause and decided that probably she had been speeding slightly. I think Maydee was grateful I had been sleeping because on those rare occasions she drives while I navigate from the passenger seat she is subjected to innumerable pieces of advice like "slow down, you're speeding"; "watch out for the a) car ahead b) car beside us c) car behind us d) red light e)amber light f) family of four with their dog and stroller stopped in the middle of the intersection to pick up the milk bottle the occupant of the stroller has tossed into the roadway." At any rate we had made it to Chugwater safely and gobbled down some cold sausages and hard boiled eggs before loading up into the car again. At least we hadn't been pulled over for weaving from lane to lane like we had a few years earlier in California. I had been sleeping in the passenger seat then too.
While not exactly a fan of mini-vans, I had to say I rather liked Maydee's Grand Caravan, equipped as it is with three rows of seats. While the adults sat in front, the children sat in the rear, each having their own row to themselves. This prevented squabbling and arguing over crayons, books and papers. The van is also equipped with a premium sound system and music of the Ally and AJ variety can be faded into the rear speakers so the adults don't have to listen. A built in DVD player with surround sound also occupies the children's time, leaving me to sleep and Maydee to speed.
Two hours after Chugwater, we pulled into Glenrock and almost immediately found the museum. It was closed. Maydee was incensed that we had wasted four hours driving to a one-horse town whose only attraction was closed on Sundays and Mondays, thereby precluding an overnight stay and seeing the museum on the morrow. Christopher, surprisingly, was not as dissapointed as I imagined he would have been. Instead he actually apologised for a wasted four hour drive and said he should have called the museum to find out its operating hours. We told him not to worry about it as we should have checked as well and if it hadn't occurred to us to do so, then we could hardly blame him. Victoria scowled in the background hoping to see Christopher catch a yelling.
After mulling over some tourist maps we had picked up, we decided to drive back down the freeway a few miles to see the Ayres Natural Bridge State Park. Here, over the course of millions of years, a river wore away at a wall of rock eventually creating an opening, which grew larger and larger as time passed until a natural bridge was formed. Located just two miles from the Oregon Trail, the bridge and the surrounding area provided a safe haven for settlers travelling west in the 1800's. Legend has it that an Indian was struck and killed by lightning on top of the bridge and since that time local Indians would not go anywhere near the place. Settlers in the area, therefore, were safe fom attack.
We spent a couple of hours at Ayres Natural Bridge on some short hikes, one of which took us on top of the bridge itself, which afforded wonderful views of the countryside about. What should have been an easy climb for me actually took up a great deal of energy owing to my chemotherapy treatment and while I rested once we reached the bottom again I watched Christopher and Victoria scramble over some loose rock formations underneath a precipitous overhang. Suddenly Christopher gave out a loud whoop of joy which could mean only one thing: a snake sighting. Sure enough, Christopher emerged from the rocks with a large garter snake which he proceeded to show off to other children in a nearby playground. The boys were fascinated, the girls less so until Victoria took possession of the snake and let it curl around her arm like some elongated reptilian bracelet. Some of the girls then became more interested and one or two actually deigned to touch the snake, though none had the courage to wear it like Victoria. Just then a loud song burst out from the adjacent picnic area and while I didn't catch all the words, it was apparent we had stumbled aross an evangelical Christian outing. For fear of being exhorted for playing with one of Lucifer's pets, as well as for suborning their offspring to evil incarnate and being forcibly tossed into the river in a mandatory 'Ye shall be born again whether ye like it or not' ceremony, I made Christopher return the snake whence it came, presumably a hole leading directly to the Devil's Den below. Having done that, thereby escaping an unwelcome bath and a starring role in Deliverance 2, we set forth for Douglas, Wy., where we intended to stay the night prior to visiting Fort Fetterman the following day.
I promptly fell asleep once we hit the highway again, but was awoken a short time later by Maydee asking which exit into Douglas we should take. I said to take exit 140 as it seemed that's where most of the hotels and motels were located. The one necessity we require in guest lodging is a pool for the children to swim in. The first hotel off the exit ramp was a Best Western advertising such an amenity and so we pulled up outside. Suddenly the children startd screaming from the back seats. "It's Miss Amie, It's Miss Amie." Still half asleep I didn't quite understand what was going on until I saw our neighbour's SUV parked in front of us and Amie starting to unpack their belongings. Well this was a turn up of the plus fours. Smack dab in the middle of Nowhere Wyoming we run into our neighbours checking into the same hotel. Andy emerged from the lobby with his kids, Rigo and Cammy and our children and theirs linked arms and did a dance of delight. Victoria even went so far as to ask whether she and Cammy could have a sleep-over!
Once settled in, we all went out for Chinese. The place looked grotesque from the outside, but the food was really quite good. Afterwards we returned to the motel and the kids went swimmng. As for me, I went straight to sleep, utterly exhausted after sleeping all day. The following morning saw us head for Ft. Fetterman.
Ft. Fetterman was built in 1867 to control the immediate territory from Plains Indians attacks on settlers moving west. It also served as a major supply point for cavalry units fighting Indians elsewhere, but by all accounts Ft. Fetterman was a hardship post. This was due more to winter weather than to anything else. The Fort had been inadvisedly built on top of a high plateau which allowed all the ferocity of winter's ice, snow and winds to travel through the camp unimpeded. Nevertheless, the Fort persevered until 1882 when it outlived its usefulness. The Plains Indians had been forced onto reservations and the military abandoned the Fort. Today there isn't much left, just a few original (restored) buildings and an interpretive trail which lets you imagine what life must have been like living at the Fort. To my mind, Ft. Laramie, Wy. and Ft. Union N.M. are much better examples of military outposts built in the 1800's. Nevertheless, Ft. Fetterman was interesting in its way, though not interesting enough to keep me from falling asleep again on the way home.
We pulled into our driveway at 2:00 o'clock and unpacked the car. Amie and Andy pulled into their driveway shortly afterwards. We waved at one another before I climbed the stairs and lay down on the bed for a rest.
posted by alex malcolm at 7:49 pm
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