Day-2 Utah and Wyoming -to- Ft. Collins,CO

I made it to Ft.Collins!    What a day!    601 miles through very interesting landscapes.  

What a joy to be writing this post, sitting in Marty & Jessie's dining room listening to Jessie play

piano.    Marty is reading a brochure I brought back from Okinawa.   Dinner was delicious!

A Buddha bowl consisting of quinoa, chicken, beets, chard, purple rice, and Tahini sauce.

The morning started out in the dark in Idaho.   A benefit for me in starting out this early,

is the searching for radio stations on the AM dial.   This morning I 'pulled-in' stations from

Calgary, Prince Albert, Great Falls, and San Francisco.    What a treat!   This enjoyment only

lasted a little while.    A not-so-great treat of early dark driving, especially out in the country,

is the possibility of wild game crossing the road.     White-knuckle driving ensued as myself 

and a bevy of semi's came upon 'deer crossing' or 'deer migration route' or 'game crossing'

signs every 1/4 mile! for the 30 preceding miles before Snowville, Utah.    Don't need coffee

when you're awaiting a herd of flying hooves!    Another white-knuckle time came later.

Most of us pulled off the highway at the Snowville exit and got some coffee at the Flying J.

Also stopped at a rest stop to unwind and took a selfie :

Continued on the I-84 route passing towns .. Blue Creek, Tremonton, Elwood, Honeyville,

Brigham City, Willard, Ogden, Mountain Green, Croydon, Echo, Wahsatch, .. and then

while just passing the intersection of I-84 and I-80, saw a rock formation that Larry would

enjoy ...  Larry -   this one's for you!    (sorry it's not a 'ruin' or column or architecture pc)

Just past Evanston, Wyoming I pulled off to visit Fort Bridger.   Here's the historical sign :

I-80 along Southern Wyoming is a geologic wonder!   Tabletop mesas and buttes are everywhere!

All of Wyoming was under the Western Interior Seaway in the mid to late Cretaceous period.

What a treat this area would have been to dive on!

The next coolest thing, and a favorite of mine, are the Wyoming SNOW FENCES!   They're

lined-up in rows, ready to battle the driven snow.    Just as Washington State grows the most

hops, I'm sure that Wyoming has more snow fences that any other state.

Visited Fort Steele next :

This is why it's such a long day on the road.   Many interesting things to stop and see!

The next white-knuckled driving experience happened in the 'mighty wind' area which is the

100 miles between Rawlins and Laramie.  Maybe since they were(are) both prison towns, the spirits

decided to always have things stirred up.   40-50 mph gusts are very common and from multiple

directions!    YIKES!    Get behind a semi and hunker down.

This part of Wyoming has been disrupting traveler's journeys for 175 years and more!    A story-

When Jessie was a junior in college, we needed to make a swap of cars with her.    I drove out from

Oregon and was making good time until Rawlins.   I-80 was closed in both directions due to winds

and blowing snow.    We were ALL re-routed via the historical Mormon hand-cart road up to 

Casper, crawling along at 25mph.    Once at Casper I called Jim & Carol and shocked the heck out

of them.    I proceeded down I-25 and made it to Golden.

Today's drive from Laramie via Highway 287 to Ft. Collins was very interesting.   I had forgotten

how beautiful this drive was.   AND .. pronghorn antelope were everywhere!    Very neat.

Next three days are in Ft. Collins with Marty and Jessie, Colorado Eagles hockey game on Friday,

Denver Pioneers hockey game on Saturday.     What fun!

accumulated trip mileage :  1193

next driving destination  .. Monday..  is Albuquerque.