Cheyenne, Wy

Friday, May 13, 2011 (day 238)
and Saturday, May 14, 2011 (day 239)

Up early and driving on! The wind was blowing, the rain was falling, and we were hoping for better weather further west. Nebraska is a long state to drive across east to west…farmland eventually turned into ranchland, and we began a very gradual climb. We left an elevation of 1600 feet above sea level, and ended up at 6200 feet above sea level! Trees disappeared, and scrub brush appeared.

Windy, 45 degrees, and GRAY



We didn’t realize how high we were climbing until we stopped for the night outside Cheyenne, Wyoming. We drove to Terry Bison Ranch RV. It’s a place people go to see buffalo, ride horses, eat at a restaurant (bison burgers and steaks) and camp. It was a very nice camp, but the weather had definitely turned, and the altitude made it worse. The wind was whipping around and the temperature was falling. We were also feeling the effects of the altitude, which gave us slight headaches and a tired feeling.


We went 5 miles into Colorado before we could turn around




We had planned to stay in Cheyenne on Saturday, and look around the capital city. But:
1) The capitol building was closed
2) The weather was really, really windy and cold
3) The camp would only give us our camp club discount for one night…..so



We spent the night within .2 miles of the border



We took a little bit of time in Cheyenne to visit a quilt shop (very nice!) and do a few geocaches. There was one geocache on the border between Wyoming and Colorado, going north on I 25, and one going south on I 25. Harris parked on one side of the freeway and ran across the blessedly –not- busy- road to get the caches.

We came right back to Wyoming



Then we headed back to I 80 and west to Salt Lake City. When we left Cheyenne, it was 45 degrees. As we climbed up the mountains, we started finding snow on the side of the road and the temperature dropped to a low of 29 degrees as we reached 8100 feet. We crossed the Continental Divide and started a gradual decline. The temperature started to climb back up, and at one point actually reached 60!

There was still snow by the road!




We’re hoping to take a break from long driving days and are also hoping the weather improves. It’s still blowing and gray out, like another storm is brewing. We’ve stopped at the Pony Express RV resort outside of Salt Lake City.


Total miles driven today 460 miles