Introduction
Nothing to do with Rotary, well, only a little and that just tangentially, but just felt the urge to write about the fabulous trip we’ve had through what I guess is the West of the mid-West U.S. We flew into Denver where, waiting for the shuttle bus to the car rental we met up with a Rotarian from Texas on his way to an Alzheimer’s convention (and yes, he did know where he was going he works for an Alzheimer’s charity). We made our way up to Windsor, Colorado, spending the night at the Porter House B&B Inn – very comfortable, but tip for arriving Brits, a chain hotel may be better for the first night, B&B’s tend to have set breakfast times, in this case 8:30 and with the time change you’re bound to be up early so it may not suit. We were out at 6:30 a.m. exploring the locale - Windsor is typical of many small US towns – it has a Main Street, but not a lot else and the original businesses have now been replaced by a mixture of collectables, the inevitable town newspaper, realtors, and cafes whereas the day-to-day stores are now located on the edge of town – actually come to think of it, just look at any UK suburb’s street and you’ll see the same thing.
When we planned the trip our destination was Mount Rushmore and all we planned for the journey to and from Denver was not to do the 400 miles in one day. So from there we planned in a night stop each way and some things to see along the way. Our trip was taking us through Wyoming and having discovered that Douglas would be the natural halfway point we found ourselves unable to book anywhere because the State Fair would be in town, so we had to take what for us seemed like second best – Casper, to which I’ll return in a bit.
Wyoming
Wyoming for those of us of a certain age means one thing – cattle ranches, cowboys and Indians and all those Western films and TV shows of our youth – Bonanza, Lone Ranger and so many more. So taking in Cheyenne was sort of like an unplanned pilgrimage to all those memories. In reality Cheyenne (the State Capital) grew up like so many towns with the advent of the railway in the 1860’s – the passenger station is now a museum and worth a visit, as is taking the trolley ride around the city. We found out lots about Wyoming – now consider this, Wyoming is the tenth largest state by land area, but has the smallest density of population, with only 544,000 residents. Statehood was only earned in 1879 by dint of a radical step – to secure the 30,000 souls needed to qualify as a state Wyoming took the bold and radical step of giving votes to women, some 40 plus years before we did so in the UK. Being the tenth largest state, Wyoming has about 90,000 square miles, which makes about 6 people per square mile. The London Borough of Hillingdon has a population of about half the size of Wyoming – one minor difference though, Hillingdon has an area of only 47 square miles, or 5,300 people per square mile! It doesn’t take a genius to work out the Wyoming has a lot of unpopulated space! And a lot of oil – well actually it used to have a lot of oil, it used to be the oil capital of the US in the 1920’s – most of the large deposits have been worked out but there are little oil wells everywhere still. Oh, and a lot of space in between, with the occasional town of population maybe 150, 200 and you think why? And then it’s clear, there are lots of places that do drilling, service equipment etc. Mustn’t forget coal either – Wyoming produced 450 million tons of coal last year and has some of the biggest open-cast coal mines (which are hideously ugly, but hey there’s plenty of space to lose them in) in the country. Oh, and wind farms – well there’s that space thing again. And the wind and the coal and the oil bring in the taxes that make the state work.
Casper
I said I’d go back to Casper. We stayed just the one night – not realising that Casper is close to being the great junction point of the massive westward migration that took place in the 1840’s to 1870’s. In those times more than half a million people made their way West to the “promised lands” of Oregon and California, some in search of gold, or to Utah along the Mormon Trail escaping persecution, in wagon trains, on horseback, or pushing handcarts on their 4-5 month journey made possible by the opening up of the West through Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of land from the French – a huge tract of land stretching from Louisiana all the way up through the mid-West to the Canadian border, making possible the eventual unification of what is now the United States. 20,000 died along the way. So many people went and became successful that getting mail there quickly became a priority, leading to the establishment of the Pony Express – which took a letter from West to East in just five days, but wasn’t cheap - $5 for a single letter. Lasting only 18 months, the Pony Express was overtaken by the completion of the Union Pacific railroad which could do the job faster and safer. We learned all this, and much more at the impressive National Trails Interpretive Center in Casper, which had been just an overnight stop for us. Just goes to show how much we don’t know!!
Driving across the wide open spaces of Wyoming is made easy by the lack of populus. Off the interstate highways, the state roads are well maintained, and a 65 mile an hour speed limit means that you will do 65 miles in an hour. That single vehicle way out there in front of you that you thought you’d catch – well 15 or 20 miles later he’s still just as far in front, and you’ve seen no one else going the same way – possibly a few going the other way. Making sure you have filled up is a good idea – the next gas station could be 70 miles away.
The big plus, and something we couldn’t get over, was just how friendly and generous everyone was – from the guy at the Interpretive Trails Center who couldn’t apologise enough that we didn’t qualify for the Senior (or Student) rate to the lady at breakfast in Casper who refused to charge for a full buffet when all one of us had was juice, cereal, yoghourt, pancakes and coffee – that clearly didn’t count as a proper breakfast in her eyes. Oh and the owner of the Subway in the middle of nowhere (actually the junction of two state roads) who wouldn’t let us pay for a second round of cookies when we enjoyed the first so much.
Lots of photos from the complete trip
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