One prairie dog, one antelope, two shots total. I also got some serious sunburn on the back of my neck, making me a genuine redneck, if only temporarily. Wyoming (at least that part of it) was a dry, scrubby place I probably would not like to live in, especially if what I heard about the highway regularly being closed for prolonged periods in winter is accurate. The “Moose Drool” beer was pretty good. I did not sample the prairie oysters on offer at one of the eateries.
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September 30, 2009 at 8:28 pm
The west is getting drier all the time, save perhaps the Pacific northwest. California’s fire season is at least half the year at this point. Seems like we are undergoing a desertification. The cliche is that everyone wants to go to California, but having lived here my whole life, I was more impressed by the lush vegetation and greenery of eastern Alabama, of all places. Chalk it up to my evolutionary past, but the existential threat of a lack of water haunts me.
Of course I’m not into surfing and sunning etiher, so if I were maybe I’d relish the cliche of Cali life.
But I’m only talking about weather here. On most other issues…
September 30, 2009 at 8:57 pm
If WY is like MT, which I’ve crossed lengthwise on the ground, it’s pretty shortgrassy everywhere but the mountains.
I’ve hiked in north GA in May and it was quite nice, but I’ll bet it’s heck in high summer – the humidity, not the heat.
September 30, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Dain, I’m reminded of Sailer’s bit on golf courses and our evolutionary past.
Yup, there was just grass for grazing animals, though it didn’t look a whole lot of it per acre.
October 2, 2009 at 4:20 am
What part of Wyoming were you in?
I spent a good bit of time there in my 20s, and got to like even the scrubby, semi-desert areas (most of the state), which take some getting used to. In 1987, I drove across Wyoming in a Datsun pickup truck minus the drivers’side door (I’d had a wreck in Idaho). This was on the heels of one of the worst blizzards of the past 20 years, and in the mornings the temps were below 0 (20 below on one occasion). Truly epic, but not a trip I’d ever wish to repeat. I think I wound up with the beginnings of frostbite on my toes somewhere along the way.
October 3, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I was around Laramie.
That does sound epic, and I would certainly not like experiencing it whether for the first or any subsequent time.