Lander, Wyoming: Day 2 of Labor Day Weekend Trip

This morning we woke up and went to church in Rawlins, then hit the road for Lander to the northwest. It was an overcast day but we managed to take lots of photographs and here are some beautiful shots of landscape, a covered wagon from a bathroom stop, the bathroom stall wall (I just love the rocks embedded in it) and some granite that I have samples of in my own house from other roadtrips. It was another fun day! Tomorrow we will see more of Wyoming and then head home.

Yellow Flowers

Sunset in Wyoming

Vedauwoo Rocks

Wyoming Weekend

Some people drive for miles in order to reach a destination. Grady and I drive because we just love the road trip itself. It is the journey and not the destination that we find is most important. We take long drives once we reach a central hotel--in this case, Rawlins, Wyoming--and use a reputable guide book to explore the scenic byways and dirt roads and historic sites and just----ohhhhhh--scenery! Rocks! Mountains! Prairie dogs and golden eagles and Western bluebirds and even today, a crane! Unfortunately my camera does not respond quickly enough to most of the wildlife shots but there is an antelope in one of my pictures,with him crossing the road in full splendor. Grady patiently parks the car while I find treasure troves of rocks--today it was some sparkly white, translucent rocks (probably some kind of marble), and some pinkish quartz and big chunks of unidentifable gems that make me feel richer than any diamond miner. I have rocks now in every room of the house. Last night I appreciated a rest stop that had the booth walls decorated with rocks embedded in concrete. What a great idea! Anyway, here are some of our pictures. One of them was at Vedauwoo Rocks, right outside of Cheyenne and a state park where the girls, Aunt Sara and I had stopped about twelve years ago on an earlier Western roadtrip. Hannah and Becky and Sara and I had climbed on some beautiful rocks for a couple of hours as a break from cross-country driving. I had forgotten the name of the place until we stopped there today. Vadauwoo means "earth born" and was a sacred place for the Arapaho peoples.

Boney Rules

Boney is our pet horse. Actually, he is a stuffed Appaloosa but we spend a lot of time with him every day as he pontificates and becomes colorful with all kinds of opinons on EVERYTHING. He is a scientist, with special interests in cosmology and astrophysics (we watched all of Deep Space 9 and Star Trek Voyager together; currently we are watching Steven Hawkings: THE UNIVERSE); he is a swimmer (he swims the English Channel in a variety of ways); he's a great psychotherapist (he lets us talk, talk, talk and he listens, listens, listens--then he has something interesting to say!). He makes us laugh and he enhances our enjoyment of life, keeping our hearts happy when we have had a bad day and sharing the good moments with us as well. Here is an artist's rendition of our dear friend. (painted by Grady,of course).