Truckin'

July 3, 2012


Going out of order here, but a few thoughts on our drive from Cheyenne to Cody on July 3...


The first time I was ever in Wyoming was the mid nineties with my friend Kathy.  We flew in and out of Denver (sound familiar?), skied Vail and Steamboat and then headed up for a few days in Jackson.  And if you make the drive from Denver to Jackson, you basically head North to Cheyenne, make a hard left turn, and set your cruise control at 80-something.  A few hours later, you get your first glimpse of the Grand Tetons and pull over to take a picture.  And then, about four hours after that, you realize the mountains don't appear to have gotten any closer.  You can just see forever across this amazing, endless prairie.  But then you get there, and you realize why you made that drive.

With full knowledge of that, we still decided a few months ago that we would take a stab at putting the kids through that same journey.  Books on tape, journals, ipods... surely they could deal with a long, somewhat dull drive in the car.  And with only a few moments to the contrary, they absolutely did.  This time, the drive was to the eastern side of Yellowstone, heading up to Cody, WY.  And it was as long as advertised, but there is an important lesson here, too... one I doubt the kids can grasp today, but something they can hold onto for the future.


Without getting too philosophical here, you can't always focus on the destination or you'll miss out on the ride.  And since most of your life is spent working to achieve some goal, you'd miss a lot if you don't pay attention to the journey.  And with the aid of a map and Siri, we got to drive through the Wind River Canyon, which, we didn't even realize existed when we landed in Denver.  One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen for sure (and loaded with monster trout!).  We met some unbelievably nice people at Sherrie's Place in Casper and had four of the best milkshakes (30+ flavors!) you could ever get.  We found out that Thermopolis has hot springs you can swim in and one of the top dinosaur exhibits in the world.  And in hindsight, even when there is a breakdown from one of your kids that you cannot fathom the logic behind, that can become part of the story, as well.  And we found out that you can experience a lot even when you are stuck in a car for an entire day.