A few weeks back we had a surprise visit from our friend, Lynn. We met her over a year ago at a Women Go Solo get together in North Georgia. She had been traveling out west for the last few months and made a special trip to drop in and see us at our current gig. We were so busy catching up on travel stories and the like that we didn’t even take any photos but here’s an old one from our get together in GA.
Lynn relaxed and recouped from her travels for about four days before moving on. It sure was good to see her!
Next, Nicole’s brother, Alex, braved the questionable living arrangements and non-carnivorous food options to drop in on us for a week. OK, truth be told, he stayed in a hotel and obtained his own meat laden meals but we didn’t hold that against him.
Wyoming welcomed him with beautiful weather and loads of animal activity. In fact, he saw his first Pronghorn only a few minutes after landing as we were leaving the airport.
Vedauwoo didn’t disappoint with a Mother and baby moose sighting the next day.
And two more young bulls making an appearance the following day, as well.
Alex is into ‘old stuff’ so he did some tours in Laramie of the Territorial Prison where Butch Cassidy once was held and the historic Ivinson Mansion. He, Nicole and Lou made a day trip down into Colorado to view the remains of petrified Redwood trees. Yes, Redwoods in Colorado!
The remains pictured above are of ‘The Big One’.
Despite 35 million years of erosion, a ponderosa is still dwarfed by it.
We made a side trip to Garden of the Gods on the way home.
The Ames monument sits only a few miles from Vedauwoo. It represents what used to be the highest point on the transcontinental route and is dedicated to Ames brothers who were instrumental in the construction of the railroad.
One evening, we decided to take Dale up on his offer to watch the sunset from the top of the rocks. Although you can climb the front of the rocks you can also meander you way to the top without gear, as well.
Dale strikes a very proud pose at one of three manmade structures on (what we assume to be) an old Civilian Conservation Corps trail that he discovered. It took us to the top for an amazing view of the valley.
And a beautiful sunset…
What’s a sunset without Hershey’s Minis?!
For his Birthday Alex decided to indulge his passion for all things old and signed up to be able to dig at a real excavation site for dinosaur bones. This was in the town of Thermopolis (worlds largest hot springs) so he took in a soak while he was there too!
He had read about remnants of the Oregon Trail not far from Vedauwoo so he, Nicole and Darlene took a drive up to see them with side trips to a historical museum in Cheyenne and to Gurnsey State Park. Gurnsey is reported as one of the jewels of Wyoming and it didn’t disappoint despite the smokey gray sky caused by a large fire in Idaho.
Although it takes some imagination, the Oregon Trail ruts are something to see as they are one of the best preserved sections on the entire trail (which from what we could tell is mostly just a sandy path now). 
The animals did not stop disappointing and even on our ride home in the dark from Gurnsey we spotted a porcupine crossing the road. None of us had ever seen a porcupine in the wild before.
We had a wonderful week with Alex and were thrilled to be able to introduce him to our current home state of Wyoming.
