Now that Blogger has decided to give me access to my blog, I can finally update on my trip to the states.
After taking a short ride from Denver to Casper on a small prop plane, I was welcomed to Casper with the wind and Mike. Mike picked me up at the airport in a behemoth of a truck. It was his company truck, a Heavy Duty Ford F350. It was pretty sweet and the topic of many of my jokes/comments throughout the rest of my trip.
That first night we didn't do all to much, simply went back to see his house (thats right, Mike is a home owner) and make some delicious pasta dinner. I mainly spectated, Mike and Gina made most of the dinner.
That night we just relaxed and watched movies. The next day Mike and I woke up early and headed to the gym. We did pretty well of making this our morning routine of getting up early and working out. Was nice, I normally am really bad in the mornings, but having someone else there to push me to go was great.
The gym was funny, although a fully functional gym, when you walked in they didn't ask for any identification or anything. I guess if you know about the gym, you must be a member. So Mike (who is a member), and myself just walked in each day. By the third day the lady at the desk even recognized me and said hello.
On my first full day in Casper, Mike and I went to see the Pioneer Museum where I learned all about the Oregon Trail, Pony Express, and many other adventures of pioneers heading west back in the day. I learned that the pioneers heading west was the largest non forced migration in human history. Something like 400 000 people traveled west.
I think the museum was built somewhat for children, but Mike and I had a good time all the same.
Pretty Sweet Bison Skull
Mike puling a wagon.
My second day in Casper was spent doing MENS WORK! Mike is selling his Bronco and we needed to clean up the engine and also get it running again. After a quick trip to a motor shop we got a bunch of supplied to get the engine fuel intake working again. This involved Mike fiddling with stuff under the hood and me sitting in the drivers seat turning the key on demand.
After a little while, we got it working again.
Mike jump starting his truck from his other truck
Just to demonstrate the behemoth that is his work truck
Mike hard at work
Mikes house, it came with the skull. SWEET!
Once we got the truck all cleaned up we went up into the mountains for some sightseeing. There were some really steep roads which would have been amazing for biking, check out this road carved on the mountain. We drove up it, some parts easily well above 10%.
View of Casper from a lookout on the mountain
Once we got over the mountain there was a valley and snow on the other side, unfortunately the road was closed off due to the snow, but we got out and took some photos. It was crazy windy and just starting to snow, the clouds were really blowing in.
Random broken down barn.
My attempt at demonstrating how much wind there is
Mike and I drove to the end of the road, check out that truck, its huge! Mike is tall to begin with
When we got back to the lookout the clouds were coming over the mountain. I tried to get a few photos of it but none of them really give it any justice.
This is probably the best photo of the clouds just gliding down the side of the mountain
On our way back to town we saw some wildlife. We had actually seen quite a bit of it, but never this close up. I have no idea what these were called, I think American Antelope or something, someone correct me...
Following our little nature expedition, was dinner and a movie, we went to see the international, I thought it was pretty good.
Friday was my last day in the states. We went out for breakfast, and then did a little shopping. I wanted a belt buckle and boy did I find one!
Check it out.
Then we did the long drive to Denver where Mike dropped me off at the airport. Wyoming wasn't quite what I expected, I thought it was pan flat other than the rockies, however there were random flat top mountains all over. I wish I had gotten a photo, but my camera broke.
All in all a fantastic trip!
Parting thoughts on Wyoming that I found interesting:
- In Wyoming, you can't recycle, apparently the state doesn't have a facility for it so everything simply goes in the trash. Being a neighboring state to Colorado and coming from Vancouver this seemed crazy.
- Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE has a truck. One day we drove in Gina's car and I felt like less of a man in Wyoming, and she has a nice car.
- Gas prices are ridiculous there. Mike's truck took 38 gallons of gas for 68$. This got us the 300 miles to Denver. Convert that to Canadian. 150 liter tank, brought us 500km. Had we not been driving a diesel truck, prices would have been 30% cheaper.
- The current threat level in the airport is ALWAYS at orange.
Anyways, thanks Mike for the hospitality. Sorry this post too so long to get put up. I blame it on two things, first blogger sucked this past week, and you introduced me to the show Weeds. Well, now I'm all caught up.
Take Care!
2 comments:
Vince, I would say you have a little truck envy :)I think that belt buckle will help a bit though.
A little truck envy for everything except the gas guzzling quality. I think my wallet would be hurting from that. And yeah, the belt buckle makes me feel awesome every time I wear it.
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