After a relaxing day two in Salt Lake which included a free concert on the lawn with Jenny Lewis and Bon Iver [happiness], we took off for about 450 miles on I-80 through Wyoming.
Now, Wyoming has been terrifically endeared to me in the last 8 hours of driving, and it’s not just because we saw 5 real live cowboys driving their cattle as we crossed in from Utah. It’s also because this quiet state has been such a pioneer over the years.
Did you know that Wyoming is the least lived-in state in the Union, and was the first to grant womens’ suffrage? It was also the first state with a female governor, too, elected in the tender year of 1925. Her name was Nellie. Nellie T. Ross.
But really, it was the pre-rodeo that we crashed just before leaving Wyoming that did me in with happiness. I talked with a professional rodeo clown and played with his unloved puppy. I spent a whole Holga roll on the horses, cowboys, and the bulls we found there. One bull charged at me after snapping a shot too close. I freaked out and laughed so simultaneously strong that an adrenaline rush sent me headward into an I-love-Wyoming song until we reached Colorado on colourful Rt. 287. We’ll soon pull into Rocky Mountain National Park. Life is good. 
5 Comments
July 11, 2009 at 4:52 am
I like Wyoming. All the more now for her Nellie-ness.
July 11, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Dan, Kenz(4 yr), Morgan (1 yr ), & I traveled through Wyoming once and thought they had a strange sense of humor after noticing legs with boots sticking out of the rolled up hay by the side of the road.
No fences between homes, green grass that went on & on, and sky so blue!!
July 11, 2009 at 4:08 pm
you should have stayed a little longer and tried out cowboy church! i heart cowboy church!
July 18, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Jenelle, this is so great, thanks for sharing. This land is so our land.
July 23, 2009 at 2:00 pm
If you don’t update your blog soon I will hunt you down.