Rawlins, WY to Lincoln, NB

Breakfast report – same ole, same ole…almost – but a mini cheese omelet and bacon (right out of the freezer) in addition to sausage gravy and grapes! Microtel getting the breakfast award.

On the way toward the Continental Divide, picking up speed. I think we are into the horses heading for home syndrome.

After miles of the Wyoming Great Basin barrenness, greenery began to appear. And we’ve pinpointed some stops for the next trip (besides Bone, Idaho! And have to check on a John Wesley Bones who started a trading post in Lincoln City, OR) – a swing thru Laramie, 7,000ft. ( founded by La Ramie, a French fur trader) which is worth another visit – and surrounded by beautiful countryside. And Cheyenne down the road merits a stop. One notable thing about the Wyoming landscape is the numerable snow fences along the interstate and the highway warning lights, when highway is snowbound – an instruction to exit highway at next exit – with gates that can go down to prevent entry. That must be one blizzardy stretch of highway. And the motels have plug-ins for car batteries.

IPod disappointments – traveling across Nebraska, Willa Cather’s “My Antonia,” set here in the early 1900’s, was eagerly anticipated. But we couldn’t find it. Had to settle for some BBC travel , photography and birding podcasts. …and some country music.

Nebraska, flatter, grassier, progressing, west to east, from hay to corn – lush cornfields. The highway followed the Platte River, a trail marker for the early settlers, until it swung north and into the Missouri – thus rich farmland with irrigation possibilities.

Microtel: Looks like the last one in Rawlins on the exterior, but Mott warned “not so sure”. The minute lobby (a Microtel feature) was out of the 1970s’ - mauve marbleized wallpaper with border – damask love seat and chairs with lace head and arm covers…..and the smell of curry wafting about. We were ready to bolt. But the room was just fine – if not as contemporary as our last nights stay –not oppressively dated – and the air was fresh.

Lincoln is a town of 225,000 and bustling. The University of Nebraska is adjacent to downtown, certainly a factor. Big rail center. Nice vintage buildings, many of brick. Revived warehouse area attractive. I can imagine it is a very livable city.

Dinner – I’ve found a restaurant in Lincoln that I would recommend, a modest recommendation, but still …..I guess the only one on this 3 week trip. In the revived warehouse section of Lincoln, Lazlo’s is an old micro brewery that serves good steaks cooked perfectly over hickory. The napkins were cloth – with 2 forks within. The salad had been dressed!

Fox News: 6 of 9 Rawlins watches ABC

Mozz Stiz: 8 of 9 Lazlos does not have them on menu

Lincoln, Nebraska - Old Warehouse Marketplace by train station

Lunch - From the Flying J Truck stop!!!

Rawlins and Laramie

Wyoming (mllg)

You got to love Wyoming. This is where men are men, winters are hell and women are women.

The Continental divide runs through Rawlins and from the looks of the map, water draining on the west side of Main St. flows to the Pacific, and that on the east side to the Mississippi. (I saw a couple of cowboys pouring liquid on Main street and I think that’s what they were checking out)

The North Platte originates here and when you drive east out of town toward Laramie (the man from Laramie, he had so many notches on his gun . . . danger was this man's speciality . . ) you climb to 8600 feet on I 80. There are barriers on the interstate that they lower when it storms with instructions to return to Laramie or Rawlins.

The shots are from around Laramie, a place I could spend a few days watching how real cowboys live.

The Colorado truck is included to show that there are more bugs on the Eastern side of the Continental Divide than on the West.

Oregon Trail (mllg)

Heading east we took the Oregon Trail rather than Lewis and Clarks route. The Oregon Trail became the preferred route to the Oregon territories during the 1840’s even before John Fremonts expeditions to California. The rush to settle the West was on and the gold rushes in California, Montana and Nevada hastened things along.

We start at Lincoln City Oregon on the coast, the terminus of the Pacific water shed, move up the Columbia river, where Lewis and Clark traveled and then, rather than crossing into Idaho in the northern latitudes, travel southeast along the Oregon Idaho border to the snake river and the Oregon trail which was originally a fur traders route but became the emigrant route for the westward bound settlers wagons.

Twin Falls, ID to Rawlins, WY (bjg)

Breakfast Report - Mott said there was no fruit at Comfort buffet – so we went to…..McDonalds. I think we have some vows to take.

Twin Falls is where Evel Knievel tried to jet across the Snake River Canyon – in 1976? – unsuccessful but he survived . It was the most watched sporting event ever…so says the plaque.

The Emigrant Road runs thru the town, one of the variations of the Oregon Trail, that forded the river at this juncture. Despite some Indian skirmishes that got badly overplayed in the news of the time, the Indians were basically helpful and not hostile. The Shoshone in particular showed them which wild food to eat, served as guides, helped them ford the rivers, etc. These migrations began in the 1840’s lasting 30-40 years....until the railroad connected the coasts. Some of the early adventurers were off to find gold, others, the homesteaders, to find a fertile plot of land.

We headed toward Pocatello to take a secondary road along the trail before looping back to the Interstate. The southeastern corner of Idaho is a fine version of western beauty. In part, I think because of the varying colors of the patchwork fields. Amber waves of grain for sure, a lighter, nearly white grain, hunter green, pea green, chartreuse reflected in alfalfa and potato fields, all under irrigation. ..with gentle taupe or blue hills in the background. We headed into Wyoming to Montpelier, a town founded by Brigham Young on his westward journey. The town’s womanfolk are known for their quilts, on display at the local museum.

Wyoming then turned bleak – a large arid basin near the Continental

Divide was dramatic in its nothingness.

We’ve had a couple of technology failure days – very grateful that NPR is so available out here in these open spaces – really more consistent than on the Eastern seaboard. Our attempts at downloading a couple of library books came to naught. And then as we were starting our day with Prairie Home Companion, the IPod died. Which left us with a Teaching Company course on Greek civilization – just not the right thing as we were reading about fossils and emigrants - and an Economist analysis of American presidents, “Manifest Destiny” – interesting but very dense, especially the quoting from Economist articles of the 1850’s….flowery but the Economist wit apparent.

And now Rawlins, WY – Butch Cassiday robbed a bank here and was jailed. This was a rough town and they hired vigilantes to clean it up – a few hangings took care of things.

In Microtel – a good value motel- I think the warm-toned walls are working on my psyche!

Fox News: 6 of 9 – Idaho is sometimes Fox country

Mozz Stix : 8 of 9

Heading East - Day 1 (bjg)

Across Oregon into Idaho

Breakfast report: we’ve hit a new low – and of our own doing. Leaving Holly’s house in a rush we wanted coffee and a something, and on the way to the highway we took a detour to McDonalds – I will claim because we like the superior quality of their coffee cups – but maybe because their breakfast sandwiches the best of the fastfood lot.

Across Oregon – tree farms, lush fields, then barren hills, a stop in Baker City, (Mott has all the photos) an old gold town with a good bookstore. We paralleled the Oregon Trail….lush valley along the Snake River but then more barrenness, and on into Idaho to Twin Falls. The covered wagons pushing along the trail in the mid 1800’s is another poignant story of migrations and hardship.

Found a Comfort Inn with windows that open, but then we noticed the eau du cow – this, a big dairy area.

Idaho Joe’s for dinner – a baked potato seemed appropriate (you know what was on the appetizer list…) We wanted to find a local place in the historic town – but there was nothing except nearly 20 blocks of chain eatieries and fastfood joints. It was a Chinese buffet or the AAA suggestion of Idaho Joe. I have never been happy with AAA suggestions and I am still NOT. It seems that mainly they care about hygiene – no objection there – but often the food seems to be from Sysco food service delivery – nothing really homecooked. This place seemed to have a pie specialty – maybe that is what we should have eaten for dinner.

It’s back to real summer here – 80 degrees at 9 PM, with insects chirping. Tho Portland was hot for a few days, it had a different feeling.

Taking the Pulse of America

Fox news - 5 of 8 (Portland was all CNN)

Mozz stix - 6 of 7

Heading Home

We are about to leave for home….thru Boise, Salt Lake, Cheyenne, Omaha, Chicago again and east, east east.

Some Portland Scenes –

Portland Food carts - an ethnic eating bonanza

The Grilled Cheese food cart

You don't have to leave your majorette days behind!!!

Swimming in the Columbia

You can track your fish

Serious recycling

Ubiquitous Postered Utility Pole

The Portland Farmers' Market

And scenes from the coast - Lincoln City - wild and woolly - I think I could trade the sedate and overcrowded Atlantic shores for this stretch of coastline....

Intermission and comments (mllg)

Bad . . .

Buffalo ?

Winter mail box Mildred, Mt. homestead

downtown, on the missouri, South Dakota

Amen, Mildred, Mt.

Mountain, with sculpture markings

Crazy Horse, model for mountain

Brothel, Butte, Mt

It takes innovation and flexibility sometimes.

knock please

Homesteader hotel Miles City, Mt.

We made it, Provincetown Ma to Portland Oregon. mileage and longitude later as well as body mass from doses of road food and long bouts of sitting in a car.

Lewis and Clark made it too , and I can tell you we struggled mightily to get them here through 24 cd's. It was hell but it was worth it and a meaningful learning experience for both of us. (I am researching our audiobook for the trip back east, any recommendations appreciated.)

One lesson is obvious about the 19th century West, the trip across it or living within it is all about will and determination. It was a struggle for Lewis and Clark, the fur traders, the miners, the homesteaders, the settlers, the adventurers, the ranchers as well as the indigenous indians. Courage and perseverance were required, but courage and perseverance certainly did not guarantee survival. There were a lot of signs of that as we drove across country.