Monday 6 June (carrying on from Grand Teton)

We stopped for lunch at Hatchet Junction immediately after seeing a sign saying there were roadworks for the next 25 miles.They were really accommodating in making Anne a toasted veggie sandwhich (as good as she’s had anywhere) and Les’s grilled chicken was obviously freshly cooked. They were surprised that we didn’t want fries etc but the sandwiches were as much as we could eat. Very surprising - seemed to be run by a couple of youngish guys with very strong country/cowboy accents. Amazingly the place had free wi-fi so we were able to check email etc.

Carried on through the roadworks. We were very lucky in that the pilot car arrived just as we joined the end of the queue and apart from driving a little slowly through the dusty bits, it wasn’t really much of a problem. Very little traffic and as we climbed up over the pass and eventually through Dubois it was a nice drive. We did notice that the temperature dropped very quickly from 78F to 63F as we went up. Snow everywhere several feet deep. Even some of the parking areas for snowmobiles were closed.

Dropped quickly out of the mountains down through Burris and Crowheart and the snow suddenly disappeared. Stopped and took pictures of the memorial signs at Crowheart while we were swapping drivers. Turned off onto the 287 where this and the 26 split and started going south to Lander. We’d been driving through the Wind River Indian Reservation. Temperatures now rising up to 85F. Les hadn’t put any sun cream on.

Stopped at an amazing rest area just to use the loos. At this point we’d been driving for miles barely seeing any other vehicles. The rest area was new - a man was strimming the grass. The loos themselves would not have disgraced Nordstrom or Macy's. There were brick built covered picnic areas (this is a very windy area) and they were angled so that there would always be one or two that offered shelter from the wind. There was a kiddies play area with slides, etc and a fenced gated area for exercising pets. All this on a road that probably didn’t have 100 vehicles per hour.

There were more roadworks on this section. We were stopped by a man with a stop/go board. When we wound down the window to talk to him he recognised that we were English and said that he’d never met an English person before. We introduced ourselves and he said he was Bryce and we told him we’d visited his canyon which he liked. We think it probably made his day.

Finally reached Lander around 5.30pm. Motel looks very new and is everything we’d want. Large room, 2 Queens, etc, etc. It’s on the southern edge of the town (which is extensive and looks very nice). We downloaded photos, wrote postcards, etc. Decided we’d eat in the restaurant rather than bother going into town. On way to restaurant we saw the pool and realised it had been open. We could’ve had a quick swim as for the last hour of the journey it had been up to 85F. Wind was very strong but still hot.

Restaurant was fine but they were struggling with service as apparently they had been let down by various employees. We sat at the bar for a drink and eventually ate there. A man who was in a group of four offered to buy us a drink because of our long wait. We refused but it later transpired that he was the owner. Food very slow coming but very nice.

Anne spoke to the lady in reception and discovered that the scenic route that we were planning for tomorrow was closed. Will probably have to go down the interstate but this will leave more time for a quick look round tomorrow morning and in Laramie.

Tuesday 7 June

Not a quick start. Slept until almost 8am. Had free breakfast in restaurant. Skyped Tracey then finished packing and set off. Filled up car, then went to ATM, then to the Post Office - all three adjacent to the BW.

By the time we left the temperature was well into the 70s but the main problem was the wind. It remained like this for the whole of the day. We needed to hold on to the car doors when we opened them and we could only open one door at a time otherwise anything loose in the car would be lost. Parked in McDonald's at the main junction to take photo of the Indian Chief that we’d finally found. We’d missed it because it was far smaller than we’d imagined. Drove through town to the Fremont County Pioneer Museum. Very good modern building and a very smart and interesting museum of life in the whole Lander Valley.

After time here we went next door to the Pioneer Village Museum. This is a bit like St Fagan’s or the Weald & Downland Museum, consisting of buildings that have been dismantled elsewhere and re-erected on this site. Very interesting. Could’ve gone into any of them but because of time we only went into the old school room. A long chat with two of the volunteers who run the museum.

On the road and went to the Sink Hole Canyon. Quite impressive drive but we only went as far as the Sink Hole itself. We could’ve gone a few miles further to the point where the road is closed but didn’t have time. Sink Hole’s really interesting seeing where the river disappears completely underground and emerges 400 yds down the valley after two hours.

Set off on the 4 hour drive to Laramie. Mainly rolling hill land but quite high up - 6-7,000ft. Hardly any traffic on the road all the way down to the I80. Unfortunately this also meant there were virtually no places to stop and eat. We made do with eating our remaining bananas as we drove. At least this saved time. Speeded up once we got onto the interstate (75mph rather than 65mph) apart from in the 14 miles of roadworks!

Made it to the BW in Laramie by about 5.15pm. Even though we’d been in the car for most of the day Les’s face had still got burnt and his nose was bleeding again. We keep forgetting that we’re permanently above 5-6,000ft and the effect of the sun is much stronger. Checked in and put our washing straight into the laundry. Currently waiting for it to dry before going out to eat - no restaurant on site.

On the way here we’d seen serried ranks of wind turbines. Not surprising given that the wind had been so strong all day and seems to be a feature of the local weather, although the locals deny it. A give away is the fact that we’d driven down the Wind River. Parked outside the motel in a rough parking lot was an enormously long thing on a low loader. After looking at it for a bit we realised that it was actually a single blade for a wind turbine. We saw another one arriving from the interstate. When we woke up in the morning it was gone - presumably they’re so large that they move them overnight for safety.

When washing finished we drove downtown. We’d seen on the Laramie booklet that we picked up at the front desk that a lot of the restaurants were on or around Grand Avenue so we drove down to it - only really about 5 mins drive away. Heading down 3rd for Grand Ave we spotted a big store called Hastings - they get everywhere. We turned onto Grand but could only see a couple of Pizza places - this is very near to the university which takes up a large part of the downtown area, so it wasn’t really surprising.

Anne had spotted a place on the corner of 3rd and Grand called Tommy Jacks. We couldn’t really see what it was as it had venetian blinds at the windows but it look like a bar/restaurant so we doubled back and went in. It was in fact a really nice simple restaurant and bar, with a slight cajun flavour. They did catfish several ways so it was fine for us. Anne had simple catfish and chips and Les had ribs. Both excellent and as it was a local restaurant it was actually the cheapest meal we’ve had so far. If they’d given Anne the small version that she’d asked for it would’ve been even cheaper, but our server told us he was new so we didn’t bother to query it. Les had a glass of Virgin Vines Shiraz with his ribs, for $5 which was actually the best wine so far. Other US reds tend to be a bit light/thin for those of us who drink the Aussie versions.

Back to the hotel and Les uploaded Anne’s two bear videos and a selection of Yellowstone wildlife onto Facebook.

Wednesday 8 June

Anne slept badly again, although Les was well away. Woke around 7.30am. Got ready and went down to breakfast. Tried to Skype Tracey before we went down but no answer even though she showed as online - Niamh was due back from Leeson House around this time.

The free breakfast was simple - cereals, waffles, toast, pastries, etc. Unfortunately doing our toast we managed to set off the fire alarm. The owner? rushed in and opened the windows. This is obviously something that happens regularly so we didn’t feel bad about it.

Tried Tracey again before we set off but no luck. Drove back into town and went to the Ivinson Mansion Museum. In a way very much like Molly Brown’s House in Denver, although predating it by 50 years or so. They made a point of giving us a personal tour even though they don’t normally start tours until 1pm. The young girl giving us the tour was very nice but obviously reluctant to depart from her prepared script - she asked us to keep up with our party! We spent a good hour here and it was getting on for 12 before we left.

We weren’t sure what was going to be available in the way of food etc so just as we reached the edge of time we saw a cowboy style restaurant and went in and picked up take-away coffees. This turned out to be a good move.

From Laramie we took the 287 south east. An interesting road with variations in the countryside from rolling grasslands to wooded hills and some quite rocky bits as we came down the southern section. We thought that we’d be able to get the traditional sandwich lunch somewhere. Twice along the road we pulled in to cafes only to find they were closed. In fact there is absolutely nothing on the road between Laramie and Fort Collins. As we went south through Fort Collins we were looking for somewhere we’d seen advertised on a hoarding as ‘always open’. In fact before we reached this we saw a McDonald's on our side of the road so we dived in. As we went through the door we realised that like all McDonalds it had free wi-fi. As we had our filet-of-fish each we were able to check-in for tomorrow’s flight so we left very satisfied.

Back onto the road and straight onto the I25. This was familiar ground as we’d driven this northward as we left Denver. Seems a long time ago. The satnav brought us easily to the hotel via the e470. This is in effect a beltway round the eastern half of Denver and is a toll road. Anne was driving so Les spent time trying to sort out lots of change and dollar bills in response to the changing toll signs. For some peculiar reason when we turned off onto the airport road there was no toll, although there had been tolls at all the other minor exits. [Post holiday note - the $8 charge came through on our credit card after we got back home.]

Hotel very smart. The usual two queen beds, fridge, microwave, etc. Unloaded the luggage and then took the car back to the airport after Les had replaced the fuse for the internal lights. Realised how helpful the satnav had been as this time we had to rely on the road signs. Dropped the car and went into the office and told them about all the problems. The man said we should’ve contacted one of the local Alamo offices and swapped the car but we said that when we’d looked on the internet on the first night we couldn’t see any local offices. We were really surprised when, as a result of our complaints, they waived all the additional charges that we were supposed to pay, leaving just a few dollars of tax (obviously some peculiarity). In effect we saved about $100.

Got the shuttle bus to the terminal and had a quick look round to orient ourselves for tomorrow. A nice man from the airport pointed out that most people were insisting on going to one security entrance where there were enormous queues whilst the other one was completely empty. People were ignoring his advice to go the empty one. Phoned the hotel (after a few mistakes with the courtesy phone) and the minivan arrived within about 15 minutes. It rained very hard, very briefly as we drove back but had stopped by the time we arrived.

Sorted ourselves out and went down to the Business Centre where we were able to print our boarding passes so that we have everything for tomorrow.

Went into their ‘reception’ in the breakfast room and had a couple of free drinks and nibbles. It was still not quite 6pm so we came back up to the room to sort out more paperwork and type this before going for dinner. No restaurant on site but several chains within walking distance.

Walked to Uno Grill and had a very nice simple meal. A half pizza for Anne and goat’s cheese salad for Les - too full from free nibbles to eat any more! Back across the road to the hotel and almost straight to bed.