get an ice cream cone

Off the extra board, rail road talk for now being on  a  schedule - time off, "hop in the truck, Sue- let's go get an ice cream cone".  1958 ford pick up took us, I learned how to drive it when I was about twelve or thirteen. The photo  -me in the custom cab  15 years later after driving it  to the PNW to haul cords of wood and to make life easier living like a damned pioneer. Dad got a new car- fancy!We were both happy about the deal! He sold it to me for a dollar.

 

Anyway, back to the Ice cream-We drove  miles  to Fort Steele because Dad loved to see where the Rail Road had been defended  against Indians- built in 1868 until 1886- transcontinental RR , one of the  places where his grand dad worked as a lawman. It became a small military town during that time. The school house remains, out there in the  nothing windswept dirt. Photos captured from google.  chimneys  are still erect and a grave yard is still there, but mostly dirt.

The UTEs were tired of white man taking over their land , they fought hard, finally settled on some kind of broken treaty and lost. Big surprise. Great grand dad cowboy-ed  in that area, before he became the night Marshal, another reason Dad had an affinity for the place, I guess.

After going through the little towns of Sinclair and Fort Steele we went a few zillion  more miles up to Como bluff , where dad showed me the oldest house in the world-The house that once walked! 

Made entirely of dinosaur bones, 5,796 to be exact. Built on dinosaur graveyard, where 247 of 250 known Jurassic era mammals lived and died, Como Bluff is one of the most significant locations in Paleontology. It was a way station and became , appropriately,  part of a gas station. Where the deer and antelope play. Wind howls steadily, dust devils whirl. Wyoming beats you up!

Rattlesnakes  everywhere but not scary, they mind their own business unless some idiot harasses them or, unless, they are  blinded by shedding their skin. Anyway the sign might scare off the folks who have no business being in Wyoming. Slickers!

Wyoming folks are welcoming and friendly usually , unless you are an idiot or a goddam  hippie.

We finally make it to our destination  just " to get an ice cream cone" several zillion hundred miles later. Medicine Bow. A scoop of chocolate and one of chocolate chip- dad always had a scoop of  vanilla on another scoop of vanilla. Fancy going all that way for vanilla? Nothing much exists in Medicine Bow- I think the population is around two hundred maybe fewer these days.

Known for its Virginian Hotel and for being a way  station on the  old Lincoln highway between Laramie and Rawlins also known for the most serious plane crash ever in  1955. United flight 409 carrying military and Mormon Tabernacle choir smacked into the highest peak in southern Wyoming, Medicine Bow Peak The charred mountain side still remains  charred , bits of the flight can still be found.  We always stopped , got real quiet, and thought about it - I swore I would never fly in an airplane, ever , or sing in the Mormon Tabernacle choir. 

Whenever Dad said "hop in the truck"- I knew the drive would be a daylong event, Wyoming is vacant and large -generally we were the only vehicle on the road or off road, depending on Dad's whim. "Hop in the truck " meant not seeing your friends , not talking on the phone, not waiting for something-anything, to please happen. Hours alone, in the middle of dirt and wind , one  had to be creative. Glad I grew up there, it was good  "training". Couldn't wait to leave!  Like they say "a good place to be from." My sentimental journey for the day -glad you tagged along. Now on to more important things than dilly dallying around in the past- cleaning before we leave for fourteen days. Meh...