We started with a brisk drive west on the interstate into Green River Wyoming. This was where John Wesley Powell launched his Colorado River expedition. Looking at the river as we drove by you can imagine that the men on that trip really had no idea what lay ahead of them. The power of the Colorado River is unseen this far north but later it surges through the Grand Canyon. Our adventure is insignificant when compared to theirs.

We had a visit with a lovely couple while we were stopped in Green River. They told us we were negligent in not informing the paper of our arrival. I think we are still not expecting to be recognized. We promised to be better at letting folks know what we are up to. We headed north to Opal into wide open country with huge blue sky wrapping all around us. The road was good and we moved along at about 30 mph. Clouds were building above us, sometimes blocking the sun which was a relief. The heat was not as bad as Iowa or Nebraska but it was getting warm. Rain was falling from the clouds but it is so dry here that it wasn't hitting the ground. It was a little weird to be driving under falling rain that we could see but not feel.

We stopped in Opal, ate a quick picnic lunch, looked at what we think might be the hotel that Alice Ramsey stayed in and then moved on to Kemmerer. We drove on by thinking we had enough time to get to Evanston so we should push through. The road from Kemmerer to Evanston was not busy and wide open. The cars were moving well and with a brisk tail wind we were cruising at 40mph for about 15 miles. I never touched the accelerator, just held on. We passed another big wind farm and a HUGE number of sheep. At first we though there were about 500 sheep, then we decided about 1000. Even now I think our estimate was short. There were sheep everywhere. We reconnected with I80 and drove the last 14 miles to Evanston. At the state park we saw the most majestic elk just lying in the grass enjoying the late day sun. We found a place to camp, ate a very large meal at a wonderful Mexican reataurant (Don Pedro Family Mexican) We were so stuffed that I was glad we had walked there, it gave me a few mintues to walk back, or waddle back.

Malcolm will need to pull my back right wheel tomorrow to check on some grinding noise but other than that the car seems to be in good shape. On to Lehi from here.

Today was a long day on the interstate. The was no getting away from it. In order to follow RT30 you have to run on I80. Fortunately the shoulders on the highway are almost a full lane wide so they aren’t too difficult to drive down, although the rumble strip adds an element of excitement. We were motoring right along going about 38-40 mph when a large dark THING loomed in the distance. We were pretty sure it was not a chunk of tire. At slower speeds one does have a lot of time to think about this stuff. It quickly became apparent that the THING was a large bloated dead antelope lying across the entire shoulder. We could smell it before we got to it. You know it is really difficult to swerve and hold your breath, while not getting hit by a truck all the time doing so with your eyes closed. I was not going to hit it, no matter what, but it was close.

We drove the interstate for about 40 miles when we saw Dan and Dorothy had pulled off at an exit. She had told us earlier that she was not at all comfortable on the shoulder so we figured that she was going to try the gravel road that we could see running parallel to I80. We weren’t sure where it went but it appeared to be going in the right direction so we kept our fingers crossed. We hadn’t seen them until we were up on the bridge past the exit so we kept going hoping we would meet up at some point. We pulled into a very busy truck stop and Malcolm called Dan. They were out there somewhere heading our way. While we waited we had a long chat with two guys from Texas who were working in the oil fields. They were telling us all sorts of stories about Wyoming. Kind of a good ole boy department of tourism. Really nice guys.

Dan and Dorothy made it to us. Dorothy looked a little shell shocked. Apparently the road was quite something and less direct than it looked. After that she decided the interstate was the lesser of two evils. Just as we were heading out a car pulled up and a woman jumped out. She asked if we were the ‘Alice Ramsey girls’. I made sure to clarify which “girls” we were, and we were the ones she was looking for! She has been following the Twitter. That was pretty exciting for both of us.

Leaving the truck stop the Cadillac purred along at a pretty good clip. We made it about 30 miles in about 45 minutes. I was feeling really good about the day in general. Then, just as I was thinking that it was going to be another great day, I lost all power. The engine sputtered, backfired, burped a huge cloud of black smoke and came to a rolling halt on the side of the road. Malcolm worked the carb a bit thinking it was an altitude issue and off I went rolling merrily along until BANG it happened again. The big burst of black smoke was an indicator that my car was just not happy. After the third time, cleaning the plugs and tweaking the gas flow I gave up. We loaded it in the trailer and drove to Rock Springs. I took a long walk, talked to Mom and got over the frustration. We found a campsite early enough to work on the cars, Abby helped Dan replace a tire on the T, and Dylan helped Malcolm with the Caddy. Chances are Dylan was more helpful.... Hopefully all will be well when we take off this morning.

Laramie to Rawlins Wy

Wind..... that about covers it.

We drove out of Laramie on 287/30. We drove out into the middle of nowhere. As far as we could see there was just rolling hills and sky. Every once in a while we saw an antelope and the antelope saw us. They always look so surprised. We drove into a headwind all morning, if we turned south a bit, we still drove into a headwind. We were well bundled up as the temperatures were brisk to say the least. Dorothy was moving right along, the Cadillac was not as happy. Dylan and I couldn't speak to each other much unless we yelled so we just listened to the roaring of the wind in our ears. I just about jumped out of my skin when a train came up along side of us and blew his horn.

We passed a small group of bicyclists struggling along up a hill and entered Rock Creek. Later we found out they were riding from Texas to Alaska. I wonder if they really looked at how far that is? We stopped in Rock Creek to wait for Dorothy and Dan who were behind us after stopping for a minute. We went in for a visit to the general store and met Carol. She took us out to meet Aaron and Kelly at the welding shop and they came out to see the cars. They were so enthusiastic. We pulled open the hoods and they climbed in. It is really gratifying to meet guys who just love to look at the cars.

Later a rancher stopped for a visit. He told us his family had been there since his great-great grandparents came out with the wagon train many years ago. They broke down in Rock Creek and that is where they stayed. He also told us that the Lincoln Highway used to go through town perpendicular to where it went now. The old gas station used to face the road. When they moved the highway the owner turned the station so that it still faced the highway. There were a number of interesting old buildings that really gave us the flavor of the town in it's heyday.

A young girl drove up to take photos of the cars. She told us her family was renovating the old Lincoln Hotel. We drove over for a look. This was where Alice Ramsey stopped for the night. We chatted with the family for a minute and gave them the info we had. They were happy to hear that as they were trying to date the building, so this gives them at least 1909 as a date to work from.

We pushed on from there to Rawlins. Again we entered the great expanse of grass and sky. A giant windfarm grew in front of us as we drove towards it. The giant blades turning slowly in the
wind looked like dancers on the ridge. The wind was still pushing us hard backwards, or so it felt. We climbed hills slowly and descended quickly. Driving through Sinclair past the huge refinery was a bit surreal. The town is beautiful. Old adobe style buildings centered around a town green with a very lovely fountain. Eventually we came to the end of the old road and had to do a brisk run down the interstate to Rawlins. Fortunately we fit on the shoulder so that is how we did it. The trucks whizzed by but we had no problems and we did go a lot faster! Camping for the night. I could not get my head onto the pillow fast enough.

Sinclair, WY.

Cheyenne to Laramie....Oh what a day!

After making sure we had enough clean laundry for the next week we headed off. At this point we are off our earlier planed route. We are still trying to stay on the original route, which will take us along some interesting roadways. We headed out west of town into beautiful empty countryside. We drove past the Happy Jack Wind Farm where huge windmills turned slowly and gracefully next to us. It's a funny thing about these windmills. You either hate them or love them - I am of the latter group. I love seeing the big blades slowly turning in the wind. The sky behind them was dark and foreboding of storms to come. We were driving right towards it.

We climbed up and up into the mountains, then tuned south onto Vedauwoo Rd, aka. CR700. We were heading to the Ames monument. The road was gravel, and pretty popular with the dirt bike crowd. We surprised a lot of folks who didn't expect to see us coming towards them. The road climbed into some amazing country. We were having a pretty good time negotiating the bumps and holes when the rain started. The sky above us turned angry almost instantly and the rain came down with a vengance. Dylan and I couldn't cover up fast enough so we got soaked instantly. As Dorothy moved along ahead of us, my engine decided at that exact moment to act up so I was stalled for just long enough to get the only dry parts on my body wet too. Then, to make it much more interesting.....it started to hail. There is nothing as challenging as an open car in a hail storm. The temperature dropped about 30º and we drove as fast as we could for tree covered road. We finally caught up with Dan and Dorothy at the end of the road. I jumped out of the car, dove into the trailer, teeth chattering. There I found a dry sleeping bag to climb into while everyone covered up cars and bodies.

After the rain let up we drove on to the Ames monument. The monument was built to mark the highest point on the Transcontinental RR. While we were there we met a utility worker who had satellite weather in his truck and he showed us the storm. It was heading east, and we were at the back of it. The temperature had dropped enough that we were all bundled up. We drove on to the Summit rest stop for a quick stop and check of the Caddy's carb. It was still giving me a bit of trouble at this elevation. Then we drove on in search of an alternate route to getting on the interstate. We were not excited about driving on RT 80 if we could avoid it. We drove down another road, past a herd of cattle, off into the hills. We found the road that the map said would take us to Laramie. It climbed a sheer rock face for about 10 feet and faded into the scrub. We decided that we would be nuts to take it so back we went, onto 80. That was a bit of a hair raising drive. Only 9 miles to the exit and I drove it on the shoulder. There was enough room for me and I was very happy there. Trucks flew by, Malcolm drove behind me with his lights on, but given that it was a steep decent through the canyon it was really more of a high speed fall. At the end, having survived our hairraising drive on the interstate we whooped with the joy only a near death survivor can geel and pulled into dinner. The first hot meal of the day. Sleep came early and fast, we were probably asleep before we actually got to our rooms. Dorothy was still talking but she was so darn tired that we sent her to bed, following close behind.

Ogallala NE to Cheyenne Wy

167 miles today! We followed Rt 30, the old Lincoln Highway all the way to Cheyenne. The maps showed that 30 ran with the interstate from Pine Bluffs but when we got there Malcolm found someone who knew the roads and he told us, 'just keep goin' where you are, the road goes all the way to Cheyenne." The road was really nice, not busy with long straight bits that allowed the cars to really cruise. Dorothy was motoring along at about 38 mph and if there was a tail wind the cars got up to almost 40. With a tail wind and a down hill it was all I could do to keep the Cadillac at 40. I'm not sure how it would handle going faster but at times it seemed to have a mind of it's own and just wanted to open up and fly!

The open cars offer a different sense of the world as you are driving along. The heat of the day, the smells along the road, and the people who greet us. At one point we drove along an extensive railroad repair project. For about 10 miles there were groups of workers with huge machines on the tracks. Each group waved as we went by. By the time we had passed my arm was a little tired from all the enthusiastic waving. No queenly subtle waves for us.

We stopped in Sidney for lunch and were interviewed and photographed for the local paper. That was fun! Our first publicity stop. Now maybe a few more people will know about us. It would be awesome for us to meet just one person who actually had heard we were doing this too.

We hit the border of Nebraska and Wyoming, stopped for a photo op and eventually arrived in Cheyenne around dinner where we met up with the McKays. Ken and Shirley offered us camping space in their yard for the night. We had dinner with them then went to their house. Ke showed us his cars. He has some real beauties. We met Max, their miniature Daschund who has a tail that won't quit, and is almost as fast as his tongue which can place more kisses than any dog I have ever met.

We had delux accomodations in Kens brand new trailer, much nicer than a tent. Then it was off bright and early in the morning to do laundry, work on cars a bit, look for more bearings and then away we go......

Wednesday June 24 to Ogalalla NE a 150 Mile day!!!

Again it took a while to get moving. Mostly because everyone was a still little waterlogged after the rain, and maybe a bit shell shocked. We drove back up to town and unloaded in a school parking lot. Dan had a public information session while we were getting ready. It was a very enthusiastic crowd to say the least. Each one of them honked the horn, then when they were done they came to my car. A few hundred beeps later they discovered the dogs. We became old news!

As we were working on loading things into the cars a woman drove up. She had overheard our conversation in the AAA office and had to stop. Her name was...... Alice Ramsey! We all had a good laugh. This Alice is leaving for a drive to Alaska with her husband. Go Alice!

We finally left after lots of chatting and headed off to meet up with a Rick Kuntz, he had contacted me via the Early Cadillac Group and so as we passed through we stopped for lunch and a visit. He showed us the really nice '06 he was working on and gave us a tour of his barns. We are suckers for barns full of cars. After a long stop for visiting we motored on to North Platte. We made such good time we went all the way to Ogallala for the night. We did a 150 mile day today. The heat was impressive, so much so that as we traveled through the shade of large trees the temperature dropped measureably. At one point I was tempted to stop for a bit just to cool down. But with plenty of water, Gatorade and sunscreen we are holding up well.

On to Kearney

We said good bye to Delilah and Ron and left their house around noon. The T's radiator had been fixed and put back on the car. Thanks to a wonderful man who said he'd work on it as soon as we could get it there we weren't delayed too much. It was stinking hot by the time we got on the road, and the humidity was oppressive. We went through the area on RT 34 that had been hit by a tornado a few days ago. The house was still standing but one whole wall was gone. The trees were shredded and the corn field was bare. It was a sobering sight. We had heard about it but were still shocked at the devistation. Fortunately no one was hurt. The family is ok. The whole idea of tornados really unnerves me. I have been watching the skies as the storms build south ad north of us.

Both cars ran well and we made it to Kearney Nebraska before calling it a day. We camped at Fort Kearny State Park. The lake was so inviting and it was really warm. We went for a late swim after dinner to cool off. It was still pretty warm by the time we went to bed and off in the distance clouds were building. The weather report was for a clear night so we weren't worried. At about midnight the first storm hit. I'm not sure I can remember another time when it has rained that hard. It rained off and on until about three am. I could not sleep. I was worried about Dorothy, Dan and Emma in the tent. Bridgit was trying to sleep under me to get away from the thunder and I wasn't happy when the wind shook the trailer. Needless to say it was a long night.