Wyoming notes

Wyoming does not cater to the "are we there yet" set. In Illinois or Wisconsin you'll see signs every so often telling you how far the next few cities are. Not so much in Wyoming: one at the start has to do. Of course there aren't a lot of cities along the way to enter the highway from, and I guess the folks who live there already know the ranges.

If the roads were wide enough to tack on, you might use sail-cars: at least in one direction. You might get some pretty good speeds. I wear hats with a chin strap.

The division of land seems to have given the white man the farm- and graze-land and the Indians the scenic land.

Some ranches seem to have more deer grazing than cattle or horses.

The local Indians have a "Gift of the Waters" ceremony at the Thermopolis hot springs: it isn't related to whatever they used to do there. I looked at the posters and wondered what their old ceremonies had been, and was slightly annoyed that nothing was recorded. Driving away later it occurred to me that "None of your business" was a perfectly acceptable response. Our family has many little customs that can't be easily explained to outsiders--a tribe (stretch a family over generations) would have to have similar sorts of customs, but not things that could be easily explained, because they'd be nearly meaningless without the full context.

Quite a bit of the historical interest in Wyoming revolves around characters you'd not want to hang around with. Belle Drewry (the woman in blue) had mediocre taste in men (two of whom were shot as part of a triangle) and was murdered in revenge when she shot a cowboy in a party that got out of hand. Or to put it another way, just another Chicago Friday night. Though Liver-Eating Johnson might have been interesting to listen to.