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Rock Springs, WY to Cheyenne, WY (282 miles)

Before the departure time of 9 a.m for the group as a whole, Rob and Daryl led Carl, Ray and Doug to Rock Springs Toyota/Honda where they had spent 4 hours in June 2011 getting new tires on the motorcycle. Carl is a major league hunter and the owner of the dealership, Wayne, is also. We had seen all of his trophies on the walls of the dealership and also saw all the tools for butchering the kill in the kitchen. Meeting Wayne provided Carl with a hunting contact in Wyoming. Carl was on the cover of a hunting magazine a few years ago and Wayne's son is on the current issue cover. So this little detour was interesting to Carl and might provide some future hunting opportunities.

We got on the road again and crossed the Continental Divide at about 10:30 a.m. just shy of Rawlins. We then got off the main road and hit the boring part of Wyoming, the "Big Empty", miles and miles of unending road in front of you and no topographical sites of interest. Our first target was Medicine Bow, population 284, and home of The Virginian (TV series – "When you call me that, smile.") We had planned on visiting the Medicine Bow Museum, but it was closed so we walked across the street to The Virginian Hotel. All 56 rooms were open for us to view and were filled with period decor and shared bathrooms, etc. Apparently they rent 1-2 rooms daily, more on the weekends and the place is completely full during hunting season.

Vance found another site of interest to see about 5 miles down the road, the Como Bluffs Dinosaur Graveyard and the Dinosaur Fossil Cabin made of 112,000 pounds of dinosaur bones. Unfortunately it was not the highlight of the trip but at least it broke up the monotony of the drive.

We made our lunch stop at a Perkins in Laramie and again received great treatment due to Doug and Marilyn's advance planning. We thanked the manager with another COTV t-shirt. While we were eating, the storm clouds moved in again and we had black skies and lots of rain from Laramie to Cheyenne. We arrived at the Sleep Inn at about 3:30 p.m. with time for a nap or swim before dinner together at Poor Richard's. When Doug and Marilyn lived in Cheyenne in the late 60s, this was the best place in town and still is. They were completely full due to the Frontier Days crowds and put us at one long table in one room with one waitress. By this time, our group had grown by 2, some friends of Carl and Carroll's, from CA and CO. The meal was good, the room very warm and the service pretty slow with only one waitress.