May 3, 2010: Cheyenne, Wyoming to western Nebraska

I last visited Cheyenne (the capital city of Wyoming) in August, 2007. That was my first visit to Wyoming, and at that point, the farthest point west I had ever been in my life. For the largest city in the state of Wyoming (with a population of around 53,000), it was a very safe and comfortable place to be. Parking is plentiful around the city and I don't recall (then or now) seeing any parking meters. Parking is available directly in front of the state capitol building.

The first thing I had to do was get an oil change. I had driven more than 3,000 miles since the estimate on the last oil change for the vehicle I had gotten in San Francisco. Unlike the Utah oil change, there was not mass confusion on whether they could change the oil on a vehicle that was new in November 2009. The oil change took fifteen minutes (instead of the hour+ in Utah) and I was done.

I did some shopping in Cheyenne, and then had lunch in the historic train station. (Cheyenne got its existence because of the railroad.) My next stop was the state capitol building. You can take a self-guided tour of the capitol. The governor's office door is open. The legislative chambers are in the same building as the governor's office and executive offices. (Agencies of course have their own buildings.) There are numerous historical notes throughout the three floors. I took pictures of all of them so I could read them later. The staff member at the information desk was extremely friendly and made sure I saw room 302. This room has a beautiful mural of the various areas of Wyoming, plus door hinges with intricate detail that date back to the original version of the capitol building.

After visiting the capitol, I visited the Wyoming State Museum. The museum is free, but photographs are not allowed. It was a decent sized museum, though obviously the New York State Museum is much larger. The exhibits were fascinating. Wyoming is rich in minerals. They even have some gold and diamonds. There were unscrupulous individuals in the nineteenth century who tricked people into purchasing shares in non-existent gold and diamond mines. There was an exhibit about the Lincoln highway, which went along much of the area where I-80 runs in modern Wyoming. Of course there were fossils, Native American exhibits, etc.

I had once wanted to move to Wyoming based on my first visit. Having traveled much more since those days, I assumed that thought was merely a first reaction. However, coming back to Cheyenne three years later, I must say that wonderful feeling I got on my first visit is still there. The wind is pretty strong (and this drives some people away) and it can certainly get very cold, but beyond that I can still feel the draw. People are very friendly and very laid back. It just seems like a safe and generally happy place to be.



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My destination for the next evening was the city of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. This is of course near the Scott's Bluff National Park. Google had me going through US routes and state routes which avoided I-80. I was interested in that route so I could see another part of Wyoming I had not seen before. However, try as I might, the GPS would not provide any route other than via I-80. I had already been through that stretch of I-80 back in 2007.

The fact that I had to take I-80 was not so bad, however. I was able to see the large 30 foot tall statue of Our Lady of Peace which is just inside the state of Wyoming in Pine Bluffs. You have to take I-80 exit 1 in Nebraska and then drive onto US 30 where it crosses back into Wyoming. As I visited this outdoor shrine, I thought about the contrast between my last visit and this one. In the last visit, there were at times heavy rains and thunderstorms. The sky was clouded over. Photographs were lousy. I was not sure about the direction of my life and was very sad. I was upset about having an ultra slow-paced job that amounted to a mere paycheck where I was stagnating since the powers that be in my unit consistently ignored my requests to be challenged. In fact, they consistently did not even have enough work for me to do at all. Mediocrity, complacency, and keeping the status quo ruled the day in my opinion. The 2007 trip was basically an escape from an upsetting situation. However, since I felt trapped and had no idea how to escape the situation (the job did not give experience which would have allowed me to just go to another job) I unfortunately brought that sadness along with me on the 2007 trip.

However, returning to this spot in 2010 was different. The sky was blue with some occasional clouds. Photographs were much nicer. My mindset and future are also much nicer. I had learned to trust God on everything. I had not learned to do that back in 2007. Truely trusting in God brings about a profound positive change as well as many new opportunities. Having left the job in 2008 just about a year after my first visit to the statue, the feeling of being trapped is long gone. Far from an escape this time, this trip was an adventure with a number of positive outcomes and a number of business contacts made. Rather than working for a bureaucracy where a supervisor has the ability to limit their employees' skill growth on the job, I run my own business. I make the call on any kinds of limits in terms of growth in skills. There will never be limits in that area.

As I left Wyoming, I entered the Nebraska panhandle. This is a generally flat area. I had to drive around twenty miles on I-80 and then take a local road north. For a while, most of what I saw were either grassy plains or farm areas. However, as I got closer to the city of Scottsbluff, I started to notice various interesting rock formations. They were like the badlands in other states. I was definitely looking forward to tomorrow when I would see the most well known rock formation in these parts: Scott's Bluff.