Driving through Wyoming

We just returned from our Christmas vacation in Colorado... We all met at my brother's...my guy and I decided to drive...not realizing quite how far it was!  We hit Interstate 80 in Reno....and 1000 miles later, we hit I-25 to head south to Denver.

Sinclair Gas?  I didn't even think it existed anymore!  They used to be in Texas...long time ago, but they are all over Wyoming!

One thing I had never seen was a 'variable speed limit.'  See the 55 mph? It changes with the road conditions.  I'm not sure who monitors it...and decides the limit..maybe Donnie knows????

Mapquest said the drive was 22 hours.  Well, we did stop to sleep 2 times...but still, it took us 49 hours...and we certainly were not stopped for 27 hours to sleep!  We hit snow...and snow...and snow.

It was beautiful... but a bit slower than normal...

My guy was driving while I was taking these pictures...I felt I needed to say that as I've been known to snap a photo or two while driving...  This is the ice in the corner of the windshield. 

See?

It was so incredibly COLD!

These fences are everywhere.  I believe they're there to stop some of the blowing snow from getting all over the road...

Another shot of the windshield...

The fences....

I-80 through Wyoming...lots of long, straight stretches...

This was taken not necessarily for the windmills...but for the storm that we kept watching.  See it in the distance?  You can see the wind blowing the left side of it...

We stopped at truck stops a lot for gas.  My guy started keeping a comparison between the Flying J and Pilot stations.  I think he said Pilot was better.

We were having an issue with the windshield wiper fluid...and the freezing weather.

Wild mustangs...they were beautiful!

We passed at least 2 'Little Americas'...it was a rest stop...hotel..gift shop.  I thought of my buddy, Pam, who LOVES soft ice cream cones...

I don't know that I would want to live here...but we thought Wyoming was just beautiful.

This truck...and others...would pass us...and throw ice/snow on our windshield...

that may not seem like an issue...normally, you just turn on the windshield wiper fluid and it washes off...

but that doesn't happen when you're from California and your windshield wiper fluid freezes... What happened is we couldn't see very well...so we'd pull over at another rest stop and clean the windshield...and then wait for the next truck to pass...pull over...etc.

Isn't this beautiful?

This crane was ENORMOUS!  I just asked my guy how big he thought it was...his answer, "Monstrous."  I asked for a more specific answer, "I don't know...maybe 150 feet tall."  It had a huge bucket and was moving either dirt or probably, according to my guy, mine tailings.

We also kept seeing these houses.  They all were exactly alike...we concluded they had something to do with a pipeline...

We definitely enjoyed our travels...but were really glad to finally get to John David and Becky's!