Glenrock, Wyoming: We said goodbye to rainy Cody and headed south-ish on our way to the Denver area, taking Highway 120 through Meeteese. We must have seen 100 Pronghorn on our drive today. They are just such a beautiful animal, and this little critter is the fastest land animal in North America and the second fastest in the world! (A Pronghorn can travel 60 miles per hour. Cheetahs can go 61.) More fun facts: Pronghorn are not related to the antelope, they are related to the giraffe. Think about that one, as they are not an introduced species.
We made a stop today along our route to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. The center has a huge collection of fossils and a few dozen dinosaur skeletons - most of them being recreations... so that was a bummer. The center sits on a property that is rich with Sauropods and the team here are slowly building a full skeleton of a Sauropod found on-site, with fake bones holding the ship together until they find all the pieces. Sauropods flourished in the Jurassic Period and are part of the largest land animals ever to roam the earth - the largest Sauropod being the Argentinasaurus at 120 feet.
And that's more than I ever care to know about dinosaurs. Here are a few photos of our visit:
caused by a traumatic event like earthquake or tsunami
Continuing on Highway 120 to Shoshoni, we drove through one of the most spectacular 10-mile routes we have seen - and it wasn't even noted as a scenic route on our map! The road goes through a sheer rock wall canyon, following the Bighorn River on the Wind River Reservation. If you ever have the need to drive to/from Thermopolis and Shoshoni, do it! Beautiful. Supposed to be Bighorn Sheep in the canyon, but they were on vacay today.
As we reached Casper, Wyoming and our stop for the night, we noticed gasoline was $3.44, and diesel was $4.33. Guess who will top-off before continuing to Colorado?
I put the left-over steak (cubed) in the slow cooker with one chopped potato, one carrot, 6 cremini mushrooms, a bit of onion, chopped rosemary and just over a cup of chicken stock/water. It had been stewing away all day, and was a fine meal after a very long driving day. DT is watching the La Vuelta (Tour of Spain) and is a very happy camper.
Until my next update, I remain, your Wyoming correspondent.