step 11 - crossing into wyoming

I have finally hit about the half way mark across country... only 1400 more miles to go. Whew! I've done a lot of driving in about a three day period. I have a lot more to go. Seven states down, four more to go. One thing that I always silently laughed about to myself was the shear size of the west coast. At my half way point I only have four states remaining to cross, one of which is only the 50ish mile panhandle of Idaho. That means that I am going to cover nearly 1400 miles in only three states.


Back east, every 5 miles there was another town... filled with people that were teeming with pride about seemingly silly things (like 'comets' that really look like oversized meatballs). Out hear, space conquers. Once you get west of Chicago, solace takes on a whole new meaning. Travel distances and times are no longer measured in miles or minutes but rather 100's of miles and many hours. For example, it took me 90 minutes to make it though Illinois, which was a bit over 70 miles. It took me 10 hours to make it through Montana which was almost 700 miles.


The other size difference between the west coast and east coast comes from vertical prowess. At first glance, the mountains really don't seem that big. But then you realize that you have been driving towards them for an hour and they haven't changed size. When you get about 40 miles away from them, they start to grow. And grow. And grow some more. Then all of a sudden you are in the middle of them, cliffs on either side, instantaneous snow storms, wind gaps, loose rocks everywhere, waterfalls left and right, and the somewhere along the way all the trees disappear. Awesome! Nothing like the mountains of Pennsylvania or New York.

Enjoy the Big Horn mountain range, courtesy of Wyoming.