Day 6: August 20, 2009 Wyoming 1

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In the eastern part of Nebraska, I recall some Lincoln Highway signs below some sort of scenic byway indicator. Lately, I've been seeing classic red, white, and blue markers with directional arrows and the simple but effective blue & white "LINCOLN HIGHWAY"s. My exit from Nebraska comes shortly after passing through one of the twin tubes of this underpass.	August 20,1999 It was ten years ago today that I made the first "live" post to this website. Of course, it wasn't exactly this website. It was on some space (1MB?, 10MB?) that came "free" from my Internet Service Provider. The URL was http://w3.one.net/~dennyg/rt66in99. I'd posted a couple of practice pages, one using scanned pictures from a January trip to the 24 Hours of Daytona and another using pictures taken with my first digital camera, but this was the first one from an actual road trip. So what if the trip wasn't quite in progress just yet? It might be at any moment.
My first stop in Wyoming was at the remains of the once huge State Line Truck Stop. Most of the pumps were reset to zero or had the readouts completely missing but I did find one with Phillips 66 Super Unleaded for $1.13.

Cheyenne, Wyoming, has big cowboy boots like Cincinnati had pigs and other cities had other stuff. The one I've pictured is in front of the Union Pacific depot. The depot now houses the visitor information center and a museum. The 1911 Plains Hotel is at the opposite corner of an open park like area. The capital building faces the depot from at the opposite end of the street. The Plains is the only one of the three directly on the Lincoln Highway but the others are close.

About thirty miles west of Cheyenne, there's a rare between-the-lanes pull off that provides access to the "Rock Tree". Stories about the tree go back to the railroad building days of the 1860s but the age of the tree is unknown.

There's interesting scenery at the exit for the Ames Monument and more on the drive to it. I've seen plenty of pictures of this thing but was still surprised by its size.

Some who see Abe's stern countenance from the expressway wonder what he's doing in a state that didn't even exist until 25 years after his death. If they wonder aloud and Mike, the fellow who was manning the Summit Rest Area desk today, is there, they'll learn. And they'll learn why the Henry Bourne Joy monument is there and where each was moved from. I asked how many people already know about the monuments and, like me, are stopping specifically to see them and his answer was 15-20%. That's higher than I would have guessed and a nice number to hear. We ended up chatting for several minutes and he sent me off with a nicely done pamphlet describing local (Laramie & Albany Counties) Lincoln Highway tours.

The cars, tourist cabins, and stockade are all in the virtual ghost town of Bosler. The stockade hides a junk yard and is at least more photogenic then the sheets of tin I'm used to seeing.

I encountered major construction about ten miles from my Medicine Bow destination. I was aware of construction in the area but was not aware of its extent. We waited a little over ten minutes for the escort to arrive with the caravan from the other end and then headed out behind him ourselves. There was no stopping at the currently closed dinosaur bone house as I followed the leader, dodged potholes, and braked for the occasional unavoidable bump.

Though not as ritzy as the Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, the Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow was also built in 1911. I ate, drank, and slept at the Virginian but didn't photograph much other than my room. I'll have some more on my stay tomorrow.

Someone at the Virginian suggested, unofficially of course, that I visit a bar down the street. There were wood carvings at the Little Dip, they said, that I ought to see. Indeed there were; walls of them plus a ceiling filled with painted scenes of local history. All of this is the handicraft of owner Bill Bennett who tends bar in his spare time.

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