Three more road trip days

Wednesday, was another 500-mile drive - from Caldwell, Idaho to Rock Springs, Wyoming via Pocatello and backroads. I love it when there's no traffic. And the scenery was varied and interesting, from snowy mountains to a volcanic caldera to stark buttes, all under an enormous bowl of sky. For many miles the roadbed paralleled railroad tracks. I think the tracks were there first, laid down along the most practical routes. We saw herons, cattle, sheep, horses, antelope, and a small terrier carrying a dead animal almost as large as itself up a rural driveway. I drove the whole way today. Sometimes it's easier. Art wakes up early in the morning and takes a couple of naps during the day. I'd rather be driving when he takes the naps!

Rock Springs has been a coal mining town for a long time, but I learned from the waitress at the White Mountain Mining Restaurant and Saloon that Halliburton has come into town for gas and oil drilling. She says the town is growing, but some people coming in for the work from other places "don't show respect", so she's not sure how she feels about the growth. Our server at dinner says, "The LIBARY is haunted. It was built on top of a graveyard and some spirits must not be resting in peace, because the books move."

Thursday we drove from Rock Springs to Sutherland, Nebraska. We stayed at a Couchsurfing destination - a couple hosted us for the night. We've hosted at home also - it's an economical way to travel, and usually the people are interesting. Mark and Muriel took us out to her grandparents' homestead in the Sand Hills, which they're restoring as a summer cabin. Muriel's grandfather was 40 when he brought his 16-year-old bride from town to the homestead which had no running water or electricity. Apparently he had "purchased his bride for a wagon and a team of horses". No city lights out there, and no noise at all, except for animal calls.

Today we took the old road, highway 30, from Grand Island to Omaha. We've had sunshine so far, but today was cloudy and very windy. I fought a sidewind for 200 miles. Our host tonight says this weather is quite unusual for Omaha. It's lovely to be out of the Pacific Northwest rain, but I've noticed my lips have been chapped ever since Idaho and it's been windy nearly every day. I'm glad to have experienced this. After a few weeks of rain, any other climate looks good to me, but I'm now grateful that we don't have much wind at home.

We get up early tomorrow so we can drive into the city and get a seat for the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting.